Customer Reviews

The Jackals

5 star:		(3)
4 star:		(1)
3 star:		(6)
2 star:		(0)
1 star:		(1)

 

 

This western, made 1966 in South Afrika, is a very strange remake of YELLOW SKY (1948). It reminds me a little bit of two Monte Hellman western (THE SHOOTING and RIDE IN THE WIRLWIND) made around the same time. Major interest is Vincent Price as an old gold digger, who lives with his graddaughter in the desert and gets in trouble with a gang of bankrobbers. If you're an admirer of Vincent, you have to see this!

Talking about the Brentwood DVD: The quality is okay for a rare film like this and the cheap price. Colors are a bit fadad red. The main problem is, that the film isn't complete: It runs only 93 minutes, than the correct (and on the cover mentioned) 105 minutes! But probably we'll never get the chance to see it better!

There is also a tape available. I don't know it, but think it's made from the same source. If you own it you don't need the DVD. If not get this one!

The technical part of this review refers to the Brentwood Home Video or BCI Eclipse version.

A western set in Africa with Vincent Price! What more could you ask for? In reality, you could ask for a bit more. Mr. Price plays a prospector who lives with his granddaughter and happens to have a ton o' gold hidden away. Along come the bad men who want to take the gold and the girl away. Mr. Price is the cunning wily old codger you'd expect him to be. After seeing him in almost exclusively horror fare, it was a pleasure to see him tackle this role. And I bet HE had a good time with it. It shows! A routine western made better with the African location.

The print used was not too bad. Scratches, splices, etc. were minimal. The color by DeLuxe has faded and can be quite noticeable in indoor settings, but not enough to detract from the story. 20th Century Fox originally released this picture, which was 105 minutes in length by all sources I could find. Some company called Rawhide Home Video must have bought the rights, took off the 20th Century Fox logo and put some cheap title card on the beginning. In the process, they must have chopped 12 minutes out of it somewhere. To be honest, I don't know where the editing took place. With such an unknown feature, this will probably be the only chance to see this movie. I wouldn't look for Fox to release a remastered, uncut version any time soon.

Brentwood/BCI does their usual job with features of 6 chapter stops, a Max Fleischer cartoon and trivia game. A decent transfer for the price. This movie is also in a 10 pack of westerns at about triple the price for this one film from Brentwood Home Video called "The Wild West" and is available from Amazon.com.

First a word about 'gray market' DVDs--
Often, transfers are not of the highest quality. The movies themselves are unrestored and rarely pristine (but still watchable), extras are non-existent and inclusion of artwork or liner notes varies by manufacturer. These niche companies can however provide a valuable outlet for movies unavailable anywhere else.


With motion picture titles, a tiny word like "The" can mean a huge difference. Example: THE Desperate Hours is a 1955 Humphrey Bogart film while Desperate Hours is a 1990 Mickey Rourke rehash.

This is more apparent with THE Jackals, a 1967 South African-made movie, and Jackals, the McRaney/Brimley title that others seek. (As of 9/09, the 1986 Jackals was not available in any home video format.) They are completely unrelated.


THE JACKALS is a near-literal remake of YELLOW SKY (1948). Its original American western ghost town is now set in equally forbidding Suid Afrikaner veldt. Vincent Price is top-billed probably for marquee value, but his is a supporting role.

Here, prospector Price and his granddaughter are beset by a robber gang. They want Vinny's gold; their leader also desires the tomboyish young lady.


Parenthetical number preceding title is a 1 to 10 imdb viewer poll rating.

(5.5) The Jackals (S.Africa-1967) - Vincent Price/Diana Ivarson/Bob Courtney/Patrick Mynhardt/Bill Brewer/John Whiteley

An awful movie from start to finish -- truly painful to watch. Vincent Price gives the worse performance of his career and one of the worst in the film -- I can honestly say that no actor (or the sole actress) in the film was credible or even mildly entertaining. A terrible film.

Vincent Prices breathtaking performance gives this, otherwise not very exciting film,a touch of very memorable!!!

I just show the movie a couple of days ago on Fox Movie Channel. Even though Vicent Price is given top billing, it's more of a supporting role. I wasn't too crazy about it's premise (cowboys in South Africa). However, by the end of the movie, I liked it.

As previous reviewers have stated, granddaughter and grandfather (Price) try to protect gold from 5 outlaws. One of them falls for the granddaughter and decides to change his ways. Not original, but fun since it takes place in South Africa rather than the old west. I've haven't seen the original, YELLOW SKY, so I can't comment if this film is better or worse.

As far as the length of the film is concerned, the one I saw on Fox Movie Channel had a runing time of 93 minutes. If there is a longer version, either Fox doesn't have the missing scenes or it really is only 93 minutes and the distribution company made a mistake on the running time.

The Jackals. Rating ***
A 1967 picture directed by Robert D. Web. The genre is a sort of a Western type film except that it was set in South Africa instead of the US. Gold, greed and crime are the main objective of this adventure. A film in which the only juice there is; is without doubt the personality of Vincent Price who saved this story as on many occasions the comic element came out. It was never a big picture, not boring but not an original story either. Vincent Price part was much different from most of the films he had taken in. He was fantastic, brilliant. This film it also showed the ruthless weakness of the male when he encounters the female species.
Worth a look, but the transfer is unfortunately of low quality, colors are rather dull and faded. Very unfortunate. One aspect I noted in this DVD was the logo of TMG popped up and the bottom right corner of the screen. Something I had never noticed before on any DVDs in my collection.

Most Vincent Price addicts are horror film fans (like me) -- for that reason, some of his followers might not be so crazy about this film, clearly a late entry in his brilliant career. But honestly, this is one of the best movies I've ever seen starring Price.

Prospective viewers should think of this film as a western, albeit it takes place in South Africa. It's about an aged prospector (Price) and his beautiful but spunky daughter who live in a South African ghost town, the former site of a gold strike.

A band of bank-robbing scoundrels who suddenly find themselves in the harsh desert with no water drag into the town and neither Price nor the daughter want them there. Of course, the suspicions of the robbers are that the old man has made a new gold strike and is attempting to keep the treasure to himself.

Arguments break out amongst the robbers, alliances waver, and ultimately, a battle ensues for the booty. The nearby presence of a large band of African tribesmen, friendly to Price, serve to somewhat temper the robbers' all-out assault.

The cinematography of this film is first-class and the color saturation is just superb. The locations are equally great and the acting is spot-on.

I bought this film for a song (I see that it's currently still cheap, probably due to the thin cardboard packaging) thinking that it was likely just another second-rate movie.... not so! Yes, I loved Vincent Price in "House on Haunted Hill" a bit better than this one but, for western fans especially, this movie is clearly a secret treasure. Don't be put off by the discount packaging.

I had the same problem with this title. I hope Amazon can sort out this problem and make this fine movie available again.

I recall seeing the movie years ago. It was a compelling story about corrupt border guards involved in smuggling illegal aliens into the United States. Wilford Brimley actually played a secondary role; the true star (and a very nasty bad guy) was Gerald McRaney. So I was thrilled to see it available on DVD. Unfortunately, Amazon sent me the wrong movie--an older movie with the same title but very different story. When they tried to correct the mistake, the movie I longed for was out-of-stock. To add to my frustration, when I tried ordering it from another supplier on Amazon.com, the same error played out! I would highly recommend the original movie, "The Jackals" starring Wilford Brimley and Gerald McRaney, but can offer no suggestions on where to buy it--I still haven't been able to get a copy!Simon & Simon - Season One