Simba (1955)

User Rating:

6.8/10   

Director:

Brian Desmond Hurst

Writers:

Anthony Perry (novel)
John Baines (screenplay)

Release Date:

9 September 1955 (USA)

Genre:

Drama

Tagline:

This is the real Mau-Mau Story!

Plot:

A European family in East Africa finds itself caught up in an uprising by local black Africans against their white colonial masters. Based on the Mau-Mau rebellion in Kenya in the early 1950s.

Plot Keywords:

Mau Mau | Brother | Father | Settler | Suspect

Awards:

Nominated for 3 BAFTA Film Awards. Another 1 nomination

Cast

Dirk Bogarde	...	Alan Howard
Virginia McKenna	...	Mary Crawford
Basil Sydney	...	Mr. Crawford
Marie Ney	...	Mrs. Crawford
Joseph Tomelty	...	Dr. Hughes
Earl Cameron	...	Karanja
Orlando Martins	...	Headman
rest of cast listed alphabetically:
Huntley Campbell	...	Joshua
John Chandos	...	Settler at Meeting
Slim Harris	...	Chege
Errol John	...	African Inspector
Ben Johnson	...	Kimani
Glyn Lawson	...	Mundati
Harry Quashie	...	Thakla
Desmond Roberts	...	Col. Bridgeman
Willy Sholanke	...	Witch Doctor
Donald Sinden	...	Inspector Drummond
Frank Singuineau	...	Waweru

Also Known As:

Simba (USA)
Simba - Mark of Mau Mau!

Runtime:

99 min

Country:

UK

Language:

English

Color:

Color (Eastmancolor)

Aspect Ratio:

1.37 : 1

Sound Mix:

Mono (Western Electric Recording)

Certification:

West Germany:16 | USA:Not Rated | Finland:K-16 | Sweden:15 | Australia:PG

Filming Locations:

Kenya

Company:

Group Film Productions Limited

Trivia:

This was Lippert Pictures last release in the USA.

Movie Connections:

Referenced in A Profile of 'A Town Like Alice' (2001) (V)

Poorly made and politically reprehensible.

Set in Kenya in the 1950's, this film attempts to portray the conflict between black and white in an even-handed way. But it can't help making the whites the victims and the blacks the villains. One token good black man (a doctor) is hardly sufficient to make up for the superstitious and blood-thirsty mobs that ransack the country killing viciously and without mercy. This film is even more reprehensible given the dreadful events now occurring in Zimbabwe where white farmers are being murdered by black squatters. I'm sure a black African audience would find this film further motivation to hate the arrogant whites. How can we sympathise with a man who insists that the blacks are "children mentally" and with our hero and heroine who insist on calling their native workers "boy"? I've no doubt that the film-makers were sincere in trying to promote a message of peace - but this peace is portrayed as achievable only on the white man's terms.

To make things worse the film is poorly made, with clumsy editing from stand-ins for the stars wandering around African locations to close-ups of the real stars with badly rear-projected locations. This constant shuffling becomes so silly that it destroys any chance the film had at credibility. By 1955 we really expect the cast to be on location. This is one dinosaur of a film that should be laid to rest. I'm sure the great Dirk Bogarde was bitterly ashamed of it in later life.