Shout at the Devil (1976)

User Rating:

6.1/10   

Director:

Peter R. Hunt

Writers:

Stanley Price (screenplay) &
Alastair Reid (screenplay) ...

Release Date:

20 May 1976 (Netherlands)

Genre:

Action | Adventure | Drama | Thriller | War

Tagline:

A spectacular adventure you will always remember and a beautiful love story you will never forget.

Plot:

During World War One an English poacher, an American adventurer and the latter's attractive young daughter, set out to destroy a German battle-cruiser which is awaiting repairs in an inlet just off Zanzibar. |

Plot Keywords:

German | Sailor | Fishnet | Grave | Loss Of Child

Cast

Lee Marvin	...	Colonel Flynn O'Flynn
Roger Moore	...	Sebastian Oldsmith
Barbara Parkins	...	Rosa O'Flynn / Oldsmith
Ian Holm	...	Mohammed, O'Flynn's Mute Servant
Reinhard Kolldehoff	...	Herman Fleischer, German Commissioner / Military Commander of Southern Province (as Rene Kolldehoff)
Gernot Endemann	...	Braun
Karl Michael Vogler	...	Von Kleine
Horst Janson	...	Kyller
Gerard Paquis	...	Capt. da Silva - Portuguese Pilot
Maurice Denham	...	Mr. Smythe
Jean Kent	...	Mrs. Smythe
Heather Wright	...	Cynthia Smythe
George Coulouris	...	El Keb
Renu Setna	...	Mr. Raji
Murray Melvin	...	Lt. Phipps

Runtime:

150 min

Country:

UK

Language:

English

Color:

Color (Technicolor)

Aspect Ratio:

2.35 : 1

Sound Mix:

Mono

Certification:

Iceland:16 | Netherlands:12 | Australia:M | Finland:K-16 | Norway:15 | Norway:16 (1976) | Sweden:15 | UK:15 (video rating) | UK:A (original rating) (cut) | USA:PG

Filming Locations:

Malta

Company:

Tonav Productions

Trivia:

There was enormous controversy about the film being made in South Africa under the apartheid regime. Roger Moore was also heavily criticized for making Gold (1974) and The Wild Geese (1978) in South Africa during the apartheid era.

Goofs:

Factual errors: During the church wedding scene the choir sings a hymn in Maltese (the filming location was Malta and the extras were mostly Maltese), although the story takes place in Portuguese African territory.

Movie Connections:

Edited into 42nd Street Forever Part 4 (2009) (V)

The African Road Runner

Shout at the Devil finds Lee Marvin in sub Sahara Africa in 1914 just before the start of World War I. He's a rollicking, live by your wits character named Flynn, very much similar to Humphrey Bogart's Charlie Allnut in The African Queen. Marvin takes up with an Englishman played by Roger Moore who's been stranded in Africa on his way to Australia.

Marvin has a running rivalry with the local German governor played with Teutonic relish by Reinhard Kolldehoff. He's the Road Runner to Kolldehoff's Wily Coyote. During the first half of the film, it plays just like a road runner cartoon.

When war is declared however, Kolldehoff crosses into British territory where Marvin has operated with sanctuary and exacts a terrible vengeance for being constantly made a fool of. On Marvin, on Moore, and on Barbara Parkins, Marvin's daughter who Moore has now married and had a child with.

This is World War I so the Germans aren't behaving like the Nazis of the second World War. But Kolldehoff you can see a potential recruit for Hitler in the post war years. In fact I don't think it's an accident that Kolldehoff and his character Fleischer look very much like German Field Marshal Ludendorff who was sympathetic to the early Nazi party.

Shout at the Devil is a broad comic adventure for the first half and turns serious in the second half. Moore and Marvin have a nice easy chemistry between them, Marvin is reaching back to his Cat Ballou days and the bag of scene stealing tricks he used to get an Oscar. Moore is hard pressed, but does keep up.

And who doesn't like a live road runner cartoon.