King Solomon's Mines
by Andrew Marton, Compton Bennett
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DVD details
Actor: Deborah Kerr, Hugo Haas, Lowell Gilmore, Richard Carlson, Stewart GrangerDirector: Andrew Marton, Compton Bennett
Brand: GRANGER,STEWART
DVD: Region Code 1
Audio: English (Original Language), Dolby Digital 1.0; English (Subtitled); Spanish (Subtitled); French (Subtitled); French (Dubbed), Dolby Digital 1.0
Format: Closed-captioned, Color, Dubbed, DVD, Full Screen, NTSC, Subtitled
Picture Format: 1.33:1
Running Time: 103 minutes
DVD Release Date: 2005-01-11
Audience Rating: NR (Not Rated)
Studio: Warner Home Video
Product features:
- Before there was an Indiana Jones, there was Allan Quartermain, the stalwart hero of H. Rider Haggard'sic 1885 novel that's been filmed four times. Stewart Granger portrays Quartermain in this 1950 adaptation that was nominated for the Best Picture Academy Award* and won Oscars* for Color Cinematography and Film Editing. Deborah Kerr plays the prim Englishwoman who hires Quartermain to lead the hu
DVD Reviews of King Solomon's Mines
DVD Review: splashy Technicolor remake of the adventure classic
Summary: 3 Stars
Screenwriter Helen Deutsch almost threw the baby out with the bath-water when she crafted her script for KING SOLOMON'S MINES (1950), based on the beloved adventure novel from Sir Henry Rider Haggard. It bares little in common with the source material. For all intents and purposes, it was instead solely intended as a splashy Technicolor remake of the earlier 1937 movie version, but this time with the added novelty of having been filmed mostly on authentic locations in Africa. It starred British heart-throb Stewart Granger in his American debut. MGM injected over $3 million into the production's budget, and most of the rewards reaped from that effort can be seen on the screen. It's beautifully shot.
Elizabeth Curtis (Deborah Kerr) travels to Africa with her brother (Richard Carlson), in search of her estranged husband who went missing on a quest to find the mythical uncut diamond mines of King Solomon. Mrs Curtis enlists the help of renowned adventurer Allan Quatermain (Stewart Granger). He refuses to assist in what he believes is a foolhardy and downright suicidal mission, yet the appeal of uncut diamonds--and the lovely Mrs Curtis no doubt--soon change his tune.
Their trek will take them deep into the heart of darkest Africa, fraught with many dangers including cannibalistic natives, disease, and untold legions of wild animals. When at last they reach the mines, though, will they also find Curtis?...
Here in his American movie debut, Stewart Granger delivers a most handsome performance as Quatermain, matched every step of the way by Ms Deborah Kerr's fearless turn as Elizabeth. They'd later be reunited as Rudolf and Princess Flavia in MGM's 1952 Technicolor remake of "The Prisoner of Zenda"; Richard Chamberlain and Sharon Stone attempted to revive the Quatermain franchise with two largely unsuccessful movies in the 1980's ("King Solomon's Mines" and "Allan Quatermain and the Lost City of Gold").
DVD Review: Cinematic Safari
Summary: 3 Stars
This classic movie appeared when I was about ten, and I can remember laughing at some of the more unlikely moments in the film. Now that I'm a geezerly age I feel rather nostalgic about it. I have a friend who told me he gets together annually with a buddy to view King Solomon's Mines yet again. There is much stock studio footage of central Africa used here, and it shows peoples and traditional dancing that I suspect is no longer present on today's African continent. The storyline is just barely plausible, but compelling enough to have been filmed at least three times: first in the '30s, then this version circa 1950, and most recently in the '70s. Maybe it's not the acting or the story, but all that wonderful African scenery that captivates me. One disadvantage for me now is that all the actors are dead...Deborah Kerr just recently...and I wonder what the hell has happened and where did my life go.DVD Review: Living White Man Superiority
Summary: 3 Stars
A 1950-year movie (first in the line of the followed?) is a perfect example of how viewers' taste shifted from the middle of the last century, even not since 1897 the story is of.
Splashing money inherited on finding her husband lost in his search for "terra nullius" treasures, a brave young London female went Africa to save a spouse.
However, this place is not Piccadilly and different values required to survive.
A really nice folklore, interesting depicting of wild animals and landscapes exotic for non- Africans could hardly much entertain contemporary kids used to Hi-Tech effects as sex-hints combined with white man superiority arrogant on modern merits, annoy a maturer viewer.
Three star rating is for then technical advances of an ancient movie.
