I saw this Stephen Boyd obscurity on Channel 20, a San Francisco television station in 1984 while on active duty in the Air Force and assigned to a radar site located atop Mount Tamalpais' west peak north of Mill Valley. Rex Maynard (played by Michael Kirner) is a stuntman-turned-superstar entertainer who elopes with the lovely Harriet Tiller (played by Marie Du Tout). Her dear ol' dad is entertainment mogul Arnold Tiller, and the elopement does not sit well with him. So he decides to stage an ersatz kidnapping of his unwanted son-in-law for publicity purposes, but all too soon it becomes the real thing. Rex Maynard jumps out of a hotel and fights his kidnappers at the drop of a hat. He also survives a drop into a river while inside a runaway automobile. THE MANIPULATOR (also known as AFRICAN STORY) has as much action as a Republic Pictures movie serial, and it was one of a bunch of French, German, Italian, and Spanish movies that starred Stephen Boyd during the 1970s, and chances are some of them never made it to the United States. This thriller benefits from on-location filming in Capetown, South Africa. THE MANIPULATOR deserved to be released on home video, even if it's part of one of those 50-movie packages. Based on the novel "Dangerous Journey" by Ralph Anders, who also co-wrote the screenplay and served as associate producer. By the way, Stephen Boyd, Michael Kirner and Marie Du Toit were also in THE BIG GAME (1972). There you have it.
Review of African Story
