Cornel Wilde | Offscreen
Cornell Wilde, who acted in films by Douglas Sirk, Nicholas Ray, Joseph H. Lewis and Otto Preminger, turned to directing quite early in his career, creating several atypical cinematic pearls that flirt with genre cinema, but have long since been forgotten.
"No Blade of Grass" is a post-apocalyptic film that was ahead of its time, a clear precursor to "Mad Max" and cohorts. It offered an original depiction of the end of the world; not as the result of a nuclear catastrophe, rather as the result of politicians and companies who poison man and nature for profit. An environmentalist horror film that remains relevant even forty years later.
"The Naked Prey" is a survival movie in which Wilde plays a colonist in the heart of Africa, being hunted by the best warriors of an indigenous tribe. Almost entirely free of dialogue, the man is tracked to the rhythm of the editing, with a superb visual approach that makes for a true monument of pure cinema!
No Blade of Grass
Pollution leads to a new virus that turns England, and nearly the rest of Europe, into a wasteland. A London family heads for refuge on a farm in Scotland, forced to travel across a country riddled with chaos and violence. One of the first environmentalist sci-fi films that was a hit when released.
The Naked Prey
Members of a safari offend an African tribe and pay for it with their lives, except for the guide (director and producer Cornel Wilde). He gets a five-minute head start before the best warriors of the tribe begin their hunt. An excellent survival film from the 60s, the antithesis to "Out of Africa".
Offscreen photostream
