Cornel Wilde

The Naked Prey

The Naked Prey

Glamorous leading man turned idiosyncratic auteur Cornel Wilde created in the 1960s and ’70s a handful of gritty, violent explorations of the nature of man, none more memorable than The Naked Prey. In the early nineteenth century, after an ivory-hunting safari offends a group of South African hunters, the colonialists are captured and hideously tortured. A lone marksman (Wilde) is released, without clothes or weapons, to be hunted for sport, and he begins a harrowing journey through savanna and jungle back to a primitive state. Distinguished by vivid widescreen camera work and unflinchingly ferocious action sequences, The Naked Prey is both a propulsive, stripped-to-the-bone narrative and a meditation on the concept of civilization.

Film Info

  • United States
  • 1965
  • 95 minutes
  • Color
  • 2.35:1
  • English
  • Spine #415

BLU-RAY SPECIAL EDITION FEATURES

  • Restored high-definition digital transfer, with uncompressed monaural soundtrack
  • Audio commentary from 2007 by film scholar Stephen Prince
  • “John Colter’s Escape,” a 1913 record of the trapper’s flight from Blackfoot Indians—which was the inspiration for The Naked Prey—read by actor Paul Giamatti
  • Original soundtrack cues created by director Cornel Wilde and ethnomusicologist Andrew Tracey, along with a written statement by Tracey
  • Trailer
  • English subtitles for the deaf and hard of hearing
  • PLUS: An essay by film critic Michael Atkinson and, for the Blu-ray edition, a 1970 interview with Wilde

    Cover by Michael Boland

Purchase Options

BLU-RAY SPECIAL EDITION FEATURES

  • Restored high-definition digital transfer, with uncompressed monaural soundtrack
  • Audio commentary from 2007 by film scholar Stephen Prince
  • “John Colter’s Escape,” a 1913 record of the trapper’s flight from Blackfoot Indians—which was the inspiration for The Naked Prey—read by actor Paul Giamatti
  • Original soundtrack cues created by director Cornel Wilde and ethnomusicologist Andrew Tracey, along with a written statement by Tracey
  • Trailer
  • English subtitles for the deaf and hard of hearing
  • PLUS: An essay by film critic Michael Atkinson and, for the Blu-ray edition, a 1970 interview with Wilde

    Cover by Michael Boland
The Naked Prey
Cast
Cornel Wilde
Man
Gert Van den Bergh
Second man
Ken Gampu
Leader of the warriors
Patrick Mynhardt
Safari overseer
Bella Randles
Little girl
Morrison Gampu
Tribal chief
Sandy Nkomo
The pursuers
Eric Mcanyana
John Marcus
Richard Mashiya
Franklyn Mdhluli
Joe Dlamini
Fusi Zazayokwe
Jose Sithole
Horace Gilman
Credits
Director
Cornel Wilde
Produced by
Cornel Wilde
Written by
Clint Johnston
Written by
Don Peters
Coproducer
Sven Persson
Director of photography
H. A. R. Thomson
Production supervisor
Basil Keys
Film editor
Roger Cherrill
Musical adviser
Andrew Tracey
“The Naked Prey” theme song sung by
The Principal Warriors
Production manager
John Merriman
Assistant director
Bert Batt
Camera operator
Ray Sturgess
Makeup
Trevor Crole-Rees
Wardrobe supervisor
Freda Thompson
Sound editor
Les Wiggins
Music editor
Archie Ludski
Sound recordist
James Chapman
Title backgrounds
Motjuoadi Andrew T.

Current

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By Michael Atkinson

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