Review: Albino

After his fiancé (Sybil Danning) is raped and killed by a supposed Albino African terrorist (Horst Frank), policeman James Faulkner is driven to take the law into his own hands to hunt the creepy cult leader down. Christopher Lee plays Faulkner’s friend and superior officer who tries to reason with Faulkner, but eventually orders a manhunt against his friend and subordinate. Erik Schumann plays the Rhodesian SAS Captain whom the government puts in charge of the hunt for Faulkner (who after shooting some black Africans, is accused of inflaming race relations), after it’s deemed Lee and the other local officers have somewhat of a conflict of interest out of their apparent loyalty to Faulkner. Trevor Howard plays a local white landowner and father of Danning (Yes, father of the very Austrian Sybil Danning. In a film set in Africa. I know), who suggests Faulkner take his most trusted servant (Sam Williams) with him.

 

Alternately known as “Albino”, “Night of the Askari” and my personal favourite “Whispering Death” (though it’s not a tribute to the great West Indian cricketer/commentator Michael Holding).

 

Although this is far from one of the best films in Christopher Lee’s filmography, this 1976 film from writer-director Jurgen Goslar (more prolific as an actor, he directed “Slavers” with Trevor Howard and Britt Ekland) certainly isn’t among the worst films he has made. A German-South African rape-revenge western (think “The Searchers”) filmed and set in Zimbabwe, I can certainly see why it might be relatively obscure. The fact that pre-“Game of Thrones” James Faulkner (looking like an evil, young Jude Law) is rather tedious in the lead probably didn’t help, either. He was perfectly fine as the head of the Tarly clan on that TV series, but Faulkner isn’t happily cast here. It’s a role that requires some semblance of sympathy and an array of emotions that just don’t seem to be possessed by Faulkner at this point in his career. Much better are a rock-solid Christopher Lee and especially a scene-stealing Trevor Howard. Lee probably enjoyed being out of the horror genre and playing a relative ‘good guy’ for a change. His police chief wants to keep the peace between colonists and natives, but ends up having to bring down two killers, one white and one…er, albino, potentially pissing off both sides of the fence. Veteran character actor Howard looks to be the only one here having any fun in a colourful character part. The only issue with Lee (who gets top billing but really is about third in importance to the story) is that his role is rather stock, perhaps. Exploitation queen Sybil Danning doesn’t get to do much other than be introduced and then attacked, which is a shame. No one really expects great acting from her and she looks terrific here, but she’s basically a plot point. Black South African actor Sam Williams is pretty good as Faulkner’s right hand (black) man of sorts. As for the ‘Albino’ of the piece (given the name scary name ‘Whispering Death’), we get the strange casting of German actor Horst Frank wearing not ‘blackface’ but ‘whiteface’, weirdly enough. Frank’s performance is oddly compelling, but some will gripe about a white man playing essentially a black man. Here’s the thing though: What would the alternative be? Think about it. A black actor wearing ‘whiteface’ might seem more culturally appropriate, but the makeup probably wouldn’t look any better – possibly even worse – and what exactly would an albino South African look like anyway? At any rate, I wasn’t bothered by Frank’s casting here (and I wouldn’t have known it was him had I not known in advance), not the way I would’ve been if we were seeing ‘blackface’. Your mileage may differ. For me, I was more bothered by Faulkner and the rather slow pacing.

 

It's clearly C-grade and low-budget stuff, but this African version of a typical rape-revenge western has a couple of solid performances by solid pros. James Faulkner is a bit dull and miscast in the lead, and it’s pretty darn problematic as a result. So is the slow pacing. I can see why this one has been forgotten, but it might pass the time reasonably so long as you can appreciate a film for the time in which it was made. Some may be offended by the harsh portrayal of Zimbabwe being full of savages and ‘terrorists’, but I have no idea what the country was like several years before I was born. For me this is just an average film at best, but some of you might see more merit in it than me, even if it’s just a bizarre curio.  

 

Rating: C+