Las minas del rey Salomón

The wonderful book by H. Rider Haggard "King Salomon's Mines" was beautifully adapted for the screen by Helen Deutsch. The film entirely shot in Africa has a lot going for it in Robert Surtees excellent cinematography. This is a film that is good for viewing by all ages, but young minds will probably will find it more to their taste because of the long trek the three principals take into the unknown.

This film boasts two directors, Compton Bennett and Andrew Marton! The film is set in Africa. At the beginning of the film we watch Allan Quattermain who is guiding a group in a safari and a herd of elephants come near and one is killed. We watch in horror as the others rally around the dead animal in an almost human display of emotions.

Quartermain is contacted by Elizabeth Curtis, a woman that wants to locate her husband who has come to the region in search of the legendary diamond mines of King Solomon's. He is reluctant, but since she meets his price, the excursion is organized. What Mrs. Curtis, or Quartermain, or even the third member of the mission, Jack Goode, don't realize at the outset of the trip is what they are in for! The trek turns into one of the most extraordinary adventures ever filmed. Some of the scenes involving wild animals are incredible. In fact, some of the things this party has to deal with are amazing. Especially impressive is the stampede sequence when one watch in horror how all these wild animals are running amok.

Stewart Granger is Quartermain, the jaded Englishman living in that remote spot. He loves it there and would never go back to his country. Mr. Granger was perfect for this type of film in which he clearly excelled. Deborah Kerr plays the English lady in search for her husband. She sticks out like a sore thumb, but in the end, she proves to have a strength we didn't give her credit for. Ms. Kerr was always a good in whatever she undertook. Richard Carlson makes a good contribution to the film.

The different natives shown in their own habitat add veracity to the movie. The tall Watusi tribe is the most exotic one we have seen in any films of this type.

The film follows an excellent hunter (Granger) who is payed to go on a safari to find the lost husband of Deborah Kerr and Richard Carlson. He reluctantly agrees. Along the way they run into different perils. Including many tribes that want the group dead.

The film is very exciting. And you feel for the characters when they come into contact with danger. I wish more action films could make you do that. The performances are the reason behind this. It's too bad that the actors and actresses in the film weren't nominated for Oscars. I doubt they deserved to win, but they deserved to be up.

The script is also very good. It strays away from the book just a little bit. But I have no problem with that because the film, by itself, is very good.

The cinematography and editing are flawless. And they rightly won Oscars. The film was also nominated for Best Picture. It's one of the better adventure films.

H. Ryder Haggard's adventure tale has been transposed to the screen with professional polish, given authentic African locales for all the background color, and uses no music on the soundtrack except for the chants of African tribes. As such, it's a stunning film to look at in gorgeous Technicolor and nicely played by STEWART GRANGER as the burnt by the sun Safari guide and DEBORAH KERR in another of her prim leading lady roles.

Kerr is actually seeking the best of guides so she can hunt for her husband, so she takes along her good friend RICHARD CARLSON. Naturally, a romantic attachment to Granger gradually develops once Kerr starts to melt under the African sun.

All of the scenes involving actual native tribes are beautifully staged and handled with a sense of excitement and adventure, as are the scenes of wild animals. But it's basically a showcase for MGM's new property, Miss Kerr, and their new leading man, Mr. Granger.

It kept fans happy when it opened at New York's Radio City Music Hall in the summer of '50, but today it's largely forgotten among the many gems that came out that year. It did win a couple of Oscars, one for the beautiful color cinematography.

The screenplay follows the British version by Robert Stevenson but the screenwriter Helen Deutsch changed the plot, as introducing a female character, the brotherhood relationship for matrimonial relation and eliminating the fantastic elements. Two English actors starred, Stewart Granger as the famous Allan Quatermain and Deborah Kerr as Elizabeth Curtis, hiring the great white hunter and accompanied by her brother John performed by Richard Carlson. At the time was announced as starring Errol Flynn , though he renounced for performing 'Kim' by Victor Saville. The safari led by Stewart Granger set out in search for her husband and the king Salomon's treasure mines. The brave hunter and the elegant lady become fast friends, confronting risks and danger in search of legendary diamonds mines.The African native is played by a real Watusi ethnic, Sinaque, reclaiming his rights over throne.In 1937 version was the supreme role performed by the singer Paul Robeson who proved his singing faculties.

The filming started in Africa 1949, running time five months. The crew travelled by hundred miles in planes and trucks across Kenia, Uganda, Congo Belgian, Lagoon Victory, Falls of Murchisin and north of lagoon Tanganika where live the Watusi. Polished and coloristic production design by the veteran Cedric Gibbons. Heat and ills affected the crew and main actors but Deborah Kerr surprised for her resistance. There had confronting between Stewart Granger and Compton Bennett and Andrew Marton directed the second unity. Then, Metro Goldwyn Mayer dismissed Compton and Marton finished the picture. It was nominated for best movie and won Academy Award for cinematography by Robert Surtees and edition. Had several take-out with no use and later Metro Goldwyn Mayer utilized for its follow-up.

The picture is followed by a sequel, rapidly made, created with excess footage previous, titled 'Watusi'(1959) by Kurt Neumann with George Montgomery and David Farrar. An inferior version directed by J.Lee Thompson(1985) with Richard Chamberlain and Sharon Stone; and a TV adaptation directed by Steven Boyum with Patrick Swayze and Alison Doody, among others.

This 1950's version of King Solomon's Mines is unusual in a couple ways. First, there's no symphonic music score whatsoever. Film music is typically used to tell us what we as the audience should feel about activity on screen, and also tell us what the characters themselves are supposedly feeling. In this way both audience and characters share the same emotional reactions. Music on film is such a common and natural expectation (or substitute?) for an audience's emotions, that some reviewers here think the movie was bland and boring!

Secondly, the MGM crew of about 30 people and 7 cargo trucks spent months in 1949 filming this on the Dark Continent itself, at locations hundreds of miles from civilization in eastern Africa instead of the usual Hollywood lots. They enlisted the inhabitants of remote villages as actors, asked them to perform communal dances, and took many close-up shots of their faces, hair, headgear, jewelry and body paint. This amounts to some of the most magnificent - and rare - color and sound footage of "old" untouched African culture I've seen.

Not long after this, during the 1950's-1960's these villages gradually became part of the modern world, and by the 1980's, remote tribesmen were filmed as they hunted with spears - wearing "Michael Jackson" t- shirts.

The movie is generally pretty good, but the Africans steal the show.