Rhino! (1964)

Director:

Ivan Tors

Writers:

Art Arthur (screenplay)
Art Arthur (story)

Release Date:

18 July 1964 (Japan)

Genre:

Action | Adventure

Tagline:

They Risk Their Lives

Plot:

A zoologist working to save the endangered animals of africa has problems with poachers and local tribesmen who don't understand his methods...

Plot Keywords:

Animal In Title | One Word Title | Exclamation Point In Title | Punctuation In Title

Cast

  (Complete credited cast)

Harry Guardino	...	Alec Burnett
Shirley Eaton	...	Miss Arleigh
Robert Culp	...	Dr. Hanlon
Harry Mekela	...	Jopo
George Lane	...	Haragay

Runtime:

91 min

Country:

USA

Language:

English

Color:

Color (Metrocolor)

Sound Mix:

Mono (Westrex Recording System)

Certification:

Australia:G | Finland:K-12

Filming Locations:

Hluhluwe-Umfolozi Game Reserve, KwaZulu-Natal, South Africa

Company:

Metro-Goldwyn-Mayer (MGM)

Trivia:

The movie dramatizes the work of the team which pioneered the first successful method of capturing Rhinos and transporting them to captivity. This involved darting the animals with anesthetic and hauling the unconscious beasts to a pen where they recovered and were tamed for a few weeks before being shipped off to be part of breeding programs in zoos across the world. In 1964 the year this movie was made, a shipment of Rhino was made from Umfolozi to San Diego zoo in California.

Exciting: for an 8 year old!

This was perhaps the first film I ever saw at a cinema, and is therefore at the edge of my childhood memory. I don't remember much of it except a person in a Jeep pick-up that was being attacked by a rhino. The rhino, with a somewhat more horizontal horn than normal, was repeatedly ramming the Jeep's doors and almost skewering the person inside. I seem to recall also that the Jeep was painted in a zebra stripe pattern.

There were other exciting scenes of hunts and chases, something like a rodeo with very dangerous animals. No doubt there was also some sort of love sub-plot but this did not imprint on my eight year old memory.

I don't recall much else of the film, but the sight of the rhino's horn piercing the Jeep's doors was pretty frightening at the time.