DVD Review: "A woman? A woman on safari?! No thank you!!" Allan Quatermain is about to learn a thing or two
Summary: 4 Stars
Henry Curtis, an Englishman who arrived in Africa to search for the legendary King Solomon's mines, has not been heard from in two years. Now, in 1897, his wife, Elizabeth Curtis (Deborah Kerr), has arrived with her brother, John Goode (Richard Carlson), to find him. She will spare no expense, undertake any danger, to rescue her husband. Allan Quatermain (Stewart Granger), rugged, resourceful, decent and experienced, is just the big game hunter and old Africa hand she needs. It will take money, deposited up front, to overcome this widower's reluctance (he has a young son in England to provide for) to go on a dangerous wild goose chase. If her husband hasn't been heard of in two years, Quatermain tells Mrs. Curtis, he is undoubtedly dead. He also has doubts about her motives. They dislike each other on sight...but off into darkest Africa they go in one of Hollywood's grand adventure romances.
The adventure part, for modern audiences, may seem a bit old fashioned. The trio encounter stampeding zebras, strange tribes, spiders the size of saucers, slimy centipedes, army ants, lions, crocodiles...and, as Quatermain points out to Elizabeth Curtis and her brother, in Africa human beings are just meat like every other animal. Still, the on-location color photography is nicely done. It might have been unusual in 1950 but it still holds up well nearly sixty years later. The whole concept of Africa at the turn of the century as a place of Victorian imagination and danger is hard not to enjoy. Africa was a place of lost cities, lost Roman legions, lost fabulous treasures, and even an ancient, forever-young queen who ruled without mercy -- a kind of `she-who-must-really-be-obeyed' She, as Horace Rumpole might say.
The romance part is handled with a great deal of charm. Elizabeth Curtis and Allan Quatermain find a good deal to bicker over, and bicker they do. Granger handles the he-man stuff with aplomb, and just as easily handles the back-and-forth with Kerr. It is Kerr, however, who brings delight to the movie. She's stuck with the requisite fainting and the turning away from death, but Kerr makes Elizabeth Curtis a woman with spine and character. Kerr shows us with subtlety how Curtis is beginning to learn from and enjoy her adventures, as frightening as they might seem at times. Her gradual appreciation of Quatermain is low key and endearing. Soon after King Solomon's Mines, MGM turned Deborah Kerr into a classic MGM-style lady. What a loss, although her skill and talent as an actress still shown through. For me, I'll remember Deborah Kerr best as Bridie Quilty in I See a Dark Stranger, Sister Clodagh in Black Narcissus and, much later, as Miss Giddens in The Innocents.
For poignancy, see if you can spot Hugo Haas. He plays a seedy, dirty renegade in an isolated African village. It's not much of a part but he handles it well. Haas in the Thirties was a popular and celebrated star in Czechoslovakia. He acted, wrote, directed and produced. He was his own man. When the Nazis took over he had to flee and went to America. There, he was an unknown with no celebrity. He had to start over, not an auspicious thing for a portly, round-faced actor with a sharp nose. His name meant nothing. He made something of a reputation as a character actor in usually not-so-good movies. Haas used his money in the Fifties to start making his own movies, starring, writing and directing, just like the creative force he had been in Czechoslovakia. The movies, however, were just cheap quickies, reeking of lurid storylines. He died in 1968, his reputation in tatters, homesick and depressed. Just for nostalgia, go to Youtube and type in Hugo Haas and look for the clips from his 1935 movie At Zije Neboztik. You'll find one with Haas in evening dress at the bar of a posh club. He sings/acts that great song "Me To Tady Nebavi." (No, I don't know what it means.) Hugo Haas could be very good.
DVD Review: What a GREAT movie!
Summary: 5 Stars
At age 52, I have just watched King Solomon's Mines for the first time; Wow!, what a great movie-I loved it. I can't believe I had never seen it before. It is now one of my favorites; it's definitely worth watching (again & again).
Description of King Solomon's Mines
A trio of adventurers including Allan Quatermain set off through the dark jungles of Africa in search of the legendary treasure trove of the diamond mines of King Solomon and become involved in a bloody civil war within a lost African tribe.Genre: Feature Film-Action/Adventure
Rating: NR
Release Date: 11-JAN-2005
Media Type: DVD
Adventure yarns don't come more ripping than King Solomon's Mines, the classic Great White Hunter tale. Novelist H. Rider Haggard's hero, Allan Quatermain (Stewart Granger), reluctantly agrees to lead an Englishwoman (Deborah Kerr) and her brother (Richard Carlson) deep into uncharted territory in Africa, in search of the lady's lost husband. What follows is a cavalcade of boys' adventure stuff: charging rhinos, cannibals, an incredible wildlife stampede, and the back-of-the-neck-tingly thrill of venturing into unmapped lands. The location shooting, including tribal rituals, is marvelous throughout, and the movie manages to pack a great deal of material into 102 minutes without ever seeming rushed. A remake of a 1937 film, King Solomon's Mines was itself remade badly, with Richard Chamberlain, in 1985, and Quatermain was essayed by Sean Connery in League of Extraordinary Gentlemen, but purists will prefer Stewart Granger's stalwart-yet-sardonic hero--his career never quite got over the role. --Robert Horton
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