User reviews

The cinematography in Technicolor has always appealed to me and scenes such as the tribal women rowing their four (4) large canoes with the archaelogical safari team and their supplies down the New Guinea river(s) infested with killer native tribes, snakes, and crocodiles, injects the needed adventure and to stamp this movie as a bona fide thriller.

Burt Reynolds and Susan Clark are excellent choices as the two male and female leads who both have romantic inclinations but for very different reasons. The audience is asked to form their own opinion on what their discovery of the Tropi tribe means to the human race.

As with many of the world controversies regarding racism, evolution, slavery, and the industrial revolution, the film Skullduggery will leave you with some questions as to what is fair and what is right when a new discovery such as the Tropi tribe is uncovered.

Skullduggery (1970) starts off as a combination of adventure with some light humor and a romantic twist thrown in for good measure, but it was not how I expected the film to transpire as I had been impressed by Burt Reynolds performance in the later (1972) film Deliverance. Not to say I was disappointed in the film Skullduggery, as I was not. I really enjoy scenic pictures of far away corners of the world, and the directors Gordon Douglas and Richard Wilson captured the landscape of New Guinea with crisp and clean panoramic views of the green forests, huge mountains, and seedy crocodile infested waters.

I enjoyed Skullduggery and will most likely watch it again in a few years. This review is somewhat of a personal reminder to confirm a thumbs up review which I give a 6 out of 10 IMDb rating.

Continuing my plan to watch every Burt Reynolds movie in his filmography in order, I come to Skullduggery.

Plot In A Paragraph: Douglas Temple (a likable Burt Reynolds) manages to wrangle his way on to a jungle expedition in New Guinea when anthologist Sybil Greame (Susan Clarke) lands in his territory. While she searches for old bones, he searches for phosphor (which is used in the "new" colour TV's) they not only discover both, but a whole lot more.

I'm amazed by what I read on here sometimes, as some of the people rating this movie 2/10 or worse 1/10 clearly just didn't get it. Even if it was made today this movie would still ring true.

Burt Reynolds is incredibly likable and shows great promise for more important roles. However "Skullduggery" winds up a bit of a mismatch due to an inconsistent mix of humour and human drama. That's down to bad editing and poor direction.

I must have unknowingly been in the test audience for the original version of this film at a local drive-in theater in 1970. I recently saw the current version on TV again, and was shocked at the mutilation of the original plot. The movie I remember was longer and the missing scenes and dialogue comprised a biting satire of race relations that still resonates in my memory today. The present version of the film has sadly had the best scenes and lines excised out, in the name of avoiding controversy in 1970.

We have come a long way since then. This film was far more entertaining in it's original form, and deserves re-release in a Special Edition or Director's cut DVD!

The first half of the movie tastes like a remake of a jungle expedition in one of those old Tarzan classics starring Weissmuller, the second half tries to be something like a class in philosophy - what makes a human human etc. Sadly, despite a good cast and production both parts never really blend well together. The first part was entertaining to me, a simple but fun adventure movie, the second part was a rather boring affair to me - an attempt to make something significant but not really engaging, and in the context of the first half (adventure, romance) it just feels too much out of tune.

Once upon a time there was a science fiction author named H. Beam Piper who wrote a classic book named "Little Fuzzy" which was about a man discovering a race of adorable little fuzzy humanoids on another planet. Mr. Piper died in 1964, but Hollywood and many of today's authors starting looting his grave before his cadaver got cold. This is the book where they got the idea for Ewoks from.

Skullduggery is such a blatant ripoff of "Little Fuzzy" I can wonder why I'm the only who's ever noticed?

But don't take my word for it. Here's a link to Project Guntenberg where you can download a copy of "Little Fuzzy" for free: http://www.gutenberg.org/ebooks/18137

Taped this late night movie when I was in grade 11, watched it on fast forward. I sugest you do the same. I though it would be and action film, but went to a cort tv type movie. In the end it fits in with the early 70's social activest type films. Glad I missed that era. 2/10

This was not a film about "action", nor was it "boring", unless you are the type that requires external stimulation as a substitute for actually thinking. This was a very poignant film about human rights and what, exactly, being human means. As another reviewer said, the climactic ending brought me to tears. This is not a film that should be viewed by a bunch of kids at a sleepover... it will be totally lost and wasted on them. This is a film that should be shown in every political science and philosophy class for discussion. Don't let the pathetic reviews scare you away if you can find this movie... it was the viewer that was lacking, not the film...

One of the most boring, silly, insipid, badly scripted and acted things ever to come out of the entertainment field. Even for Burt Reynolds, this was bad news. If you are home alone and bored to tears don't watch this drivel. Avoid at all costs.

Between an eclectic television career and hitting big with the big-screen DELIVERANCE, Burt Reynolds appeared in mostly westerns and/or adventure b-movies... two of the latter titled IMPASSE and then SKULLDUGGERY, with Reynolds as one of those cocky fortune hunters, here smitten with classy female scientist Susan Clark while paired with friendly sidekick Roger C. Carmel...

But right when the expedition into the scenic, potentially perilous mountains of Papua New Guinea begins... with the man and dame sleeping together too quickly to evolve into an AFRICAN QUEEN-style anti-chemistry romance... a group of ape-like/missing-link creatures are discovered, and quickly exploited...

First in a spontaneous, companion-like fashion by Reynolds, trying to make something of the country's phosphorus that he was initially seeking... then becoming burdened slaves to sophisticated British heavies in what's offbeat enough to derive from European cinema before confusing American audiences, never capturing any particular audience, cult or otherwise, since Burt Reynolds was relatively unknown...

Although he's more affable and loose than the rudimentary monotone before discovering the value of self-deprecating scoundrels... and the moral dilemma turned third-act courtroom drama about enslaved primal creatures is simply too deep and idealistic for what should be (and what somewhat began as a) traipsing adventure.

As another person has commented, this movie deals with some very important social and very HUMAN issues and should be viewed for what it is, not what you wish it would have been.

If you are looking for a brainless action film, look somewhere else. This film is more likely to generate a strong emotional reaction than to wow you with fancy stunts and cliché jungle adventure shtick.

People today are so used to excessive action films that gems like this one seem to be misunderstood or simply ignored. I am hoping this makes it's way to DVD so it can be appreciated in it's original theatrical format.

For the thinking person who can appreciate something with a lot more depth than the 'tomb raider' ilk it may get lumped in with it is definitely worth a viewing.

I watched this movie in the early seventies, at my hometown in Mexico. I must have been 14 or 15 at the time. I liked the movie a lot not because of the acting, but because of the subject, which captivated me. The ethical and philosophical question of what constitutes humanity. Maybe the cinematographic quality of the film is not great, but having seen this movie only once and still remembering its impact on me after almost forty years is a tribute to its merits. I remember vividly the shock the climax scene caused in me, and the anger at the injustice done to the poor critters, and their unresolved fate, which undoubtedly would not be a good one if we go by the conventional wisdom of the time. I do believe this movie is much better conceptually than it is generally considered. I hope it will someday be released on DVD. I would certainly buy it.