Illustration : Unknown

From Africa With Love
 

Leonard B. Kaufman | US | 1971

An extremely obscure and long-forgotten phoney wildlife documentary, which was undoubtedly aimed squarely at the gullible youth market. Made in 1971, most likely with American television in mind, From Africa with Love purports to show the daily workings of an African “Animal Research Compound” as headed by German actress Claudia Rieschel – together with some faithful help from Suzzi, her enthusiastic chimpanzee!

The credits claim this to have been filmed in Kenya, Uganda, Mozambique, Tanzania and South Africa, but this probably only relates to the stock footage, clumsily inserted at regular intervals. The scenes with Rieschel appear to have been shot in the US — likely inspired by the similarly-themed 1960s TV series Daktari, in which director Leonard B. Kaufman and production supervisor Harry Redmond Jr. were both heavily involved. Eagle-eyed fans of the original Daktari series will recognize the same light blue Land Rover from Daktari’s opening credits, utilised for the patently fake driving sequences in From Africa With Love.

In point of fact, nothing in this documentary should be considered real. It’s full of blatantly bogus animal ‘encounters’, all presented with mismatched photography, poor lighting, unconvincing topography and over-dubbed animal roars and shrieks!

 

 

 

 

Early home video pioneers VCL introduced this feature to UK shores around 1980, in a handsome slipcase carton. MPV decided to strike while the iron was hot, and re-released the feature in 1986, capitalising on the success of Oscar winner Out of Africa — transparently prompting the association wthin the blurb on the back of the cover.

The anonymous artist appears to have attempted to invoke the spirit of Born Free with the illustration for the front pack shot — no doubt hoping consumer association might increase rental/sale performance. Strangely, the ‘U’ certificates on the sleeve have a non-standard orange hue instead of the official BBFC green.

 

aka : —

cast : Claudia Rieschel, Robert Clarke [Narrator], Suzzi the Chimpanzee