23 January 2018, 11:02
cal pappasFor any of you that are interested, here is an article I published in the African Hunter:
(For some reason the copy below didn't space the paragraphs nor indent. I hope it's not too difficult to read as it is).
King Solomon’s Mines
The story of a great African film
by Cal Pappas
Written in 1885 by Sir H. Rider Haggard, King Solomon’s Mines had three takes in Hollywood--the first was in 1937 with Cedric Hardwicke and Paul Robeson. The second starred Stewart Granger and Deborah Kerr in 1950. Number three was in 1985 and featured Richard Chamberlain and Sharon Stone. I doubt anyone will disagree with the statement that Granger’s film was the best of the three and (arguably) the best film on the African safari to come out of Tinsel Town--others being The Macomber Affair, The Snows of Kilimanjaro, Mogambo, Out of Africa, and a few more. Great films all, but the subject of this article is at the top of the list in my opinion. While the film has been spoken of as a great African film, there are many errors in the film that the curious eye can easily pick up. When the African elephant is shot it is an Indian elephant with (very) false ears that charges. Also, crocs don’t stay still when stepped on. Many times when Granger is pointing out animals or geographical features the camera will show jungle, next is desert, the next will be the plains of East Africa. In Stewart Granger’s autobiography, Sparks Fly Upward, he tells the interesting story of the film’s production.
Granger was a bit nervous when he flew to Hollywood to begin the film for two reasons. First, Sam Zimbalist (the producer) hired Granger without meeting him in person and there was some (unfounded) fear the working relationship may not be an easy one. Secondly, Deborah Kerr and Granger had a torrid affair some time prior and Granger was concerned not only about their past relationship but of Kerr’s current husband, Tony Bartlett, whom Granger introduced to Kerr. All worries were set aside when all got along great from the start.
While in Hollywood John Huston (the director of The Maltese Falcon--with Bogart, Lorre, Greenstreet, and Astor) asked Granger to try out for the lead role in Quo Vadis which would begin shooting when KSM was completed. He read the script and a young Liz Taylor was present. The part was eventually given to Robert Taylor (who starred with Deborah Kerr.)
On to London where Granger received typhoid, paratyphoid, tetanus, cholera, smallpox, and yellow fever shots. Granger held back no words when he spoke
his disapproval of the director, Compton Bennett. And, Bennett greeted Granger in London with, “I have to tell you right now that I wanted Errol Flynn in the part.” Also in London he went to visit Westley Richards and spoke to Malcolm Lyell--”a charming fellow.” Lyell fitted Granger with a pair of Holland and Holland rifles--a . 240 and a .375 and a Westley .577 double. Stewart was to do a bit of sport shooting whilst on location.
From the UK, Granger and crew took a flying boat to Africa. The trip took three days, via Naples and Khartoum, before landing in Kenya’s Lake Niavasha. He noted the animals he saw as well as the people--both Africans and Europeans. The first shooting of film was in the town of Machakos, a driving distance from Nairobi. It was here that Granger was introduced to the famous Philip Percival, the “Dean of White Hunters,” who had hunted with Ernest Hemingway. Percival suggested Granger improve his hunting outfit to look more the part of the traditional White Hunter. Granger added the famous leopard skin hat band, sewed cartridge loops to his shirt, and carried a revolver. Alan Tarleton, who supplied the snakes used in the film, loaned him a Colt .45 Frontier. He also noted gravestones with the inscription, “Killed by Buffalo,” in Nairobi.
Over 60 years ago (1949) Stewart Granger noted some facts about Africa’s black population that would be politically incorrect today. He states European slavers did not capture slaves themselves, but rather bought slaves from coastal tribes who went inland on slave raids. He also writes authoritatively on how the media reported on European exploitation of Africa while he observed the planters and farmers taking good care of the workers.
The Norfolk Hotel was left behind for the Northern Frontier District with Safariland, one of the most famous outfitters in Kenya. In Rumaruti Kerr Hartley supplied a tame rhino, a young one, for the rhino scene. Granger suggested he and his White Hunter actually hunt a rhino and capture the kill (and hopefully a charge) on film. The famous John Hunter was in camp with Hartley and agreed to be the white hunter. All three liked the idea but Hollywood nixed it as he was too valuable--the picture would be terminated if Granger was killed or injured. How did Hollywood know the the rhino idea? The director wired the information--the director who did not get along well with Granger--Bennett!
