Review: Mandingo

Set in Louisiana in the mid-1800s, James Mason stars as Warren Maxwell, a racist plantation owner and wealthy slave trader. His limping son Hammond (Perry King) is to wed the histrionic and selfish Blanche (Susan George), but Hammond much prefers the company of slave Ellen (Brenda Sykes) as his ‘bed wench’, especially when he finds out that Blanche lied about being a virgin. Blanche, meanwhile, becomes unhinged with jealousy over her husband’s preference for slave girls and starts to make moves on Mede (boxer Ken Norton), the ‘Mandingo’ fighter Hammond bought at the same time he bought Ellen. Poor Mede isn’t in any position to refuse Blanche’s advances, either, or else she’ll cry ‘rape!’. Richard Ward and Ji-Tu Cumbuka play slaves named Agamemnon and Cicero, the former of whom tries to keep Mede and Cicero from speaking or acting out of turn (Slaves are forbidden to read, for instance). Paul Benedict plays a slave-trading associate of Warren’s, and Ben Masters plays Blanche’s brutal, racist, and frankly creepy incestuous brother (Who, along with Blanche, are Hammond’s first cousins, by the way. Yep, this is one well-adjusted family right here, even without the obvious racism and brutality). That’s the extremely fit Earl Maynard (“The Silent Flute”) as a strangely West Indian-accented slave whom Mede has a rumble with at one point.

 

I don’t normally like to review cut versions of films, but since this 1975 racial drama from director Richard Fleischer (Fine films such as “Fantastic Voyage” and “The Vikings”, and the corny but watchable “Red Sonja”) and screenwriter Norman Wexler (The excellent “Serpico”, the pathetic “Saturday Night Fever”, and Schwarzenegger’s terrible “Raw Deal”) has only been released uncut in the US it seems, I think it’s fair enough for me to review this ‘International’ version of the film. Besides, as much as I’m a fan of the naked female form, there’s no amount of sex, nudity, or violence that could really rescue this film, which sits rather uncomfortably between “Roots”-style serious drama and Blaxploitation/sexploitation trash. The credit ‘Dino De Laurentiis presents’ says it all, really.

 

I’ve read that this film was trying to rebuke the Hollywood view of the South in films from preceding decades like “Gone With the Wind” and the notorious “Song of the South”, but Fleischer and Wexler (presumably by order of Mr. De Laurentiis) go way too far. I mean, you’ve heard of pot-boilers, right? This film literally gives us African-American slaves being tortured by roasting them in the biggest goddamn boiling pot you’ve seen outside of Looney Tunes. No, I don’t believe the claims that this film was trying to set the record straight about the horrors of the South for African-Americans. When you see James Mason ordering African-American children to act as foot-rests, you know this is just Dino De Laurentiis trying to dress up a Blaxploitation film. The thing is, a lot of Blaxploitation films are fun. I really don’t see anyone finding this thing fun. Quentin Tarantino managed to pull it off miraculously in his best film to date, “Django Unchained”, but that film had a lot more going on than just a tribute to/upgrade of “Mandingo” (It is not, however. As good or important as “Roots”, QT. Get your head out of your arse!). And the black guy was the lead in that film, whereas here, the racist white folk are the leads, which just boggles the mind.

 

Former boxer Ken Norton makes zero impression in the title role, he’s barely even in the film’s first hour, which is insane. Much better is gravel-voiced Richard Ward as slave Agamemnon, and Ben Masters is OK as a brutal bigot with a hankering for his sister, played by Susan George. Perry King doesn’t make much of an impression at all in a rather crucial role, but he’s never been much of an actor, and Irene Tedrow might’ve done well had she actually been given a role worth a damn here, she’s barely in it here as a midwife. The rest of the performances are pretty rank, with the spectacularly miscast James Mason and poor Ms. George faring especially poorly. I thought Mason’s Southern accent in “Cold Sweat” was bad, but boy is he awful here (Paul Benedict’s Southern accent is appalling, too but Mason is in much more of the film than Benedict). He’s an excellent actor, not that you’d know it here. It’s absolutely the worst performance of his career, and he’s quite embarrassing. The late Roger Ebert put it most hilariously when writing in his review: ‘What James Mason, as the old master of Falconhurst, is doing in this film is beyond me; He told one interviewer he needed the money for his alimony payments, but surely jail would have been better.’ Susan George’s Southern accent is a bit better than Mason’s, but she ends up pretty ridiculous in an already pretty ridiculous, overblown film. Her big scene with a pregnant servant is incredibly embarrassing. I almost feel sorry for her. Composer Maurice Jarre (“Lawrence of Arabia”, “Dr. Zhivago”, “A Passage to India”) is a respected name, but he perhaps more than anyone should be ashamed of himself here. His music score is terrible, with the African tribal drumming being particularly offensive. What the fuck was he thinking with that shit? By far the film’s strongest asset is the cinematography by Richard H. Kline (“The Andromeda Strain”, “Body Heat”, “Howard the Duck”), which even in a faded print shows off some mighty pretty scenery.

 

This film might bring up a lot of worthy stuff, but not with a high-minded purpose. With more restraint, it might’ve been something, and bear in mind I’m saying this about the already censored International version. I would imagine that the American cut of the film is even harder to stomach. If De Laurentiis (the wonderful “Barbarella”, the awful 1976 “King Kong”, the interminable “Dune”) wants to go about exploiting everyone and everything- fine! The problem is he hasn’t done it in an interesting or entertaining fashion, though it was quite a box-office success in its day for some reason.

 

The film is more boring than dreadful, it plays like a stale third-rate TV miniseries crossed with a trashy exploitation film. This isn’t an abysmal film, just a boring and poor one best forgotten with the sands of time. I’m not sure there’s even much curio value, though I’m sure QT sees merit in it (He also dislikes “Roots”, which I find mind-boggling. It’s the greatest miniseries of all-time, along with “Shogun”).

 

Rating: C-