Doctor Smith and his wife, Mary,depart a riverboat and are met by Phil Talbot. Phil informs Dr. Smith that Jessup, the only other white man in the village, has died while the doctor and his wife were off on a two-day holiday. Unknown to Smith, Jessup and his partner, Ross King, had a large cache of ivory tusks in the jungle, and he had told Phil about it. Meanwhile, Mary Smith has decided to steam-boat down the Congo River to Capetown for an extended holiday. Kuba, King's gun-bearer, asks Smith to write a letter to King, currently residing at a New York City Explorer's Club, and advise him that his partner has died. Talbot sends a letter to his stateside sweetheart, Diane Cameron, and her father, asking them to come to Africa and join him on an ivory-treasure expedition, and replenish their family-fortune lost in the recent stock-market crash. What Mr. Cameron and Diane don't know about Talbot is that his years in Africa have unhinged him...
Production
Jungle sets that wobble when actors touch them—charmingly unconvincing.
Acting
Frank Mayo's unhinged Talbot commits to madness with silent-era intensity.
Costume
Pith helmets and safari chic that screams 'we colonized this poorly.'
Director
Andrew L. Stone
Trivia, insights & behind the scenes
Released during the Great Depression, the lost family fortune subplot resonated with audiences who'd actually lost everything—making Talbot's jungle greed weirdly relatable.
Andrew L. Stone later became known for high-tension thrillers like 'Julie' (1956) and 'The Last Voyage' (1960)—this early programmer shows his fascination with enclosed pressure-cooker situations.
US
