Las aventuras de Stanley y Livingstone

I'm still waiting for this underrated gem to be put on DVD. I doubt if a lot people are familiar with this film, and that's a shame, and perhaps the reason it hasn't been put on disc. I remember being surprised how good it was the first time I saw it. I liked it even better the second time and even more on the third.

What's to like? Well, Spencer Tracy, to begin with. It's also interesting to see this true story about a man living in the heart of Africa in a time when few white men had ever gone to that continent. Livinstone (Sir Cedric Hardwicke) also was a good witness for his Christian faith, and even made a strong admirer out of partner and skeptic Stanley, played by Tracy.

Completing the fine cast in this film are Nancy Kelly (who looks beautiful), Walter Brennan and Charles Coburn.

The film could have been a spectacular visual one if it had been done in Technicolor, since the locations are in Africa, not some Hollywood set....but the back-and-white photography is still good. I'm not complaining. Great film.

A brash young newspaper reporter is sent into the unexplored regions of Central Africa to find a highly revered missionary-explorer who has seemingly disappeared. This is the account of their meeting - a fateful encounter which would not only transform the young man, but would profoundly change the history of Africa itself. This is the story of STANLEY AND LIVINGSTONE.

Here is one of the excellent adventure films from the golden year of 1939 & it is a very enjoyable evening's entertainment. More than just that, though. It is rare for Hollywood movies of the period to show actual spiritual epiphanies in the lives of their protagonists. That STANLEY AND LIVINGSTONE makes that significant attempt only adds to its prestige.

Spencer Tracy does an admirable job as Stanley, who - in the movie, at least - is basically moved or motivated by the whims of others. The two men who control his destiny, his publisher and Livingstone, could not be more different; yet each help prepare him for a profound spiritual turnabout in his life. Stanley's infatuation with a pretty English woman he meets in Zanzibar is also destined to lead only to inspiration, not love. Tracy's great skill as an actor helps make all these changes in Stanley's life clear to the audience. His delivery of one of the most famous greetings in history - `Dr. Livingstone, I presume?' - is perfect, spoken with just the right mixture of relief, awe & absolute weariness.

Walter Brennan has great fun with the role of an old Indian scout sent along to protect Stanley. Brennan - like Tracy, already a double Oscar winner - effortlessly walks away with several of his scenes. His colorful performance is a good counterpoint to Tracy's more mannered interpretation.

Best of all is the quiet, understated performance of Sir Cedric Hardwicke as the saintly Livingstone. With his comely, calm voice, Sir Cedric, who does not appear until late in the film, easily captures the attention of the viewer. He makes his character come alive and helps us understand why Livingstone was so important and revered a figure in the 19th Century. He is the very picture of vital, vibrant, muscular Christianity. Leading his native converts in a spirited rendition of `Onward! Christian Soldiers,' Sir Cedric gives the film its most delightful moments. (This rousing hymn, with words by the Reverend Sabine Baring-Gould, was not set to music by Sir Arthur Sullivan until 1872, so it's not possible Livingstone could have sung it in 1871. A small quibble - it's still a great scene.)

The rest of the fine cast - Richard Greene, Charles Coburn, Henry Hull & especially Henry Travers - offer splendid support in small roles.

To their great credit, 20th Century Fox actually sent a crew to British East Africa to film authentic safari footage which was then interspersed with shots of the actors. These on-location scenes, under the supervision of chief white hunter Captain A. J. Klein, add a great deal of veracity to the movie, providing views of natives, wildlife & scenery not possible to replicate in a Hollywood studio. (Some of the resulting rear projection shots, with Tracy or Brennan superimposed over the real African film, are rather annoying in their fakery, but this is a very small irritation.)

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As STANLEY AND LIVINGSTONE deals with the lives of two men who had a profound impact upon the Victorian world, a little check of the actual historical facts is in order.

David Livingstone was born to a poor Scots family in 1813. One of seven children, Livingston's family lived in a single room atop a tenement for laborers. Although working 14-hour days in a cotton mill, he eked out the time to educate himself. Becoming a committed Christian early in life, by the age of 20 he had determined to become a medical missionary. After studying in Glasglow, he was sent by the London Missionary Society, at the age of 27, to South Africa in 1841.

