kurtanIMDBguy Review of Sabaka

Sabaka (1954)

Interesting if uneven example of Karloffs later work

[10 November 2006]

Sabaka is the story of a young elephant trainer, Gunga Ram, who avenges the death of his family with the help of his elephant and tiger friends. In fact, the tiger, sent back to the jungle by Gungas' Maharajah mentor, is responsible for later saving Gunga from Sabaka (the fire god) worshipers. The film feels as if it were an Indian documentary (made mostly from stock footage) with the story hastily shot and grafted on top of it. While June Foray gets a fair bit of screen time as the evil Sabaka priestess, Karloff gets very little to do, and in most cases there's scant depth or subtleties to the characters. Worth one look for June's work and the stock palace shots (some of which are quite attractive despite the poor film quality). As a side note, the DVD packaging shows some stills which were apparently publicity photos, as the photos either do not appear in the film or are shot from an entirely different angle.