Watch Death Drums Along the River For Free

Fantastic!

Admirable film.

The film creates a perfect balance between action and depth of basic needs, in the midst of an infertile atmosphere.

An old-fashioned movie made with new-fashioned finesse.

Death Drums Along the River is directed by Lawrence Huntingdon who also co-writes the screenplay with Harry Alan Towers and Nicolas Roeg. It stars Richard Todd, Marianne Koch, Albert Lieven and Walter Rilla. A Techniscope/Technicolor production, music is by Sidney Torch and cinematography by Robert Huke.Out of "Big Ben Films", the story is suggested by Edgar Wallace's Sanders of the River. Filmed on location in South Africa, plot revolves around Todd as Inspector Harry Sanders, who takes up the case when a policeman is killed in pursuit of a man who pocketed a small pouch at the docks. His investigation leads him to a suspicious clinic and pretty soon he is mired in diamond smuggling and other murky goings on.Well it reads as a good old fashioned detective mystery, swathed in African locales and a chance for mucho sweaty perils that a dashing hero has to overcome. Sadly it's none of those things, for this is utterly dull and lifeless. Film just plays out as a number of talky scenes wrapped around the odd moment of detective work. There's never any flow to the narrative, atmosphere is absent and the acting away from the reliable (even if he is on auto-pilot) Todd is decidedly poor. I swear at one point the humans are out acted by a Crocodile! While the climax is tepid and certainly not worth having sat through 75 minutes of bad film making. It's not even recommended for visuals since the colour photography is flat and the Techniscope rarely livens locations.Even though it amazingly spawned a sequel of sorts the following year, Coast of Skeletons, this is a poor movie all told, and this even before the PC brigade have a chance to chew over the dated attitudes to race and sex… 3/10

Apparently the only production of "Big Ben Films","Death Drums along the river"is a typical 1950s bill - filler that was inexplicably released (or escaped) in 1963,a year that saw the first appearances of "Billy Liar","Tom Jones","The Servant","Nothing but the best" and "The Leather Boys".It was not the time for a Boys' Own Paper adventure in Africa featuring a resurrected character from the age when a third of the world was pink on the map. The original "Sanders of the river" -appalling though it was - was at least made with some gusto,"Death Drums" has absolutely nothing going for it at all.Mr R.Todd,splendid in his well - pressed uniform,is hardly a good advert for colonialism.Even though he knows that Independence is imminent he is still brusque and arrogant toward his black N.C.O.s and servants."I hope to stay on - if they'll have me",he tells Miss M.Koch.If I were him I'd be heading for the airport before the ink is dry on the Declaration. Mr J. Lloyd is even more of a buffoon.I could see his sort just about surviving at the height of The Raj in India,but in early 60s Africa? The chinless wonders in "Carry on up the Khyber" were more convincing. "Sandy" has been demoted from Administrator to senior police officer for the purposes of this movie. In search of a diamond smuggling ring he moves into the milieu of dodgy European adventurers,remittance men and rather odd doctors with immaculately attired nurses in a pristine laboratory somewhere "Up river". The whole thing has the air of a tired T.V. pilot that nobody has any confidence in and everybody wants to get done with it as quickly as possible and hope the cheques don't bounce.

Anyone witnessing the performance of Vivi Bach as Marlene the nurse will not be struck dumb with amazement at her beauty,or her flawless hair but at the sheer ineptitude of her attempts aas an actress in this film.there are also some other rather sonambulistic performances and a great deal of dead wood.the sound is rather poor and the colour is extremely variable.Richard Todd is his dependable self.So all in all this is a fairly entertaining film given the standout performance of Viv Bach and if you are a connoisseur of bad performances then you are in for a treatIt is also padded out by a lot of scenes of big game and wild animals.

Death Drums Along the River is roughly a remake of 1938's Sanders Of the River. It is available in the UK on video as part of the Korda Collection, of which I have a copy.A British policeman based in Africa, Mr Sanders, is sent to investigate a murder at a local hospital but discovers a diamond smuggling operation there as well. After several more murders, the main suspect gets eaten by a crocodile in the end. Through all this, he falls in love with a woman doctor he is working with, who is kidnapped by the suspect.Sanders is played well by British actor Richard Todd (The Story of Robin Hood, The Dam Busters). This movie has some nice African scenery and a good music score to keep it moving.An enjoyable movie.Rating: 3 and a half stars out of 5.