Africa Speaks! is a 1930 American documentary film directed by Walter Futter and narrated by Lowell Thomas. It is an exploitation film.[2]

Africa Speaks!
Theatrical release poster
Directed byWalter Futter
Written byWalter Futter
Produced byWalter Futter
Paul L. Hoefler
Narrated byLowell Thomas
CinematographyPaul L. Hoefler
Edited byWalter Futter
Production
company
Distributed byColumbia Pictures
Release date
  • August 15, 1930 (1930-08-15)
Running time
75 minutes
CountryUnited States
LanguageEnglish
Budgetless than $50,000[1]

Premise

edit

Paul L. Hoefler heads a 1928 expedition to Africa capturing wildlife and tribes on film.

Production

edit

Although the film was shot over the fourteen months of the expedition in the Serengeti and in Uganda, a scene involving an attack by a lion on a native was apparently staged at the Selig Zoo in Los Angeles and involved a toothless lion.[1]

Hoefler wrote a book entitled Africa Speaks about the expedition that was published in 1931.[3]

edit

The title of the film was parodied in the 1940 cartoon Africa Squeaks and the 1949 Abbott and Costello film Africa Screams.

Home media

edit

Africa Speaks was released on Region 0 DVD-R by Alpha Video on July 7, 2015.[4]

See also

edit

References

edit
  1. ^ a b Doherty, Thomas Patrick (1999). Pre-Code Hollywood: Sex, Immorality, and Insurrection in American Cinema 1930–1934. New York: Columbia University Press. pp. 239–41. ISBN 0-231-11094-4.
  2. ^ Crafton, Donald (November 22, 1999). The Talkies: American Cinema's Transition to Sound, 1926-1931. University of California Press. p. 388. ISBN 978-0-520-22128-4.
  3. ^ Pitts, Michael R. (2010). Columbia Pictures: Horror, Science Fiction and Fantasy Films, 1928-1982. McFarland. p. 3. ISBN 978-0-7864-4447-2.
  4. ^ "Alpha Video - Africa Speaks". Retrieved June 26, 2015.
edit