Upon arriving, Livingstone walked the 600 miles to his mission station on the edge of the Kalahari Desert. He spent the next eight years very hard at work there and at his new mission at the headwaters of the Limpopo River, marrying a missionary's daughter and beginning to raise a young family. Then, feeling God wanted a change in his life, Livingstone began to explore the interior of the continent. If proper maps could be made of this vast unknown territory, he reasoned, Africa could be opened to missionaries, educators, scientists & geographers - all enhancing civilization, spreading Christianity & bringing about an end to the hideous Arab slave trade.

Thus began a life of trekking that would take Livingstone over 29,000 miles. In 1849 & again in 1851 (this time with his family) Livingstone crossed the Kalahari, making contact with the natives of the Zambezi region. Sending his family back to Britain in 1852, Livingstone spent the next four years trying to find a connection between the Zambezi and either African coast, in the hopes of opening up the interior to civilizing commerce. Although he failed in his quest, Livingstone became the first European to traverse the entire width of the Southern continent and to see the tremendous falls on the Zambezi, which he named Victoria Falls.

Returning to England in 1856 to much laud & acclaim, he was given an audience with the Queen and met with enthusiastic crowds wherever he appeared. His book, Missionary Travels and Researches in South Africa, was a bestseller.

Back to Africa in 1858, (with an official appointment as Her Majesty's Consul for the East Coast of Africa) Livingstone's next expedition - up the Zambezi by steamboat - was met with tragedy. Members of the party, including Mrs. Livingstone in 1862, died of malaria and the river proved ultimately unnavigable. Livingstone was ordered home to London in 1864.

Livingstone remained a hero to the public and the publication of his new book, Narrative of an Expedition to the Zambezi and Its Tributaries, only enhanced his reputation. In 1866, under the auspices of the Royal Geographic Society and with the new appointment as British Consul for Central Africa, Livingstone began his last great quest - the search for the true source of the Nile. Spending the next seven years in fruitless wandering, and appalled by the sufferings of the slaves he encountered, Livingstone was broken in health and out of communication with England for nearly five years. There was enormous public interest as to his fate.

It was at this point that Stanley tracked him down, in the village of Ujiji on Lake Tanganyika, in the Autumn of 1871. After exploring near the Lake together, Stanley left in March of 1872. Livingstone stayed behind, but continued his search, although in very ill health. He died while kneeling at prayer, on May 1, 1873, at the age of only 60. As per his request, his heart was reverently buried in Africa. His porters carried his mummified body nearly a thousand miles to the sea, where it was returned to London. On April 18, 1874, Dr. David Livingstone was buried in Westminster Abbey. His epitaph, which includes a verse from St. John's Gospel, reads `Brought by faithful hands over land and sea, here rests David Livingstone, missionary, traveller, philanthropist, born March 19, 1813, at Blantyre, Lanarkshire, died May 1, 1873, at Chitambo's village, Ulala. Other sheep have I which are not of this fold; them also I must bring.'

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Stanley was not, as many believe, American. Neither was he English, as the movie oddly insists. In fact he was Welsh and he was born John Rowlands in 1841, to unmarried parents. After a wretchedly humiliating youth spent in a workhouse, he sailed as a cabin boy in 1859 to New Orleans. Taking the name of an early benefactor, Henry Stanley managed to fight on both sides of the American Civil War before being discharged for dysentery.

After spending some time on Atlantic merchant ships, Stanley cultivated his flair for writing and became a newspaper correspondent in 1866, traveling with the U. S. Cavalry in its conflicts with Midwest Indians. In 1867 Stanley joined the New York Herald and soon accompanied the British in their successful excursion against the self-proclaimed Emperor Theodore II of Ethiopia.

From 1869 to 1871, Stanley journeyed for the Herald to Suez, the Crimea, Persia & India before undertaking the assignment to find Livingstone. (It was on this expedition that Stanley began the harsh, often cruel punishment of African resistance which would stain his reputation.) The film is correct in depicting the British geographical hierarchy's disinclination to initially believe his claims as to finding the old doctor. Stanley's 1872 book, How I Found Livingstone became a bestseller and answered his critics.

