SAVAGES directed by James Ivory (USA, 1972)
The tacky opening credits give fair warning that this movie is a certifiable turkey and so it proves.
The cabaret style title song (which rhymes ‘savages’ with ‘ravages’) is performed by Bobby Short and plays over some ugly 30s graphics where the film’s cast are theatrically presented with captions to tell us the part they play and, sometimes what their character is (e.g. “a woman in disgrace”; “a bully”).
For the first 20 minutes we see intertitled black-and-white sequences of masked and semi naked “Mud People”. These forest dwellers spend their time hunting, gathering, bonking and bickering. Just as they are about to sacrifice one of their members with a rock they are distracted by the appearance of a shiny croquet ball. The inter-title states that “a perfect sphere is unknown in the forest” .
The curious tribe’s search from whence it came leads them to a deserted mansion. The film then switches to color as the savages become “cultured” and “civilized” in a twenty-four hour period.
The press release informs us that through this “rapid evolution from the Stone Age to the Jazz Age” , the “savages” exchange their ritual masks for the evening clothes of the 1920s and 30s”. I have to rely more on this summarised version here as by this point my finger was glued to the fast forward button.
The pathetic screenplay is by George Swift Trow and Michael O’Donoghue, written from an outline they had published in the Paris Review. It is “based on an idea of James Ivory’s” and what may have looked clever and Bunuel-esque scribbled on the back of the envelope looks very silly indeed on the big screen.
The movie is certainly an oddity in the list of Merchant-Ivory productions and one I would suggest is best forgotten.
