King Solomon's Mines

Allan Quatermain works as a hunting guide in Africa. He is tired of the work and thinking of going home. Elizabeth Curtis finds him with a proposal: her husband went looking for the mines of Solomon and was never heard from again. She wants to find him and will pay. Quatermain accepts. They set out with her, her brother and local guides. The journey takes months; there is desert, river, illness and hostile groups. A tall guide joins them on the way and the man has business of his own. Compton Bennett and Andrew Marton direct. Deborah Kerr, Stewart Granger and Richard Carlson are in the cast. The source is H. Rider Haggard's novel. It was shot in real locations in Africa; the crew worked for months in the Congo, Kenya, Tanganyika and Uganda. It won Oscars for cinematography and editing. The nature footage gathered on the shoot was reused by the studio in other films for years. Its strongest side is the landscape and the scenes of animal herds; these were not produced in a studio. The matter it treats is the search for treasure; the narrative keeps that in an adventure shape and does not go deeper. Its limit is viewpoint; Africa and its peoples are shown through the colonial gaze of the period and it is uncomfortable today. Who it is for: viewers who like classic adventure and productions shot on location. Who it is not for: the representation is a problem, the plot simple, and the romance weak.