He is given a brief head start and then the chase begins, one which will test his strength, endurance and cunning repeatedly as he attempts to reach safety.Ĭornel Wilde began the project in earnest after reading a story taken from a radio play that was, in turn, an adaptation of "John Colter's Escape," a 1913 record of a fur trapper's escape from Blackfoot Indians in Wyoming. Only the safari guide is allowed to live.if he can outrun a group of armed warriors in pursuit. When the arrogant ivory hunter (Gert Van den Bergh), who is financing the safari, refuses to pay homage to a group of tribesmen for entering their territory, there is bloody retribution.
Cornel wilde movies revolutionary war movie#
Only now, almost twenty years after his death, is his work as a director being reappraised as some of the most original and compelling work in the American cinema with his fifth feature, The Naked Prey (1966), regarded as possibly his finest achievement.īearing similarities to the 1932 film version of Richard Edward Connell's short story, The Most Dangerous Game, a movie that had a profound effect on Wilde as a young boy, The Naked Prey follows a safari guide (Wilde) as he leads his party through the South African jungle. As he does so, he looks back and sees the chief tribesman award him with a salute of respect.Īlthough he directed and produced eight feature films during his career, Cornel Wilde was better known to movie audiences as an actor who excelled in swashbucklers ( At Sword's Point, 1952) and athletic action roles ( The Greatest Show on Earth, 1952). Although he is almost caught, his luck and courage carry him through, and he crawls to safety. After days of fighting both the jungle and his pursuers, the man reaches sight of a mission fort. He wards off starvation by eating raw plants and snakes and stealing food cornered, he uses his cunning to escape when trapped, he saves his life by killing his foe.
Given a headstart, he is to compete in "The Chance of the Lion," an ancient game of survival in which he will be hunted by tribe members who have killed 10 lions. The hunter's punishment is to be stripped of his clothing, weapons, and food and set free. Through the rudeness of the hunter's employer, the natives are stirred to anger and revenge, and as a result, he and his party are attacked and brutally tortured to death by the tribesmen. His later films were of varying quality, and he ended hisĬareer in near-cameos in minor adventure films.In the 19th century, a white hunter is preparing to lead a safari into the South African jungle. Tour-de-force adventure drama that brought him real acclaim as aĭirector. Several of his ventures into film noir in this period,īoth his own and other directors', are quite interesting Led him to form his own production company with the goal of directing In the 1950s his star dimmed a little, and aside from an Spent the balance of the 1940s in romantic, and often swashbuckling, He playedĪ few minor roles before leaping to fame and an Oscar nomination as Production of "Romeo and Juliet" that Hollywood spotted him. It was not until he was hired in the dual capacities of fencing
Stage, he appeared in the Broadway hit "Having a Wonderful Time", but Shortening his name to Cornel Wilde for the Though he continued to list his correct Hungarian birth in 1912 on Thereafter claiming publicly that he was born in New York in 1915, Shaved a few years off their ages in order to get work, Wilde Olympic fencing team, he quit the team just prior to theġ936 Berlin Olympics in order to take a role in a play. Received a scholarship for medical school, but turned it down in favor He spent much of his youth traveling in Europe,ĭeveloping a continental flair as well as an affinity for languages. His family Americanized their names and Kornel took the nameĬornelius Louis Wilde. In 1920, he immigrated to New York City with his parents, Rayna (Vid) and Vojtech Béla Weisz, and elder sister, Edith. Dashing actor Cornel Wilde was born Kornel Lajos Weisz on October 13, 1912, in Prievidza, Hungary (now part of Slovakia), to a Jewish family.
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