I treated myself on a cold and rainy day to a bit of a Daktari marathon, watching “Wall of Flames” and “Return of the Killer” from season one, and concluding with “Clarence, the Cross-Eyed Lion.”
It’s been a long time since I saw this movie and I have to say it held up pretty well. While it does tend to ramble (but then doesn’t Daktari tend to do that anyway? :-)), it was cute. Clarence is adorable–how I’d love to have that big cat cuddle me the way he did Richard Hayden’s character, Mr. Rotbotham.
Cheryl Miller’s Paula was a bit sassy in the film and Marsh Tracy could be a bit of a curmudgeon at times. How I wish Betsy Drake could have continued her role as Julie on Daktari–such nice chemistry between her and Thompson and Miller.
The scene with Paula trying on the dress, all girl but obviously a tomboy at heart, was sweet. The last post talked about how Clarence essentially chose her for the part and you can see the shared affection. Cheryl was fearless with that python, my goodness!
I caught several clips from the movie making it into the credits for Daktari.
Anyway, enjoyed the nostalgia trip–here are some pix from the movie. If you have the movie, treat yourself, it’s a nice escape.
Daktari TV Show 
Hi, I dusted off my “Clarence…” VHS tape copy and watched, too. Richard Haydn as the tutor was always a tad silly for me (even as a kid), but he provided the comic relief. I loved Ivan Tors’ creative use of both California and Florida as the wilds of Africa (along with some stock footage of the real veldt).
Agreed about Haydn but loved the scene with Clarence. 🙂
Qué lindo todo ! Muchas gracias y … cuánta nostalgia…
A pleasure! 🙂
Wall of Flames was one of my favourite episodes (because of the interplay between Paula and Jack, and the appearance of Aussie Michael Pate). It was also one of the few double episode storylines. I actually have an old 1966 CBS black-and-white one-minute promo video for this episode!
Sweet! Yes, the interplay was great, especially the fun at the beginning. Certainly seems like fans wanted more of this–the writers kind of blew it!
I loved Clarence so much! I wanted to be in Wameru and drape all over Clarence, such a big, lovely cat!
I remember I watched the movie after the tv series so I was wondering where the heck Jack was haha. Thanks for the post!
Imagine cuddling up to Clarence on a cold night. I loved it when he got into bed with Richard Haydn, that was so cute.