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DVD King Solomon's Mines
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
The 1950 version of "King Solomon's Mines" deserves a full 5 stars if only for one reason--it is one of the few movies even to this day which is set in Africa, filmed in Africa, and features actual Africans portraying Africans. In particular, the dance scene near the end almost has the quality of an ethnographic film, and is worth watching in itself because the lead dancer is one of the finest you will ever see.
While it is true that this movie is barely the same story as the H. Rider Haggard novel, that can only be a good thing, as the book is racist and unbelievably sexist even by 19th century standards. The plot is indeed full of adventure, but there were several points where the descriptions of game hunting (without even taking the trophies! for literally no reason!) made me nauseous. By all means, read it and get a taste of 19th century British attitudes toward their colonies. It ain't pretty, by today's standards.
Whether you love or hate the plot of the movie, this film is, in its way, a little piece of history. It's true the African actors aren't the main stars of the movie (though some of them are so charismatic they steal their scenes). But lest we forget, in 1932, only 18 years before, Edward G. Robinson and Loretta Young, and Boris Karloff and Myrna Loy all played Chinese people (in "The Hatchet Man" and "The Mask of Fu Manchu" respectively) because God forbid Hollywood would actually cast Chinese actors. It would be a long time before an African or African-American actor would be considered a big enough star to draw mainly white audiences, but "KSM" was a step in the right direction and it's a lot more engrossing movie because of it.
DVD King Solomon's Mines
Excellent quality. Enjoyed this oldie very much. Prompt delivery. No problems what so ever.
A classic with a great cast
I was always a big fan of Stewart Granger and Deborah Kerr. The African scenery combined with a classic tale. You don't fall asleep on this flick.
Among the most exciting of MGM swashbucklers, Richard Thorpe's 1952 Ivanhoe stars Robert Taylor as the medieval hero of Sir Walter Scott's novel. Returning to England from the Third Crusades, Ivanhoe is steadfast in his determination to raise the ransom for the captured King Richard (Norman Wooland), but the effort is full of peril. First is Ivanhoe's reunion with his estranged father (Finlay Currie), a Saxon who hates the Norman king and refuses to give his son the money. Then there's Ivanhoe's unpopular rescue of a wealthy Jew, Isaac (Felix Aylmer), from anti-Semites, and the subsequent decision by Isaac's beautiful daughter, Rebecca (Elizabeth Taylor), to pay Ivanhoe's entry fee in a tournament. (The strapped knight seeks the tourney's cash prize.) Wait, it gets worse: two of... More Info about this DVD Actor(s): Robert Taylor - Elizabeth Taylor - Joan Fontaine Director(s): Richard Thorpe DVD Release Date: Released the 11 January 2005 Usually ships in 24 hours
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This big, boisterous adventure is more inspired by than based on Rudyard Kipling's famous poem. Legendary screenwriters Ben Hecht and Charles MacArthur have fashioned a rousing Hollywood movie full of high adventure, knockabout comedy, and old-fashioned male bonding. And old-fashioned it is: the trio of British officers and best friends who form the core of the film are a 19th-century three musketeers in India, threatened by the interventions of a woman who means to marry the dashing Ballantine (Douglas Fairbanks Jr.). Blustery commander MacChesney (Victor McLaglen) schemes to keep Ballantine in the army while his second in command, the treasure-hunting Cutter (Cary Grant in a hopelessly mugging comic performance), continues searching for his elusive mother lode, but all their plans are... More Info about this DVD Actor(s): Cary Grant - Joan Fontaine Director(s): George Stevens DVD Release Date: Released the 07 December 2004 Usually ships in 24 hours
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This silky smooth film noir pits gruff police detective Dana Andrews, stiff and blunt in his street-bred manners, against a cultured columnist and acidic wit (Clifton Webb at his prissiest) in a battle of wits during a murder investigation. The cop is a romantic hiding under a hard-boiled exterior who falls in love with the beautiful victim through the portrait that hangs in her apartment. Gene Tierney, whose heart-shaped face mixes the exotic with the girl next door, brings the poise and calm of a model to her role as the object of every man's gaze and the target of a killer. Laura, handsomely shot in dreamy black and white, is the first and best of Otto Preminger's cool, controlled murder mysteries. In the gritty world of film noir it remains the most refined and elegant example... More Info about this DVD Actor(s): Gene Tierney - Dana Andrews Director(s): Rouben Mamoulian - Otto Preminger DVD Release Date: Released the 15 March 2005 Usually ships in 24 hours
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The poster (B. Graham etc.) who keeps asserting that this film was filmed in fullscreen ratio is all wet. I saw the original release and it was definitely widescreen. (Maybe not Cinemascope, but it impressed me by its size and color at the time.) And, no, it was not fullscreen cropped or matted to appear wide.
Paramount is out of its mind to do this supercolorful film in full screen only. (As the studios are for only issuing Sharky's Machine, Fearless, The Great Santini in fullscreen. But doing it to The Naked Jungle is the worst because of the gorgeous cinematography.) More Info about this DVD Actor(s): Eleanor Parker - Charlton Heston Director(s): Byron Haskin DVD Release Date: Released the 09 November 2004 Usually ships in 24 hours
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Nineteen thirty-nine is often proposed as the movies' halcyon year, and three reasons why were directed by John Ford: Stagecoach, Young Mr. Lincoln, and Drums Along the Mohawk. In that exalted company Drums... would have to be accounted "merely superb"--even if it's the best film ever made about the American Revolution and, oh, only about eighth-best picture of its year.
Henry Fonda and Claudette Colbert play newlyweds in New York's Mohawk Valley at the time of the Revolutionary War. That war is more a distant rumor than a direct concern of people with cabins to raise, crops to harvest, and firstborn on the way. When it comes to their valley, in the form of hitherto-peaceable Indians whipped up by a gaunt Tory with an eyepatch (John Carradine), life changes... More Info about this DVD Actor(s): Claudette Colbert - Henry Fonda - Edna May Oliver Director(s): John Ford DVD Release Date: Released the 24 May 2005 Usually ships in 24 hours
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