Cinema: Wayne & the Wildebeests

Hatari! is an African western. The cowpokes (John Wayne, Hardy Kruger, Gerard Blain, Red Buttons) do not herd cattle and they do not ride horses. They go bucketing over the Tanganyika plains in Jeeps and trucks to lasso giraffes, rhinos, zebras, wild buffalo and wildebeests for zoos.

All of this has a manly, adventurous tang and the animals are so spirited and graceful that they merit every bit of superbly photographed film footage they get. When the beasts are off camera, the film is a beastly drag. Elsa Martinelli wants to be roped and wedding-banded by Wayne, but big John shies away from any species that a zoo will not buy. The other three white hunters follow the spoor of a comely teen-ager (Michele Girardon). Director Howard Hawks kids these silly romances, but two hours and 40 minutes among the wildebeests is apt to send moviegoers stampeding down the aisles for a deep, bracing breath of carbon monoxide.