Mamba (1930)

Tiffany Productions is usually considered part of the “Poverty Row” mob, turning out B films and programmers, but if so it was one that had at least some pretensions to move into the bigger leagues; they had their first part-talkie out in 1928 before almost any other non-major Hollywood studio, and then they made this, not only an all-talkie but a colour one at that. Astonishingly, they also apparently planned to make it in 3D as well, though that ultimately proved a step too far for Tiffany, which would go through quite remarkable hell on Mamba, with the budget blowing out to half a million dollars (about five times their usual) and a certain stock market crash occurring right in the middle of production. Still, once it was all over, Tiffany had the world’s first all talking and all-colour dramatic film (its handful of predecessors had all been musicals).

That seems to be the main reason Mamba is still remembered now, and all things being equal its continued existence and rediscovery—here in Australia, remarkably enough—is probably down to that too. In and of itself, the film offers some kind of creaky melodrama, set in a town on the border of German East Africa and the British East Africa Protectorate just before the outbreak of a certain world war in the last third of the film. The titular character is a scuzzy but rich German landowner, August Bolte, loathed by the natives and the German military stationed at Neu Posen; money can’t buy him respect though it does buy him marriage into German aristocracy, but when war breaks out his money’s not going to get him out of that. All of this culminates in a pretty remarkable climax when the natives use the outbreak of the war, and the distraction this causes the German and British soldiers, to rise up and try to wipe them out.

So yeah, very much of its time (especially when it comes to racial attitudes) and inescapably an early talkie albeit not quite as stiff as some (and some surprising violence; the Production Code would soon put an end to such overt bloodshed); a lot of the film is actually shot outdoors which you didn’t often get with early Technicolor productions, and apparently some of the outdoor sets built at Universal are still in use nearly 100 years later. I don’t think Mamba is exactly a rediscovered masterpiece but I’m still happy that it’s back among the living after decades of absence. Plus the blu ray offers a nice commentary by Brian Trenchard-Smith, of all people, which among other things handily points out the film’s numerous Code violations (like the miscegenation subplot) that give it extra flavour…