Shout at the Devil finds Lee Marvin in sub Sahara Africa in 1914 just before the start of World War I. He's a rollicking, live by your wits character named Flynn, very much similar to Humphrey Bogart's Charlie Allnut in The African Queen. Marvin takes up with an Englishman played by Roger Moore who's been stranded in Africa on his way to Australia.

Marvin has a running rivalry with the local German governor played with Teutonic relish by Reinhard Kolldehoff. He's the Road Runner to Kolldehoff's Wily Coyote. During the first half of the film, it plays just like a road runner cartoon.

When war is declared however, Kolldehoff crosses into British territory where Marvin has operated with sanctuary and exacts a terrible vengeance for being constantly made a fool of. On Marvin, on Moore, and on Barbara Parkins, Marvin's daughter who Moore has now married and had a child with.

This is World War I so the Germans aren't behaving like the Nazis of the second World War. But Kolldehoff you can see a potential recruit for Hitler in the post war years. In fact I don't think it's an accident that Kolldehoff and his character Fleischer look very much like German Field Marshal Ludendorff who was sympathetic to the early Nazi party.

Shout at the Devil is a broad comic adventure for the first half and turns serious in the second half. Moore and Marvin have a nice easy chemistry between them, Marvin is reaching back to his Cat Ballou days and the bag of scene stealing tricks he used to get an Oscar. Moore is hard pressed, but does keep up.

And who doesn't like a live road runner cartoon.

This film starts with a disclaimer that no animals were hurt during the making of it. They must have then found some pretty talented elephants to take direction of when to fall over as if they've been shot as Lee Marvin and Roger Moore go after their tusks. There are few other animal sequences in the film which mainly deals with Marvin and Moore trying to get away from some Germans in pre-World War I Africa, going down a river like Hepburn and Bogart in "The African Queen" and trapping the Germans chasing them with a net that gets tangled in the German's boat paddlewheel that stops them in their tracks.

A larger ship lunges after them and the boat is destroyed. The German officer aboard wants to blast them away, but the more civilized Captain with a British accent refuses and sends them down a giant plank of wood that they can float on for safety. Dangerous marshes ahead leads them to an island where Marvin knows the king, flirts with their daughters, and suddenly, they are back in civilization where they encounter Marvin's daughter, Barbara Parkins, whom Moore ends up marrying After a violent attack on their home, they set out to assassinate the culprit, leading to Moore ending up on a rickety two seater plane flying through a canyon and crashing down back where he started.

So while this is gorgeous to look at, the direction confounds everything going on, taking this down multiple minor plot lines and never really having one strong plot tying them together. It's more of an odd couple on an adventure story with Marvin and Moore, complete opposites, getting into all sorts of trouble while dealing with an old fashioned stereotypical German villain. Parkins has a good moment when she shoots a German officer over and over, the camera getting in closer with each shot she makes, which are quite a few. So while not a complete misfire and great to look at on a big screen, it is a misfire for its story and continuity in spite of some veteran film favorites.

This rollicking, exotic adventure is one that happens to be inspired by a true story. It gets some mileage out of the teaming of Lee Marvin and Sir Roger Moore, who for a while are at each others' throats. It does go on for an awful long time, and have silly digressions, but that should be no problem for patient viewers who don't mind a film that takes its time telling a story. There is a good portion of the running time with strong comic overtones, until politics and the reality of war rear their ugly head. Then our ne'er-do-well main character must take on a mission for reasons that aren't purely selfish.

Marvin plays rascally American ivory poacher Flynn O'Flynn in the African country of Zanzibar in 1913. He makes the acquaintance of "young" Englishman Sebastian Oldsmith (Moore, who was in his late 40s during filming, but looks good regardless). Oldsmith is stranded in Zanzibar because his property is stolen from a hotel and he is now unable to sail to Australia, which was his plan. He becomes O'Flynns' sidekick, and joins in as the jovial scoundrel makes constant battles with German commissioner Herman Fleischer (Reinhard Kolldehoff). Eventually they will take part in a daring plan to destroy a German vessel docked for repairs in Zanzibar.

The filmmakers, led by director Peter R. Hunt ("Death Hunt"),are quick to remind viewers that they made no move to actually harm animals (there are disclaimers at both the beginning and the end of the film),in case any animal lovers watching get squeamish during some scenes. They deliver a fairly engrossing and rousing action / comedy /drama that really comes to life through the chemistry between Marvin and Sir Roger. Marvin has never been quite this hammy, to the best of this viewers' recollection, and that includes his Oscar winning comedic performance in "Cat Ballou". Still, he's quite watchable, as is the lovely Barbara Parkins ("Valley of the Dolls") as Marvins' daughter and a strong supporting cast also including Karl Michael Vogler, Horst Janson, Maurice Denham, Murray Melvin, and George Coulouris. The real scene stealer for much of the two hour 30 minute run time is Ian Holm, cast as O'Flynns' mute associate Mohammed. The snarling Kolldehoff makes for an effective bad guy.

The music by Maurice Jarre is good, as is the use of eye catching African locations and the expansive widescreen photography. All in all, this is a somewhat predictable but pleasing diversion.

Seven out of 10.