KENNER

US, 1969, 94 minutes, Colour.
Jim Brown, Madlyn Rhue, Robert Coote, Ricky Cordell.
Directed by Steve Sekely.

Kenner is a mixture of the ordinary and the exotic. It is a 1960s drama, a star vehicle for football star and actor Jim brown. But, it is set in Bombay and filmed entirely in Bombay. This gives the audience an opportunity to see the Indian City as it was in the 1960s and as it was presented, touristically for audiences outside India. Bombay and the sea, the buildings and monuments are quite impressive. While the central characters experience poverty, the poverty is not so visible. Rather it is the population and the masses of people which make an impact.
The story is slender, focusing on a young boy (American Ricky Cordell), son of an unmarried woman who has to take to prostitution to support her son. She has told him that his father was an American sailor and that he would return. However, we discover that he went back to America and married someone else, a touch of the Madame Butterfly story.
The little boy is one of those cute actors of the period, full of charm and determination. He latches on to Jim Brown, whose character has come from Singapore, searching for his friend, who is a victim of drug dealers in India. The boy helps him escape from an angry crowd after he has thrown a scorpion on one of them, providing one of the several chases spectacularly through the streets and the markets. However, the drug boss has a special squad of assassins, something like Indian ninjas, who murder Brown’s assistant on the ship, and assault him.
When he collapses, he is helped by the little boy and his mother. What follows is a rather leisurely wander around Bombay, looking at the sites, the people, dances, as well as a romance veering towards a happy ending for everyone. Except that the mother is killed, leaving Kenner to be a substitute father.
In the meantime, the drug biss employs a dilettante Englishman, Robert Coote, who ingratiates himself with Kenner.
The film is very much a PG kind of film, except for the violence, and Kenner’s initially somewhat uncertain character.

1. A 1960s kind of drama? Slight story? Interesting locations?
2. The Bombay settings, the visuals of the city, buildings and streets, monuments, the sea, ordinary homes, markets, clubs? The musical score?
3. The title, the focus on Jim Brown, his status in American movies of the period, past footballer, present action hero? Adapting his character for a story in India? His ship, assistant, searching for his partner, from Singapore to India?
4. Kenner as a serious character, interactions with the boy, not understanding Indian customs, the boy helping him after the scorpion incident, the meeting the guide, his British background, genial manner, his mission to get Kenner to the drug lord. Getting him to the club, the drink and its being drugged, getting him back to the boat, the boy reappearing, the chase, Kenner’s collapse, going to the boat, the assassins and their attempt on his life? Overboard, re-emerging? The boy, his mother, helping him with the doctor? Wandering around Bombay? the sights and the sounds? The final confrontation with the villain?
5. The boy, part-American, his hopes, relationship with his mother, her being spurned by the neighbours because of her prostitution? His going to school? The support of the nuns? Writing the letter to his father? Selling souvenirs, the incident with the scorpion, helping Kenner? Meeting him again, he and his mother helping Kenner when he was bashed? The Englishman and his disillusioning the boy of about his father, the photo from the advertisement? Kenner being upset with this? The mother, her confession? The boy being upset? His settling down, the death of his mother, the funeral, the bond with Kenner, a future?
6. The villains, the drugs, the weird assassins and their dress, the Englishman and his being in the pay of the boss?
7. The picture of the nuns, running the school, with the boy, the new nun and her reaction to the mother’s prostitution, the Indian nun and her quoting Jesus as not been judgmental about prostitutes? Their attending the mother’s funeral? The picture of more open nuns?
8. The conventional material, pleasing to look at?