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.
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
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
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.
A scene from The Naked Prey