After reporting on the 1873 British assault against the Ashanti Kingdom on the Gold Coast, Stanley began his most ambitious & dangerous expedition yet: to fill in the blank spaces left by Livingstone's death in the knowledge of Central African topography. From 1874 until 1877, Stanley traveled across the entire width of the continent from East to West, beginning in Zanzibar and finishing up at the mouth of the Congo. In betwixt, he circumnavigated & explored Lakes Victoria & Tanganyika, and traveled the lengths of the Lualaba & Congo Rivers. He survived a horrendous cannibal attack, virulent disease and the drowning & desertion of many of his native bearers. He once again showed his ruthlessness in dealing with defiance, at one point shooting dozens of villagers that showed hostility. Of the 359 individuals that started the trip with Stanley, only 108 finished it. His 1878 book, Through The Dark Continent, answered many questions in European minds about African geography. The major colonizing powers were not slow to take notice.

In 1879, Stanley undertook the interests of Belgian King Leopold II and spent 5 years helping to open the Congo region to commerce, as described in his 1885 book, The Congo And The Founding Of The Free State.

Working for the British Crown, Stanley undertook the dangerous mission in 1888-89 to resupply & rescue the British Pasha of the Egyptian Sudan, who was surrounded & threatened by the fundamentalist Islamic forces of the mad Khalifa. This assignment, although with great loss of life, proved successful, as Stanley described in yet another book, In Darkest Africa, 1890.

Having lived through enough thrills for ten men, Stanley married in 1890 and began a series of lecture tours. In 1895 he entered Parliament and made his last tour of Africa in 1897, which resulted in his final book, Through South Africa, 1898.

Henry Morton Stanley was knighted by Queen Victoria in 1899 for his services to Britain. Sir Henry died in 1904 & was also buried in Westminster Abbey.

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Together, Livingstone & Stanley hold the greatest responsibility for the exploration of Central Africa. The knowledge they gave to the world promoted Christianity in the region and helped to crush the slave trade. They also initiated the Scramble for Africa, in which the major European powers all took a chunk of the continent for themselves. This huge colonial land grab was completed by the time of Stanley's death. However, Livingstone's beneficent treatment of the Africans and his championing of their rights in no small measure helped directly influence their eventual nationalistic drives for self-determination & independence.

Stanley and Livingstone is maybe not the most accurate historical movie presented,but nevertheless a very interesting experience. Spencer Tracy is very good in this one,portraying his character in the naturalistic style he was famed for.Cedric Hardwicke is Dr. Livingstone conveying the concern and love for humanity as a dedicated missionary would have.The treatment of the Africans in this movie would feel very racist today,but I think the attitudes of white supremacy was very true to life since this movie is set in the 1870's. Walter Brennan's comic supporting part is a bit annoying and Charles Coburn's British newspaper editor is a caricature.The African footage is spectacular,especially the native attack on Stanley's caravan. This movie is also crying out for a DVD release

David Livingston was the greatest Scottish/British missionary of the 19th Century, in helping to spread Christianity in Africa. He also did what he could to make an end of the slave trade in Africa. Finally, a typical Victorian with insatiable curiosity, he explored much of central Africa, discovering Lake Nyasa (the third largest lake on the continent) and striving to find the source of the Nile (he mistakenly believed in an ancient story that it was a set of huge fountains in central Africa). In 1870 rumors started to spread that Livingston (who had not been heard of for several years) was dead. Probably, in the back of his contemporaries minds, were memories of the death of Sir John Franklin in 1847, while searching for the Northwest Passage. Franklin's two ships of men died of exposure and starvation, but their fate was not fully discovered until 1859. For years it was believed some of the men might still be alive. So it was reversed in Livingston's case - the worst was feared for the missionary.