Next, to Mt. Meru where the Masai and Kikuyu were hired to play supporting parts. At Machakos two Masai had killed two Kikuyu and the tribes were ill at ease with each other. The last days of filming were in the foothills of Mt. Kenya staying a stately house built by a wealthy French lady. Later, the actor William Holden bought the house and turned it into the Mount Kenya Safari Club. At Mt. Kenya Philip Percival introduced Granger to Eric Rungren, a very well-known White Hunter. Rungren had just been chewed up by a leopard and was on the mend. Eric asked Granger if he would like to come on a buffalo control operation. A rogue buffalo was the terror of local villages and Granger swore everyone to secrecy as the hunt would have been also terminated by the director. Granger
used a double trigger .470 and he was uncomfortable with it as his .577 was equipped with Westley’s famous single trigger. Granger recalls:
“Then it stood up and I saw it. It was only about seventy yards away and, shaking with excitement, I tried to line up on its shoulder as it took off. There was a shattering roar in the stillness and the buff flinched as I heard the thunk of the striking bullet. Then, before I could get in another shot, it disappeared into the thick thorn...Whispering to Eric...I realized that the buff had come ‘round in a circle and was now heading straight for me. Eric yelled to me to shoot and as the gun came up to my shoulder...I fired and the bullet hit the buff high up in the head, dazing it a bit. Frantically I squeezed the trigger but in my excitement I’d squeezed the same one and of course nothing happened. I think the buff was as confused as I was, as it hit me in the ribs with the side of its horn, throwing me into the thorn bush and I could feel the blast of Eric’s gun as he let off with both barrels. But that didn’t stop the buff either. He trampled over Eric and started to turn. I finally squeezed off my second shot and reloading, put two more into its shoulder, but it still wouldn’t go down...Eric...(shot)...upward from a lying position...and that finally dropped it.”
There is a scene in the film where Granger and Alan Tarleton’s cobra have a go of it. Granger wanted Tarleton to milk the snake of its venom but, Tarleton said, if done the cobra would not flare its hood. So, the snake’s mouth was taped shut to protect the film’s star. In the scene the tape came off and Granger was shaken a bit by being so close to a dangerous snake. “There is something else I didn’t tell you,” said Tarleton, “That’s a spitting cobra. He could have blinded you.”
At Murchison Falls on the Victoria Nile all the actors were given sleeping sickness shots. Granger came down ill with the shot and had a fever of 103 degrees. Kerr, showed no ill effects at all. Here, at the Falls, Deborah Kerr cuts her long hair to make it more manageable. Granger reminisces, “She looked as if she’d just come out of a hairdresser’s which, of course she had. It got a big laugh which was a pity as the rest of the film was so realistic.” After the Falls, the actors and crew flew to Kampala to recover in a hospital. Granger had a colonoscopy to check for amebic dysentery. “Don’t do that too often, or you might get to like it” was quipped to Granger as he was on the table.
The filming was completed with the Watussi tribe. The men were over 7 feet tall and built the palace by hand, with no nails, that is shown in the film. By now all water was filtered through a distillation plant to keep everyone healthy and MGM flew in turkey and plum pudding for the Christmas, 1949, dinner.
The next year King Solomon’s Mines was released and was very popular. It was an important part in the post war African films. This was a time when African big game hunting was a respected adventure and many magazines, including Playboy, printed articles of the hunt. Hundred-pound elephants were attainable
on a 30-day safari but these were times when only the well-to-do hunted Africa. It was to be decades before the average working man would begin to populate Africa’s game fields.
In 1967 Stewart Granger starred in a second film in Africa. The Last Safari plots Granger seeking to shoot a huge elephant what killed his friend. Granger’s role is outstanding. The two costars, Kaz Garas and Gabriella Licudi, should get an award for the worst acting in history. In his later years, Granger retired to his southern Arizona ranch, near Patagonia, about 30 miles from the author’s winter residence.
23 January 2018, 16:06
Charles_Helmquote:
Originally posted by analog_peninsula:
I could never get into the movie; after the book, it was just too cheesy. The book left me with an intense desire to shoot a giraffe with an 8-bore rifle. I've not yet done so, but there's still time ...
I have read some of H. Rider Haggard's works but just picked up an omnibus collection of most of the novels. I will see if reading that sours me on the film.
It has been a long time since I saw the first film treatment of the story. May have to look that one up again.
jc
