Mogambo

Victor Marswell traps animals in East Africa and sells them to zoos. An unexpected guest arrives at his camp: Eloise, an American, and the man she came for is not there. Shortly afterwards another couple arrives; Donald, an anthropologist, and his wife Linda, going on safari to study gorillas. Victor takes up first with Eloise and then with Linda, and the party heads inland together. John Ford directs. Clark Gable plays Victor, Ava Gardner plays Eloise and Grace Kelly plays Linda. It is a remake of Red Dust of 1932, in which Clark Gable played the same part twenty one years earlier. It was shot on location in Africa, working in Kenya, Uganda, Tanganyika and the Congo. Most of the animal footage is real and studio sets were almost entirely avoided. Its problem from here is the point of view. The African characters exist as porters and guides, their speech is not translated, and the narrative never questions the colonial order. Ava Gardner and Grace Kelly were both nominated for Oscars, and Kelly also won a Golden Globe. Ford made this in mid career as a studio assignment and it does not count among his own body of work. Who it is for: viewers who like classical Hollywood adventure romance and the stars of the period. Who it is not for: the colonial view is open, the triangle is conventional, and the conditions in which the animal scenes were shot cannot be defended now.