Flammen über Afrika

Throughout most of Sidney Poitier's career as an actor that primarily appeared in race relations dramas, he played African- Americans whereas, in this one, he actually plays an African, a Kenyan in fact, named Kimani Wa Karanja.

As children, Peter (Rock Hudson) and Kimani grow up doing everything together. But as adults, the Black East African 'boy' is fit only to carry his White East African 'bwana' friend's rifle for him, something neither of them really understands though (naturally) Peter is slightly more accepting of it. When Kimani's father (Ken Renard) is imprisoned indefinitely for following a custom deemed barbaric by the ruling class of British colonists, he runs away to join a criminal gang (led by Juano Hernandez's character) that later becomes an insurgency group dubbed Mau Mau; read your history if you're unfamiliar with the real back-story.

Predictably, Peter and Kimani will inevitably meet again on opposite sides of the law. The movie also features the comely Dana Wynter as Peter's love interest come wife; their relationship parallels that of his aunt Elizabeth (Wendy Hiller) and Uncle Jeff (Robert Beatty).

Jeff and two of their children are murdered during the Mau Mau Uprising. Walter Fitzgerald plays Peter's father, who had been a friend of Kimani's dad and whose knowledge and skills help to end the revolt.

Michael Pate plays a White settler that reflects the colonists' racism; William Marshall plays the Black leader that organizes the revolution starting with a meeting in Nairobi.

Richard Brooks directed and adapted the screenplay from Robert C. Ruark's novel of the same name.

This movie is really something of value.Rock HUdson's character says "we steal their earth and their religion,we 've got to give them something of value instead".Actually,Richard Brookes applied to Africa what he 'd done two years back with "the last hunt" where the white men killed the buffalos and starved the Indians.They even despised their belief by killing even the White animal.

Preceded by "Simba" an English movie starring Dirk Bogarde the screenplay of which

shows a lot of similarities with "something of value' Brooks 's work seems nevertheless superior ,because it has very strong scenes:Poitier,smashing the mirror with disgust after the killing,the informer killed on the barbed wire by the other prisoners;the old man ,afraid of thunder.This last scene may seem naive ,nay insulting for the natives ,but it was fifty years ago.People who criticize the movie should think about it:in 1957,it was a courageous movie,as "the last hunt" was.

Just watched this Rock Hudson-Sidney Poitier movie on YouTube. After casting him in The Blackboard Jungle which was a success, writer/director Richard Brooks then put Poitier in this drama about the uprising of a Kenyan revolutionary group called Mau-Mau of which Kimani Wa Karanja-Sidney's character-is forced to join after seeing his father (Ken Renard) uphold a custom that involves a murder resulting in his arrest by English colonialists. Hudson plays Peter McKenzie whose family had long settled in Africa and he himself had befriended Kimani when they were kids but that could be no more because of the unfair social rulings. I'll stop there and just say that this was quite intense and had plenty of moments where you wondered how certain things came to be and how some characters like a Joe Mattson (Michael Pate) came to hate someone much different from him. In a standout performance, Juano Hernandez is powerful as Njogu, who forces Poitier to take an oath that he himself never took. Others worth mentioning include: William Marshall as the Mau-Mau leader who's the one that gets Kimani to initially join, Ivan Dixon as Lathela-loyal gun bearer, Samadu Jackson as a witch doctor, Frederick O'Neal as another Mau-Mau leader named Adam Marenga who often wants to shoot first before any negotiations, and Barbara Foley as Wanju-wife of Kimani. Besides the players I've already cited, here are the other people of color in the cast and the parts they played: John Akar-Waithaka, Myrtle Anderson-Mwange wife, Carl Christian-cook, Kim Hamilton-Kipi's wife, Darby Jones-wine steward, Ike Jones-askari (a policeman), Anna Mabry-a midwife, Juanita Moore and Tommie Moore as tribal women, Paulene Myers-Kikuyu woman, Morgan Roberts-Chief Hinga, Madame Sul-Te-Wan-another midwife, and Paul Thompson-Kipi. Also featuring compelling supporting performances by Wendy Hiller as Peter's sister Elizabeth and Dana Wynter as Holly, Peter's wife. In summation, I highly recommend Something of Value.

This film is an interesting memento of a period seemingly long ago, but actually in the recent past. It raises some of the same questions brought to mind in "The Battle of Algiers," specifically, what methods is it justifiable to use to further a just cause, especially the cause of an oppressed people. Another question, should all members of the oppressor class, in this case whites of British ancestry and citizenship, be regarded and treated as oppressors, even if they are sympathetic to the cause of the oppressed? To its credit, the film doesn't oversimplify. One character, Matson, is a cardboard villain, but the whites are generally portrayed sympathetically. And, although at the time this film was made Kenyan independence was only six years away, it is clear that, to almost all the whites, independence and black majority rule are still unthinkable. It is clear that many of the whites regard the land as just as much theirs as it is the blacks'; most of them were born there. The film doesn't make a case for independence, just for equality of treatment.

The film moves along and is never boring. It tells a good story and is generally well acted. It's too bad that Rock Hudson didn't, or couldn't, attempt a British accent. Although it's clear that all the whites in the film are British, Hudson just moves right along with his American accent, quite un-self conscious about it all. (Maybe it's just as well; he might have ended up sounding as ridiculous as Marlon Brando in "Mutiny on the Bounty.") This is in stark contrast to Sidney Poitier, who manages an African accent quite well. Poitier is actually superb in his role; this was well before he assumed the persona of the saintly characters so superior to everyone else that he played to excess in the 60s. This film appears not to be available on video, so you'll probably have to wait until it appears on Turner Classic Movies again. 8/10

I first saw this movie at a Saturday afternoon matinee in 1957 at the age of ten. Seeing it 60 years later, I'm amazed that it was considered a suitable movie for children at a matinee in that era of rigorous censorship.

There is strong stuff in this film about the Mau-Mau insurrection in Kenya in the 1950's. It was a film I remembered vividly, especially the scenes of Mau-Mau rituals, but also for the haunting background music and for Dana Wynter who just seemed so perfect.

At the time, colonisation was ending. Britain, which had coloured so much of the globe pink, would sometimes just haul down the flag and sail away, but in some African countries with generations of white farmers and landowners, things were trickier.

That was the background to Richard Brook's film of Robert Ruark's novel.

Peter McKenzie (Rock Hudson) and Kimani (Sidney Poitier) have grown up together in Kenya, but find that their different skin colours and cultures are forcing them apart.

There is interesting information on the making of the film in "Tough as Nails: The Life and Films of Richard Brooks" by Douglas K. Daniel. Brooks and his crew went to Kenya and although some of the film was shot back in Hollywood, the location footage gave the film its authentic look. In an act not without danger, Brooks and Hudson went to a secret location to meet members of the Mau-Mau.

Brooks could be a bully and alienated cast and crew except for favourites such as Sidney Poitier whom he protected from discrimination in segregated Kenya. He was rude to Dana and harsh with Rock, but he created tension to get the reactions he wanted from the actors.

Miklos Rozsa, the epic film score maestro, came up with different music for this film. Composed mainly for chorus, sometimes male, sometimes female depending on the mood, it is a fascinating impression of African music and one of the most memorable things about the film.

"Simba", a British film about the Mau-Mau rebellion was made in 1955. Also shot in Kenya, it too featured Mau-Mau attacks on white farmers, but the whole thing seemed condescending towards the Kenyans while Brook's film is more even-handed with treachery and massacres on both sides.

Both films end with a scene of a Kenyan baby, symbolising the key to the nation's future.