GREAT BRITAIN & LATIN AMERICA RELATIONS, PARTE PRIMERA: GUNS OF DARKNESS (1961) [Part 1 of 3]

 

GUNS OF DARKNESS

1961, UK

Aka… Act of Mercy (Sh)

Ex: Ato de Misericórdia / ‘Act of Mercy’ (Brz), Guns of Darkness (Can), Sept Heures Avant la Frontière / ‘Seven Hours to the Border’ (Can-Fr), Skud i mørket / ‘Shots in the Darkness’ (Den), Kapina keskiyöllä / ‘Rebellion at Midnight’ (Fin), Sept Heures Avant la Frontière / ‘Seven Hours to the Border’ (Fr), Flucht aus dem Dunkel / Escape from the Darkness (Ger), Ta kanonia tis antarsias / ‘The Guns of Darkness’ (Gr), L'attimo della violenza / A Moment of Violence’ (It), 暗黒の銃弾 / ‘Bullets in the Darkness’ (Jpn), Al Final de la Noche / ‘At the End of the Night’ (Mex), Armas na sombra / ‘Guns in the Dark’ (Por), Hetsjakt i bergen / ‘Hunt in the Mountains’ (Swd), Karanlığın ardından / ‘After the Darkness’ (Tur), Guns of Darkness (UK and US)

T: 102m

Pc: Cavalcade Films & Concorde Productions (Lon)

Dist: Warner-Pathé Distributors (07/19/62, UK), Warner Bros. (08/17/62, US), Warner Bros. Canada (09/26/62, Can), WB (03/07/63, Mexico) and Hispanomexicana S.A. (02/21/64, Sp)

MPAA: 20243

D: Anthony Asquith; P: Thomas Clyde & Ben Kadish; Sc: John Mortimer; Nv: Francis Clifford: 'Act of Mercy' (1959): Great Pan (Lon) / Dell (US); Serialized: Torstar (03/11/61, Can, Torstar Weekly; Ph: Robert Krasker; Ed: Frederick Wilson; M: Benjamin Frankel

C: David Niven (Tom Jordan), Leslie Caron (Claire Jordan), James Robertson Justice (Bryant), David Opatoshu (El Presidente Pedro Rivera), Derek Godfrey (Colonel Hernandez), Richard Pearson (Bastian), Eleanor Summerfield (Mrs. Bastian), Ian Hunter (Dr. Swann), Sandor Eles (Lieutenant Gomez, Zoreno officer), Barry Shawzin (General Zoreno, El Presidente), Steven Scott (Gabriel), Tutte Lemkow (Gabriel's Cousin), Dorita Sensier [Joyce Dorothy Hamberger] (Nightclub Singer), Frank Singuineau (Nightclub Drummer), Ali Nagi (Indian Boy), Antonio Molino Rojo (Zoreno Revolutionary Officer, goatee), Juan Cazalilla (Rivera Supporter at Wall), John Carson (First Officer), Anthony Morton (Second Officer), Peter Allenby (Sergeant), Robert Barnette (Zoreno Revolutionary Sergeant), Ralph Nossek (Hospital Doctor), Neville Becker Jack Arrow (Reporters), Sheldon Lawrence (American Reporter), Clive Cazes (Hernandez’s Assistant), Paul Beradi, Ernest Blyth, Fred Machon, Bob Raymond & Graham Tonbridge (Guests at New Years Eve Party), Ray Marioni (Waiter), Aidan Harrington (Guard), William Ellis (1st Young Officer) & Terence Conoley (Zoreno Soldier)

Syn: 1915-1957. Republic of Tribulación. South of the country of Bareya. New Year's Eve. The Napier International Wine Plantation and the El Presidente’s Palace. Caught in a South American country army coup, a British couple try to help the ousted Liberal President escape to a nearby neutral country.

