Elephant Gun (1958)

Brothers compete for a woman's affection while danger lurks at every turn in an African wild game park.

Director:

Ken Annakin

Writers:

Joy Packer (novel), Guy Elmes (screenplay)

Stars:

Belinda Lee, Michael Craig, Patrick McGoohan

Cast

Complete credited cast:
Belinda Lee	...	Alice Lang
Michael Craig	...	Rusty Miller
Patrick McGoohan	...	Andrew Miller
Anna Gaylor	...	Thea Boryslawski
Eric Pohlmann	...	Anton Boryslawski
Pamela Stirling	...	Christina Boryslawski
Lionel Ngakane	...	Nimrod
Joan Brickhill	...	Harriet Carver
Ben Heydenrych	...	Sergeant Van Wyck
Alfred Kumalo	...	Chief Great Elephant
Doreen Hlantie	...	Oasis
John Withers	...	Sandy
Ken Oelofse	...	Jan
Gordon MacPherson	...	Tom

Storyline

In a game preserve in the southern regions of 1950s Africa, senior game warden Andrew Miller, aided by his younger brother Rusty Miller and a few soldiers, sees to the well-being of wild animals. Andrew protects the game preserve against poachers and tends to the wounded animals with the help of a veterinarian. He also expects his fiancee, Alice Lang, to visit him from England, after a long pen-pals correspondence, with the possible aim of getting married. However, on the day of her arrival by train, a poaching incident forces Andrew to go in the field to search for the culprits. He also needs to redirect a herd of elephants straying away from the protected game preserve into farming lands and hunter-allowed areas. Therefore, Andrew delegates his younger brother Rusty to pick up Alice Lang from the train station. Unexpectedly, Alice and Rusty fall in-love at first sight while Andrew has a few adventures of his own trying to survive animal attacks and murderous poachers. While Rusty ...

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Plot Keywords:

1950s | south africa | fiancee | jeep | land rover | 

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Taglines:

Africa Does Strange Things to a Woman...And to the Men Who Desire Her!

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Genres:

Adventure | Drama

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Did You Know?

Trivia

The crew was also plagued by a number of health issues. Script supervisor Gladys Goldsmith suffered an insect bite, causing her leg to swell to an alarming size. Her makeshift replacement, the production secretary, was bitten by a spider and was placed in the sick bay too; as was the stills photographer. During Christmas 1957, production manager Jack Martin was hospitalized after a heart attack. The electricians, in particular, were beset with chest complaints, rheumatism, white spider bites, and heat. Also one of the unit's two cheetahs, with which Belinda Lee had posed for publicity pictures, savaged her trainer. Of the 44 people on the unit, only director Ken Annakin and one other were untouched by periods of sickness.

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Alternate Versions

The British version, titled "Nor the Moon by Night," includes three scenes that were cut from the American version, called "Elephant Gun."-- (1) An early scene in which Alice (Belinda Lee) is first seen in her English home, as she tends to her dying mother. (2) The next scene, where Alice gets into a row with her half-sister, Harriet (Joan Brickhill), over Alice's divided allegiance to the care of her mother and her anxious anticipation of a new life in Africa with her pen-pal, Andrew (Patrick MacGoohan), who she has not yet encountered face to face. (3) Later in the film, this scene takes place in Camp #2 (Rusty's residence) in Africa -- Alice is summoned to the wireless, where she is informed by police authorities that she is wanted for questioning in the death of her mother.

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Soundtracks

Nor the Moon by Night
Music by James Bernard (uncredited)
Words by Jack Fishman
Sung by Frank Holder

User Reviews

Poignant memory of the beautiful Belinda Lee

An entertaining colonial yarn, largely shot on location in Kenya and South Africa, featuring quite convincing sequences of animal attacks. It's mainly to be treasured for its intimate colour photography of the breathtakingly beautiful Belinda Lee, who is featured in some steamy clinches with the ever dependable Michael Craig. The Rank Organisation, which had hitherto treated her as eye candy for the likes of Benny Hill, at last gave her the opportunity to show her considerable acting ability. It was such a tragedy that she subsequently left the UK in pursuit of an Italian prince and met an untimely end in a road accident only three years later.

Details

Country:

UK

Language:

English

Release Date:

7 August 1958 (UK)

Also Known As:

Elephant Gun

Filming Locations:

Pinewood Studios, Iver Heath, Buckinghamshire, England, UK

Company Credits

Production Co:

The Rank Organisation

Technical Specs

Runtime:

90 min

Sound Mix:

Mono (Westrex Recording System)

Color:

Color (Eastmancolor)

Aspect Ratio:

1.66 : 1