Cry, the Beloved Country (1952)

Director:

Zoltan Korda

Writers (WGA):

Alan Paton (novel)
Alan Paton (screenplay)
(more)

Release Date:

May 1952 (UK)

Genre:

Drama

Tagline:

Filmed in Africa...Where It Was Lived!

Plot:

In the back country of South Africa, black minister Stephen Kumalo (Canada Lee) journeys to the city to search for his missing son...

Plot Keywords:

Based On Novel

Awards:

Nominated for 2 BAFTA Film Awards. Another 2 wins & 1 nomination

Cast

Canada Lee	...	Stephen Kumalo
Charles Carson	...	James Jarvis
Sidney Poitier	...	Reverend Msimangu
Joyce Carey	...	Margaret Jarvis
Geoffrey Keen	...	Father Vincent
Michael Goodliffe	...	Martens, Probation Official at Reformatory
Edric Connor	...	John Kumalo, Brother of Stephen
Charles McRae	...	Church Friend of Stephen
Lionel Ngakane	...	Absolom Kumalo, Son of Stephen
Vivien Clinton	...	Mary (Wedded to Absolom)
Albertina Temba	...	Mrs. Kumalo, Wife of Stephen
Bruce Anderson	...	Frank Smith, Farmer and Friend of James Jarvis
Bruce Meredith Smith	...	Captain Jaarsveldt, Policeman Bearing News of Murder
Berdine Grunewald	...	Mary Jarvis, Wife of Arthur
Cecil Cartwright	...	Harrison, Father of Mary Jarvis
Andrew Kay	...	John Harrison, Brother of Mary Jarvis and Friend of Arthur
Max Dhlamini	...	Father Thomas
Shayiaw Riba	...	Father Tisa
Tsepo Gugushe	...	Gertrude's Child
Ribbon Dhlamini	...	Gertrude, Sister of Stephen
Danie Adrewmah	...	Young Man, Client of Gertrude
Emily Pooe	...	Mrs. Ndela (Absolom's Lodging)
Reginald Ngeabo	...	Taxi Driver (Lead to Absolom)
Michael Golden	...	Second reporter
Clement McCallin	...	First reporter
Stanley Van Beers	...	Judge
John Arnatt	...	Prison warden
Scott Harrold	...	Police superintendent
rest of cast listed alphabetically:
Henry Blumenthal	...	Arthur Jarvis
Berdine Brunewald	...	Berdine Grunewald
Cyril Kwaza	...	Matthew Kumalo, Son of John
Evelyn Nayati	...	Mrs. Lithebe (Stephen's Lodging)

Directed by
Zoltan Korda

Writing credits (WGA)
Alan Paton		(novel)
Alan Paton		(screenplay) and
John Howard Lawson		(screenplay) originally uncredited

Produced by
Zoltan Korda	....	producer
Alan Paton	....	producer

Original Music by
Raymond Gallois-Montbrun		(as R. Gallois Montbrun)

Cinematography by
Robert Krasker

Film Editing by
David Eady

Art Direction by
Wilfred Shingleton

Costume Design by
Maisie Kelly

Makeup Department
Peter Evans	....	makeup artist

Production Management
Jack Swinburne	....	production manager

Second Unit Director or Assistant Director
John Bremer	....	assistant director

Sound Department
Lee Doig	....	dubbing editor
Jack Drake	....	dubbing editor
Max Elliott	....	dubbing editor
Red Law	....	sound
John W. Mitchell	....	sound

Camera and Electrical Department
Peter Lang	....	camera operator: second unit
Gerry Massy-Collier	....	camera operator (as C. Massy-Collier)
David Millen	....	camera operator: second unit
Gerry Fisher	....	assistant camera: interiors (uncredited)

Editorial Department
Valerie Leslie	....	assistant editor

Music Department
Hubert Clifford	....	musical director
Raymond Gallois-Montbrun	....	music arranger (as R. Gallois Montbrun)

