King Solomon's Mines (1950)

Directors:

Compton Bennett
Andrew Marton

Writers:

Helen Deutsch (screenplay)
H. Rider Haggard (novel)

Release Date:

24 November 1950 (USA)

Genre:

Adventure | Romance | Action

Plot:

Guide Allan Quatermain helps a young lady (Beth) find her lost husband somewhere in Africa. It's a spectacular adventure story with romance...

Plot Keywords:

Treasure | Africa | Guilt | Diamond Mine | Skeleton

Awards:

Won 2 Oscars. Another 1 win & 1 nomination

Cast

Deborah Kerr	...	Elizabeth Curtis
Stewart Granger	...	Allan Quatermain
Richard Carlson	...	John Goode
Hugo Haas	...	Van Brun aka Smith
Lowell Gilmore	...	Eric Masters, District Commissioner
Kimursi	...	Khiva, Chief Bearer in Red Fez (as Kimursi of the Kipsigi Tribe)
Siriaque	...	Umbopa, Tall Prince-in-Exile
Sekaryongo	...	Chief Gagool, Witch-like Guide to Diamond Mines
Baziga	...	King Twala, Usurper (as Baziga of the Watussi Tribe)

Runtime:

103 min

Country:

USA

Language:

English

Color:

Color (Technicolor)

Aspect Ratio:

1.37 : 1

Sound Mix:

Mono (Western Electric Sound System)

Certification:

UK:PG (TV rating) | West Germany:12 | USA:Not Rated (video rating) | Belgium:Tous | France:U | USA:Passed (National Board of Review) | Canada:PG (video rating) | Australia:PG | Finland:K-8 | Sweden:15 | UK:U | USA:Approved (PCA #14499)

Filming Locations:

Biondo, Democratic Republic Of Congo

Company:

Metro-Goldwyn-Mayer (MGM)

Trivia:

Errol Flynn was originally cast as Quartermain, but turned it down, as he did not desire to sleep in a tent on location in Africa. Instead he did Kim (1950), which was filmed in India, but the accommodations for the actors were at a local resort.

Goofs:

Errors made by characters (possibly deliberate errors by the filmmakers): Von Brun (when Alan, Elizabeth and John first meet him) states that he hasn't seen a white face in "five years", but immediately after tells them that he saw Curtis a year earlier. Further, neither of the three question this inconsistency.

Quotes:

Allan Quatermain: ...in the end you begin to accept it all... you watch things hunting and being hunted, reproducing, killing and dying, it's all endless and pointless, except in the end one small pattern emerges from it all, the only certainty: one is born, one lives for a time then one dies, that is all...

Movie Connections:

Featured in Pink Floyd The Wall (1982)

Classic Adventure; Unpretentious, Epic in Feel, Plus a Mature Romance

When this production was mounted for Stewart Granger, with Deborah Kerr and Richard Carlson as his co-stars, no one could have imagined how imitated, influential and important the film would become. It has an epic quality about it that is earned by African on-site locales, fine cinematography and direction of the film, and the discovery-aspect of the narrative as the participants learn along about a fascinating continent and its people with the viewers. H. Rider Haggard's venerable novel find to b a curious mixture of Victorian angst, adventure, romance, mystery evoked by an expedition storyline. The fine acting by Stewart Granger as Alan Quartermain the white hunter, Deborah Kerr as a woman seeking her missing husband, Richard Carlson as her brother, and Hugo Haas as a back-sliding villain works exceptionally to increase the believability of the film. The simplest incident on this dangerous expedition--sitting down in the wrong place, turning over a leaf, wearing the wrong weight or textile of garment, cutting one's hair, hearing a sound, anything--can trigger a learning or a dangerous experience... This was a lavish MGM production, with participation by legendary artists and technicians such as Cedric Gibbons as art director, Edwin B. Willis as set decorator, Robert Surtees as cinematographer, Douglas Shearer in charge of sound and many others. But the real star of the film apart from the actors is Andrew Marton and Compton Bennett's realization of Helen Deutsch's interesting modernization of the original novel. Wjite hunter Alan Quartermain does not really care to live any longer; he has just seen one of his best "boys" die in a hunting accident, having been hired to please a bloodthirsty imperial's whim to kill wildlife; and Deborah Kerr comes along just then in need of a guide, trying to convince herself that she still cares about the cold husband who disappeared in search of a fabled treasure, the gold mines of King Solomon of Israel.. Obviously the two are ready to fall in love during the dangerous search for her lost mate, one that takes them into unknown country, among dangerous tribes, and into adventures that include helping a deposed seven-foot-tall monarch regain his throne by a rite of combat, incidentally saving their lives in the process. The most exciting sequence in the film is a grass fire that causes animals to stampede toward the expedition, who must taken shelter crouched low behind a makeshift low barrier; it has been imitated, never duplicated, and was later used in several other films. The film is occasionally leisurely, never dull; its makers play with time very intelligently. For once, the viewer gets the sense in a film of an arduous trek, of time passing, time for changes to happen and motivations for the same. The actors are grand, especially the mature intelligent leads; all-in-all, this simple storyline in the right hands was turned into what is all-but-universally acknowledge to be a classic adventure-romance.