Enter an American publisher of vision - James Gordon Bennett Jr. The son of a Scottish immigrant who created America's first successful daily newspaper, the New York Herald, Gordon Bennett had a scandalous and colorful career in the U.S., and finally decided to go to Paris and create a European counterpart to his American paper. He built better than he knew. The New York Herald is no longer in existence, even after it absorbed it's rival the New York Tribune to become the Herald - Tribune (the New York paper died in 1966 after a major newspaper strike). The Paris Herald - Tribune still flourishes to this day.

Gordon-Bennett Jr. was full of good ideas. He promoted ballooning and aviation (a Gordon-Bennett prize was given to balloonists for many decades).

He loved scoops. In 1871 he decided that he should subsidize a reporter to try to locate the fate of Livingston. He found a useful American reporter in Henry Stanley. He summoned Stanley to Paris.

Stanley's real name was John Rowland. He was English born, but had immigrated to America as a poor boy, went into the south, worked on a plantation and was adopted by it's owner. He adopted that man's last name (Stanley). In the American Civil War he fought as a Confederate, but deserted, then joined the Federal Navy and saw the end of the war as a Union sailor. He drifted into reporting for the New York Herald, which was how he came to Gordon-Bennett's ken.

In choosing Stanley Gordon-Bennett made a brilliant decision. The reporter had brains and determination, and he pushed through with his expedition. Finally, in October 1871, Stanley found David Livingston and made his immortal greeting "Dr. Livingston, I presume?" He stayed with Livingston for a few weeks, and then returned to England.

Despite great proof that he had found the Doctor, many people did not choose to believe Stanley. Then proof from Africa came verifying it, unfortunately it came with news that Livingston had died (in 1873). Livingston's body was returned to England - his heart was carefully removed and buried in Africa.

Now considered a "blooded" African traveler and writer, Stanley decided to enter the field of exploration. He returned several times to Africa, and would finally settle the issues of Lake Victoria (see THE MOUNTAINS OF THE MOON review), and Lake Tanganyika. His four treks through the African continent made Stanley the greatest of the African explorers.

But explorers, especially newspapermen, need to make a living. Enter King Leopold II of Belgium. One of the smartest monarchs of his day, Leopold managed to connive himself into the position of being owner (not monarch, but owner) of the territories that would be called the CONGO (a larger area than the nation of the Congo today). Leopold wanted the natives to be "pacified" before exploiting them as a work force to milk resources in the territories. Stanley was all too willing to be such. He earned his income - a large income. The natives were beaten, tortured, killed by Stanley and his forces of mercenaries. The Congo was organized into a mock-political colony, but in reality it was a slave labor camp that made Leopold one of the richest men in the world. It's capital would be called Leopoldville, and it's second city (with becoming grace) Stanleyville. Few in the 19th Century noticed what was happening. One was the Italian African Explorer Brazza, who tried to stop some of the atrocities and bring them to world attention. He did not succeed in the latter (Leopold was a master at killing bad news items), but a town was built in the Congo named for him - Brazzaville.

Stanley remained a British national hero until his death in 1904. That year Leopold found that the bad news finally came out - two British diplomats in the Congo, Edward Morell and Roger Casement, published documents and photographs of the atrocities. Leopold was forced to give up the personal ownership of the territories (which became the Belgium Congo). Eventually the colony was broken up into several independent countries (after long, bloody civil wars). Their current governments are not the greatest examples of democracy. But there is a universal dislike in their citizens towards the memories of Leopold and his tool. Leopoldville and Stanleyville are no longer named for them. However Brazzaville retains it's name to this day.

Spencer Tracy performance as the explorer is a good one, as is Cedric Hardwicke's as the missionary. Henry Hull is a good Gordon-Bennett (though not as colorful a newspaper editor as his great turn in JESSE JAMES and THE RETURN OF FRANK JAMES). But the film is trying to tell the story on a high tone level. It properly shows the great man Livingston was, but it makes the self-centered Stanley look like he's convinced into bringing Livingston's Christian message to Africa. The real Stanley would have given lip-service to Livingston's ideals, and then pocketed his blood money from Leopold.