Other crew
Maisie Kelly	....	continuity
Frank Rogaly	....	advisor: Africa

Production Companies

• London Film Productions

Distributors

• British Lion Film Corporation (1951) (UK) (theatrical)
• Lopert Pictures Corporation (1952) (USA) (theatrical)
• Monterey Home Video (1992) (USA) (VHS)

Other Companies

• Monterey Movie Company  VHS package design

Runtime:

103 min | Canada:96 min

Country:

UK

Language:

English

Color:

Black and White

Aspect Ratio:

1.37 : 1

Sound Mix:

Mono (Western Electric Sound System)

Certification:

Australia:M | Finland:S | Sweden:15 | Canada:PG

Filming Locations:

Shepperton Studios, Shepperton, Surrey, England, UK

Company:

London Film Productions

Trivia:

The film was shot in South Africa. Since the country was ruled by strict apartheid (enforced racial separation) laws, stars Sidney Poitier and Canada Lee and producer/director Zoltan Korda cooked up a scheme where they told the South African immigration authorities that Poitier and Lee were not actors but were Korda's indentured servants; otherwise, the two black actors and the white director would not have been allowed to associate with each other while they were in the country.

Movie Connections:

Featured in "American Masters: Sidney Poitier: One Bright Light" (2000)

Why remake a masterpiece?

There seems little point in remaking proven masterpieces of cinema. Generally they are given short shrift by critics and moviegoers with examples such as a new "Stagecoach" and "Psycho" quickly assigned to oblivion while their originals continue to give endless pleasure either as DVDs or TV reshowings. The 1995 version of "Cry, the Beloved Country" deserved a similar fate and was only saved I would imagine because the original version of Alan Paton's South African novel directed by Vincent Korda in 1951 is so little known today. I regard this neglect and the fact that it was felt that a "new" version was needed as one of cinema's greatest tragedies, for the original was beyond doubt, in my opinion, one of the half dozen greatest films ever to have emerged from a British studio. I ran the two versions again recently. By the end of the exercise I vowed never again to see the "new" version as in every sense it is the inferior of the two. I would cite the treatments of one small scene to make the point, the incredibly moving moment in the novel when the news is broken to the white landowner on his farm of the murder of his only son by a group of black youth during the coures of a burglary of his home in Johannesburg. Korda's treatment of the scene takes approximately a third of the time of the equivalent in the new Darrell Roodt version. It is impressively understated with the father quietly having to sit down to take in the dreadful news he has been brought. Richard Harris in the same part cannot match Charles Carson's tremendous dignity, exteriorising his grief in a far more theatrical way. It is the difference between tragedy and melodrama. Korda's monochrome "Cry, the Beloved Country" is almost documentary in style. The voice-over reading of Paton's opening paragraph is set against shots of the landscape it describes. The black Minister's train journey to the big city to find his fallen sister is punctuated by landscapes becoming more and more blighted by the rape of industry. Once there he embarks on a sad pilgrimage of shantytowns photographed with all the mastery of the postwar Italian neo-realists. That Korda's version of Paton's bleak tale is on the same level of artistic integrity and achievement as works such as "Bicycle Thieves" and "Germany Year Zero" is a measure of how highly I rate it. The use of music is masterly: indigenous a cappella choruses for the credits then nothing for the first third of the film. Then almost imperceptibly Raymond Gallois-Montbrun's orchestral score creeps in to meditate on some of the quieter scenes reaching a sort of apotheosis reminiscent of the conclusion of Berg's Violin Concerto by adopting the form of a chorale prelude for the final scene where the Minister climbs a hilltop to witness the dawn of a new day at the time his son is being executed. Shortly before he has passed the doubly bereaved white farmer to whom he has sent flowers on learning of his wife's death. The moment of reconcilliation between the two men is marked by the farmer's simple acknowledgement "Your flowers were of great beauty". There are few moments in cinema as moving as this.