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Memorable, crazy movie

Fresh and Exciting

Admirable film.

At first rather annoying in its heavy emphasis on reenactments, this movie ultimately proves fascinating, simply because the complicated, highly dramatic tale it tells still almost defies belief.

If you have seen the Indiana Jones films and expect rip roaring adventures then steer clear.Stewart Granger is in his element as a rather world weary game hunter who is offered a shed load of money from Deborah Kerr who wants to find her missing husband who went looking for treasure and has never returned.Although boasting extensive location footage that takes in the jungle, Savannah, desert and mountains not a lot happens but a lot of trekking some encounters with shifty white men, some shifty tribes and the usual wild animal and reptile escapades.There is a budding romantic subtext and maybe for the first time we see some authentic tribal music and dancing in a western mainstream film, although the choreography and editing of the final fight looks strange, as if the stunt coordinator seemed clueless as to stage manage a tribal fight scene.The film is credited with two directors because Granger fell out with the first one, but it certainly lacks action.

This is a run-of-the-mill Hollywood production where the emphasis is on the colourful trip to inner Africa. The most interesting parts are clearly the tribes choreographies and the safari shots, which makes King Solomon's Mines OK as family entertainment, but makes the movie dull on the action side.With the difficulty to shoot on location most of the scenes it was a real challenge to do better than this flat continuity of talky scenes interspersed with beautiful shots of the African wildlife and local people. The story results quite boring: being a family movie it can't stem away from its clean line and thus you are only waiting for the prize in the title to materialise. And even then it is far from climactic since most of the movie has long before been let to tell a African story of its own.

This film makes my special list: One of the worst pictures ever nominated for best picture. Obviously, it didn't win. "All About Eve" was in a totally different superior class.To say that this film is dull is to put in mildly. We are subjected to all kinds of animals and Deborah Kerr spends most of the film fainting, falling and gradually coming to love Stuart Granger.The premise is good. Kerr and brother, Richard Carlson, go to Africa to locate her missing husband. He ran off to explore and hasn't been heard from in over 2 years. Wait until you discover his fate! Kerr had to find out the very hard way. Of course, there is animosity between Kerr and Granger at first. She had hired him to lead the way.Suddenly, we're into a civil war between the tribes. Luckily, it was a very brief one.The cinematography is nice. I guess the Academy needed this film to round out the 5 required at that time. Come to think of it, there had to be something out there that was better than this junk.

While it could have done with more characterisation, King Solomon's Mines is a lively and beautifully photographed film. The cinematography and scenery is fabulous and the editing is crisp and Mischa Spolainsky's score is rousing and beautiful. The film goes along at a good pace, has a good script and has an engaging story full of animal action, frenzied tribesmen and sentimental love scenes. The direction from Compton Bennett and Andrew Marton is strong, while Stewart Granger is very likable and the lovely Deborah Kerr is watchable as she always was. In conclusion, a very good film worth seeing for the leads and the visuals. 8/10 Bethany Cox