East Of Sudan (1964)

When the Mahdi forces siege the village of Barash in the Sudan, a small group consisting of two soldiers (Anthony Quayle, Derek Fowlds), a governess (Sylvia Syms) and her ward (Jenny Agutter) take flight down the treacherous Nile towards Khartoum. Directed by Nathan Juran (7TH VOYAGE OF SINBAD), this low budget action programmer never set foot outside of Shepperton Studios in Surrey, England. It's a sound stage bound Egyptian locale supplemented by lots of inserted footage from THE FOUR FEATHERS (1939) blown up from 1.37 and formatted for the scope process, rear projections and lots of stock footage from other movies filmed in Africa. It actually becomes amusing after awhile because the difference in the footage is not only obvious but when the protagonists attempt to start an elephant stampede in front of a rear projection of elephants, it almost becomes surreal. It was nice to see Anthony Quayle, normally a supporting character actor, playing the action hero for a change though I wish Syms' character weren't written as such a ninny. As cinema, it's routine fare. With Johnny Sekka.