     Comm: [Filmed at Malaga & Almería, Andalucía, Spain (South American country), and Associated British Elstree Studios, Shenley Road, Borehamwood, Hertfordshire, England, UK (Interiors), from November 27, 1961-early 1962]

Time wise GUNS OF DARKNESS is set a decade or so after THE SINGER NOT THE SONG (1961), which was shot in Spain. And the similar German GUNFIGHT AT RIO GRANDE (1965), that was filmed in Yugoslavia, and took place in the Sixties, and a pair of lighter British films, THE DUKE WORE JEANS (1958) and THE MAGNIFICENT TWO, aka “What Ever Happened at Campo Grande?” (1967). Both Gillo Pontecorvo’s “Burn” (1969) and Woody Allen's hilarious “Bananas” (1971) could be part of the subgenre. All of them are set in modern, but fictional ‘Central American’ countries that are in upheaval. Carol Reed’s “Our Man in Havana” (1959), set in Cuba and filmed in Spain, could also be included, but it clearly is more of a spy film, and less a ‘Zapata’ film than the others.

     Actress Leslie Caron & David Niven as the happy couple in GUNS OF DARKNESS, drive a 1957 Ford Country Sedan station wagon (model 79C). While the aircraft flying overhead, registration F-BBUI, is a French-built Morane-Saulnier Criquet (model MS.502), used by the occupying Germans during WWII. At one point the fleeing threesome rested amongst a large caucus patch, which oddly never reappeared in any of the later spaghetti. Great locale. Their struggle in the ‘quicksand’ as they cross a river is quite dramatic.

    The friendly Doctor says to the bewildered Jordans, “You don’t understand this place!”, which sets up his character’s changes. As nonpolitical pacifists they both must confront their own provoked ‘acts of violence’, as they become frustrated and lash out at trying to understand El Presidente Rivera’s country. The fallen leader had tried to strangle a young boy, who stumbled upon their hiding spot, fearing he himself would be captured.

    The local ‘peons’ wear Mexican-like ponchos. They go from chanting ‘Viva Rivera’ to ‘Viva Zoreno’, very quickly. Even if they aren’t that enthusiastic about it. Rivera observes, “They have seen too many changes!”. GUNS OF DARKNESS is set during the year's end holidays and has the massacre of El Presidente Rivera’s supporters intercut with the New Years Eve revellers celebrating. Loyal Colonel Hernandez switches sides almost as quickly as the peons had. Viva Zoreno!!!

     While the wounded El Presidente Rivera, played by American David Opatoshu, is recovering, he tells the Jordans about an incident he witnessed as a boy (1915?) that changed his views on life. He saw several supporters of a similarly deposed ‘El President’, buried to the head and then having horses ride over them. Such gruesome scenes would turn up in a number- of-the-later spaghettis: THE MERCENARY (1968), GUNS OF THE MAGNIFICENT SEVEN (1969) and COMPANEROS (1970). There violence could be shown more graphicly due to changing levels of acceptability. As Tomas Milian proclaimed, in THE MERCENARY, “The squashing of the heads!”.  One wonders what the Mexicans thought of GUNS OF DARKNESS, but then they did allow the film to be released before Spain had. Viva the Overthrow of the Censors!!

     Following GUNS OF DARKNESS, Hammer’s Michael Carreras shot SAVAGE GUNS in Almería, Spain, starting a rush of oaters to set up on the dusty ‘Plains of Spain’.

     Spaniard Antonio Molino Rojo put in an early appearance as one ‘Zoreno’ soldier, three years before being in A FISTFUL OF DOLLARS. Molino Rojo would later play many ‘Mexican’ and American like officers throughout his career.

     Brit extra Paul Beradi had been in the earlier THE DUKE WORE JEANS (1958), that was set in a different fictional Latin America country, and later showed up in a third, WHAT EVER HAPPENED AT CAMPO GRANDE? Viva the Casting director!!!

     David Niven & Peter Sellers a few later were to make a reel Spaghetti Western "Which Way Did They Go?", but it went unmade. Viva the Moneymen!!!

  By Michael Ferguson