East of Sudan

[agutterfan]

East of Sudan Sunday 12th February BBC2 11.30am. Jenny Agutter's first film aged 11, also starring Anthony Quayle and Sylvia Sims, also featuring nearly the entire stock footage from 1939's The Four Feathers. Shown recently on C5 but unfortunately in full frame. As this is on BBC2 hopefully they'll show it in the correct aspect ratio of 2.35:1.

[vanmunchen]

I didn't realise that was Jenny Agutter. It was indeed in the correct ratio but I didn't watch it all. The obvious difference between the studio shots and stock footage grew increasingly distracting and ridiculous. i don't think I've ever seen a film which used so much stock footage.

[julian_craster]

i don't think I've ever seen a film which used so much stock footage.

After the first 10 mins I had enough.....

[wadey]

and Sgt Blaketon !

[Windthrop]

There is a feel of desperation about the whole thing - even the cast know they are on a loser with this one .......

[cassidy]

I only caught the last 15 minutes or so, never seen it before but recognised both the footage and the story. Was it meant to be a knock off of "The Four Feathers" or based on that story?

[wadey]

Well there seemed to be a couple of stories on the go and one at least was the nasty Arab slave traders rounding up the population, it really was a mish mash

[woody123]

Did you notice the stock footage from a travelogue featuring europeans in modern dress watching the tribal dancing-that was bad.

[batman]

I gave up early on too .... I really wanted to enjoy because I remember enjoying it when I was a kid, but it was dreadful.

[agutterfan]

I agree with all the comments made here, the fact that the first 10 minutes was taken up purely with spoken exposition (I checked me watch!) is unbelievable! Can you image modern kids sitting through that? I strongly suspect that the script was written to take into account the stock footage available. It's not a remake of The Four Feathers 1939, it just steals all the location and battle scenes! At least BBC2 did show it in its correct aspect ratio, which is why I flagged it. That fact, plus some admirers of Jenny might not have seen it or been aware of it, and its rarity (not available DVD and avoid old VHS copies which are 4:3 pan-and-scan). It's not exactly a bad film, just not very good. Rarely rises above 1930s Boys Own Saturday Morning cinema club level.