Stanley and Livingstone is an elaborate 1939 American adventure film directed by Henry King and Otto Brower. It is loosely based on the true story of determinated Welsh reporter Sir Henry M. Stanley's (Spencer Tracy) quest to find Dr. David Livingstone (Sir Cedric Hardwicke) , a Scottish missionary presumed lost in Africa, who finally met on November 10, 1871. This is the entertaining , attractive and legendary true-story of detailing the obsessive search for find a missionary by a savage land American . As journalist Tracy sets out into darkest Africa to locate a long lost British explorer . As Stanley carries out a tumultuous expedition that gains new life in this handsomely produced account . All the world no show like this! He succeeded in the maddest quest in History...because one girl believed in him! A woman he never could have . Inspired him to complete the greatest adventure the world has ever kown ! "Find Livingstone" The command that sent Stanley on the most stirring adventure ever known! The most heroic exploit the world has known !. Into the perilous wilderness of unknown Africa...one white man ventured to seek another! Heat...fever...cannibals...jungle...nothing could stop him!

This is a spectacular film set at turn of century with beautifully understated interpretations , containing adventure , action , romance , thrills and historical events .The classic Hollywood kistch version of the Victorian legend-based-on-fact . Being a lavish and dramatically solid fictionalized history . The interesting story of two strangers who made good friends and being competently performed . Spencer Tracy plays Stanley , while Cedric Hardwicke portrays Livingstone. Other cast members include Nancy Kelly, Richard Greene, Walter Brennan, Charles Coburn , Henry Travers and Henry Hull. Special mention for starring Spencer Tracy who's magnificent , as usual and low-key . The motion picture was competently directed by Henry Koster .

The film is based on actual events from these two great explorers : Stanley travelled to Zanzibar in March 1871, later claiming that he outfitted an expedition with 192 porters and many of his porters deserted, and the rest were decimated by tropical diseases. Stanley found David Livingstone on 10 November 1871 in Ujiji, near Lake Tanganyika in present-day Tanzania. He later claimed to have greeted him with the now-famous line, "Dr. Livingstone, I presume?" However, this line does not appear in his journal from the time-the two pages directly following the recording of his initial spotting of Livingstone were torn out of the journal at some point-and it is likely that Stanley simply embellished the pithy line sometime afterwards. Neither man mentioned it in any of the letters they wrote at this time, and Livingstone tended to instead recount the reaction of his servant, Susi, who cried out: "An Englishman coming! I see him! . Stanley joined Livingstone in exploring the region, finding that there was no connection between Lake Tanganyika and the Nile. On his return, he wrote a book about his experiences . In 1874, the New York Herald and the Daily Telegraph financed Stanley on another expedition to Africa. His ambitious objective was to complete the exploration and mapping of the Central African Great Lakes and rivers, in the process circumnavigating Lakes Victoria and Tanganyika and locating the source of the Nile. Between 1875 and 1876 Stanley succeeded in the first part of his objective, establishing that Lake Victoria had only a single outlet - the one discovered by John Hanning Speke on 21 July 1862 and named Ripon Falls. If this was not the Nile's source, then the separate massive northward flowing river called by Livingstone, the Lualaba, and mapped by him in its upper reaches, might flow on north to connect with the Nile via Lake Albert and thus be the primary source. Between November 1876 and August 1877, Stanley and his men navigated the Lualaba up to and beyond the point where it turned sharply westward, away from the Nile, identifying itself as the Congo River. Stanley and his men reached the Portuguese outpost of Boma, around 100 kilometres from the mouth of the Congo River on the Atlantic Ocean, after 999 days on 9 August 1877. Stanley's diary show that he started with 228 people and reached Boma with 114 survivors, with he being the only European left alive out of four. Stanley was approached by King Leopold II of the Belgians, the monarch who had already established the International African Association (a front organization for the later International Association of the Congo) at the Brussels Geographic Conference of 1876. Stanley first hoped to continue his pioneering work in Africa under the British flag. But neither the Foreign Office nor Edward, the Prince of Wales, felt called to receive Stanley after the many rumors of his looting and killing in the interior of the African continent. Leopold II eagerly received a disenchanted Stanley at his palace in June 1878, and signed a contract with him.