The Macomber Affair (1947)

User Rating:

7.0/10   

Director:

Zoltan Korda

Writers:

Ernest Hemingway (story)
Seymour Bennett (adaptation) ...

Release Date:

17 September 1947 (France)

Genre:

Adventure

Tagline:

Peck...Bennett...Hemingway...only all three together could create this electric love story...with a vengeance! (oiginal poster)

Plot:

Robert Wilson leads safaris on the Kenyan savannah. On this occasion, he takes Mr. and Mrs. Macomber out to chase buffalo...

Plot Keywords:

Safari | Rich | Attraction | Uxoricide | Illness

Cast

Gregory Peck	...	Robert Wilson
Joan Bennett	...	Margaret Macomber
Robert Preston	...	Francis Macomber
Reginald Denny	...	Police Inspector
Jean Gillie	...	Aimee
Carl Harbord	...	Coroner
Earl Smith	...	Kongoni
Frederick Worlock	...	Clerk
Vernon Downing	...	Reporter Logan

Also Known As:

The Great White Hunter (USA) (reissue title)
The Short Happy Life of Francis Macomber (USA) (working title)

Runtime:

89 min

Country:

USA

Language:

English

Color:

Black and White

Aspect Ratio:

1.37 : 1

Sound Mix:

Mono (Western Electric Mirrophonic Recording)

Certification:

USA:Approved (PCA #11941) | West Germany:16 (nf) | Finland:K-16

Company:

Benedict Bogeaus Production

Trivia:

For the African scenes, Reginald Denny invented the first radio-controlled model airplane and, with Osmond Borradaile, put a camera on board in 1946.

Movie Connections:

Referenced in "Remington Steele: Steele Spawning (#4.12)" (1986)

White Hunter, Black Hearts

This Zoltan Korda adaptation of Hemingway's bitter tale of big game hunting and marital infidelity is the best movie adaptation of this author's work I have ever seen. Only Gregory Peck seems miscast in what is basically a Trevor Howard part, but this doesn't bring the movie down, it merely limits it. As the superficially charming, boyish, gregarious and basically not very nice Macomber, Robert Preston is brilliant, and he gives a daring, emotionally open performance. Joan Bennett is good as his wife, better than Peck but not perfect casting, either. What makes the movie work is its nasty story, and Casey Robinson's excellent and correct interpretation of it. The Hemingway mood, macho and misogynist, and misanthropic more than anything else, is caught to such perfection one might almost suspect that he was technical adviser (he wasn't). British East Africa is given the Tarzan treatment on screen, typical of the forties but for some difficult to take now. I find that it works, as Tarzan and Hemingway weren't a million miles apart in temperament and values, though I imagine that Tarzan was nicer fellow to get along with.