Death Drums Along the River

Death Drums Along the River
DVD cover
Directed by	Lawrence Huntington
Produced by	Harry Alan Towers
Written by	Harry Alan Towers Lawrence Huntington Nicolas Roeg
Starring	Richard Todd Marianne Koch Albert Lieven Walter Rilla
Music by	Sidney Torch
Cinematography	Robert Huke
Production company	Hallam Productions Constantin Film
Distributed by	Constantin Film (Germany) Planet Films (UK)
Release dates	20 December 1963 (1963-12-20) (Germany) 27 March 1965 (1965-03-27) (UK)
Running time	83 minutes
Country	United Kingdom West Germany South Africa
Language	English

Death Drums Along the River (titled Sanders in the USA) is a 1963 British-German international co-production, using the characters from Edgar Wallace's 1911 novel Sanders of the River and Zoltán Korda's 1935 film based on the novel, but placed in a totally different story. Filmed on location in South Africa, it features Richard Todd and Marianne Koch leading a cast of British, German and South African actors.

Plot

In an unnamed small British colony on the west coast of Africa, somewhat resembling The Gambia, two policemen patrolling a wharf sight a sack of peanuts dropped by stevedores. As the sack breaks the workers discover a pouch in it that is quickly grabbed by a man who then runs away. The policemen chase him and he eventually kills one of them before disappearing. Police Commissioner Sanders (Todd) questions Pearson (Bill Brewer), a suspected criminal, but finds no information.

At the same time, a Dr. Jung (Koch) arrives at the airport and is met by Todd's assistant, Inspector Hamilton (Jeremy Lloyd). Dr. Jung is going to a German-run clinic up country, close to the colony's eastern border. Also on the plane with her is an American journalist (Robert Arden) who wishes to visit the clinic to do a story, and also turns out to be an old friend of Pearson.

Commissioner Sanders begins to suspect the clinic as a location for smuggled diamonds from across the border.

Main cast

• Richard Todd as Commissioner Harry Sanders
• Marianne Koch as Dr. Inge Jung
• Albert Lieven as Dr. Weiss
• Walter Rilla as Dr. Schneider
• Jeremy Lloyd as Hamilton
• Robert Arden as Hunter
• Vivi Bach as Marlene
• Bill Brewer as Pearson
• Simon Sabela as Bosambo

Sequel

Todd would reprise the role of Harry Sanders in the follow-up film, Coast of Skeletons (1965).

Production

Harry Alan Towers was active in South Africa producing several films with West German financing from Constantin Film and a cast of West German actors. The film has very little to do with Edgar Wallace's Sanders of the River except the name of Sanders and the boat Zaire (which is now a small motorboat rather than a steamer). The film was marketed in Germany as one of the then popular Edgar Wallace series of films.

Richard Todd had been in Africa filming The Hellions and was attempting to produce a film of Ian Fleming's The Diamond Smugglers.

The intertribal warfare of Edgar Wallace's work and the 1935 British film has been replaced by a standard detective story involving murder and diamond smuggling. The fictional colony is not given a name, but in the spirit of the times Dr Jung asks Sanders what he'll do when it is granted independence. Sanders replies he'll stay on "if they'll have me".

Locations

The film was shot in Durban, Durban North, Zululand and Lake St. Lucia.

External links

• Death Drums Along the River at IMDb