Korn Plastered in Africa: A weird, dusty relic

Is it worth your time?

Honestly? Only if you have a weird obsession with early cinematic oddities. If you’re looking for a coherent story or anything resembling good taste, run away. People who enjoy watching unfiltered, strange ego trips from the dawn of film will find this fascinating, but everyone else is going to be bored to tears or just plain confused by the whole thing.

Don Carney is doing a lot of heavy lifting here. He’s telling these stories like he’s holding court at a bar that stopped serving drinks three hours ago. Some of the "adventures" he describes are just wildly uncomfortable by today's standards, which makes the whole thing feel like a dusty time capsule you probably shouldn't have opened.

The vibe is... strange

The pacing is non-existent. It’s just guy-talking-at-camera, interspersed with whatever stock footage or props they could scavenge. There’s a moment where he talks about cannibals that is so casually delivered it almost loops back around to being funny, if only because of how detached he sounds from reality.

Cinematic perspective: Exploring the visual vocabulary of Korn Plastered in Africa (1931) through its definitive frames.

• The background sets look like they were painted by someone who had only ever heard a rumor of what a jungle looked like.
• I’m still not entirely sure if the "wildlife" was real or just very sad puppets.
• Carney’s facial expressions change from "excited storyteller" to "I think I left the stove on" in a split second.

It reminds me a bit of the frantic energy in One Week, though without any of the charm or actual physical comedy. While One Week has that classic Buster Keaton grace, this is more like watching a man try to convince you he walked to the moon using only a pair of boots and a dream.

The whole thing feels so small. You can tell they were trying to punch way above their weight class with the subject matter. It’s not quite a documentary and it’s not quite a play. It just sits there, awkwardly occupying space on your screen.

Watching this made me think of the weird, experimental energy you find in older shorts like Outwitting the Hun. There’s that same sense of "we have a camera and a weird idea, let's just go for it." But whereas those movies have a certain historical snap, this one mostly just leaves you feeling like you need to wash your hands afterward.

Don’t go in expecting a travelogue. Go in expecting a performance that feels like it’s teetering on the edge of a nervous breakdown. It’s not great, but you definitely won't forget the look in Carney’s eyes when he’s describing a lion. 🦁