Mister Kingstreet's War (1971) User Reviews

Slightly hokey African wartime drama

[Leofwine_draca · 5/10 · 30 April 2017]

MISTER KINGSTREET'S WAR is a South African drama that feels a little hokey and amateurish in places, although at its best it recalls the work of Wilbur Smith such as SHOUT AT THE DEVIL. It's a low-key story about an American couple running a wildlife rescue centre out in the bush only to run afoul of some local Italian troops at the outset of the Second World War. The problem they have is that valuable water supplies are on their land, so all and sundry make a bee line for them.

Don't go in expecting big-scale antics here as this is obviously a low budget film padded with stock footage of local wildlife. John Saxon and Tippi Hedren are a good choice to play the leads although the supporting actors aren't as impressive. The film resembles MURPHY'S WAR in many ways but simply doesn't have as much charm as the Peter O'Toole-starrer and the action scenes are quite disappointing, particularly the abrupt climax.

"... is that what you've come here to tell me?...."

[Brucey_D · 4/10 · 8 January 2019]

An American couple, the Kingstreets, (Saxon & Hedren) run an African game sanctuary just prior to WWII. When war breaks out, both Italian and British forces want control of the locally strategic water source that is on the reserve; however Mr Kingstreet is for some reason prepared to defend the water supply against all comers.

I largely agree with the other two (at the time of writing) reviews here. This film isn't particularly well made, the plot is wildly implausible, and the actions of the characters make very little sense. There are some good performances from some of the actors but this does little to make the film more tolerable. It is something of a mystery as to why this film was made and who was expected to pay to see it; I have watched it twice now (just to be sure) and it makes as little sense the second time around as the first.

If you are a big fan of Saxon, Hedren or Brazzi, you might enjoy this film for that alone. Otherwise the landscape and the flying sequences are mildly diverting, but that is about it. Overall this film is something of a disappointment, so it is only four out of ten from me.

Far From Satisfactory On Any Level

[rsoonsa · 1/10 · 15 December 2004]

The Groan Factor will be prominent in the minds and gullets of most viewers who endure sitting through this South African made affair, set in 1939 immediately prior to the onset of World War II, a story so silly that the apparently random actions of wild animals seen during travelogue sections seem rife with logic when compared with those of characters put in place by director/screenwriter Percival Rubens. An American couple, James Kingstreet (John Saxon) and his wife (Tippi Hedren) make their home and manage a wildlife preserve located between Italian-governed Abyssinia and British Kenya as war approaches, a sharp change for Kingstreet from his previous vocations of big game hunter and Spanish Civil War partisan (as seen by flashback) and each of the mentioned contending nations has deployed a small armed force to take possession of the preserve's water holes in order to assume an advantageous strategic position, in spite of the district's neutrality and importance to fauna and to a native village, overriding objections from the sanctuary's American overseer. Kingstreet's sole assistant is a native ( who continually addresses him as "bwana") and he has a prickly relationship with his one-eyed brother (Brian O'Shaughnessy) who lost his orb by a childhood accident at the hand of Jim, yet still locally hunts large game, but Kingstreet and his spouse will not accommodate either the English or Italians threatening their spread, thereby particularly antagonizing the commanding major of the latter group, played well by Rossano Brazzi, especially when the reformed hunter assaults the Fascisti with a homemade bomb dropped from his bi-plane, co-piloted by his wife. With neither his script nor direction does Rubens give apparent thought to such elements as avoidance of predictability, attention to details, and continuity, e.g., 1939 military personnel sporting long sideburns and hair, and even with meager forces opposing him, it is unreasonable to expect that the intrepid American might successfully oppose two armies and the film sags into foolishness, with the rushed ending manifest more of budgetary restraint than any presence of directorial design.

underrated adventure

[insect-09018 · 7/10 · 11 May 2022]

I enjoyed this adventure which features an admirable hero laudably holding out against encroaching Italian and English armies as WW2 breaks out. The advance parties of both nations are hoping to secure the wells Kingstreet has established on his nature reserve, which also serve a local village. Thrown into the mix is a poacher who is a continual thorn in Kingstreet's side. Refusing to take a life, Kingstreet resists the aggressive Italians and more convivial but equally rapacious English by means of sabotage and bombs dropped from his biplane, the only aircraft in the area.

It's quite an interesting mix of the Wildlife movie such as Born Free, colourful, adventure oriented WW2 pix like Hannibal Brooks, with a rebellious individualist ethos sympatico with the counterculture of the time - though the conclusion here is that such resistance is doomed to failure. In a surprising ending, everybody is gunned down, in a sub-Peckinpah/Bonnie and Clyde sequence.

There are some surprising Marnie-esque flashbacks to childhood trauma, with nastiness involving scissors.

Tippi Hedren gets to overpower Italian army and wields a gun.

One absurdity - I can accept it with a smile - two brothers are supposed to be English according to dialogue, yet one is American the other Australian?