At times it is difficult to make out if this film is supposed to be a dramatic narrative film or a glorified travelogue.Since this was the pre jet age,not many people could journey to Africa and see these sights for themselves.They could view them in black and white on their 12 inch TV screens but that was it.So the antics of the dung beetle seem to supplant the importance of moving the plot onwards.In the cinema the audience had to suffer in silence whereas we can now happily fast forward.the plot is about ivory poaching,apparently as bad then as it is now.Anthony Steel plays the game warden and seems to be carved out of ivory himself.Sylvia Simm seems to have a different costume for every scene.Michael Balcon's Ealing only had 2 years remaining,and watching lame efforts like this ,it is not very surprising.
Review of West of Zanzibar
