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DVD Elephant Walk
It's never been as revered as The African Queen, but Elephant Walk is a similarly prestigious entry in the exotic adventure movie trend of the 1950s. This is one of those glossy Technicolor melodramas that inevitably climaxed in a scene of tragic destruction, typically intended to teach men a humbling lesson about the forces of nature. In this case, a seemingly delicate newlywed (Elizabeth Taylor) joins her husband (Peter Finch) on his tea plantation in Ceylon, only to uncover mysteries about the plantation and her husband's long-dead father, whose ghostly presence looms over the stately estate where elephants once roamed freely. Dana Andrews is the plantation foreman who catches Liz's attention when Finch is injured during one of many drunken interludes with a band of snobby sycophants; she grows intolerant of them, and impatient with the enigmatic Appuhamy (Abraham Sofaer), a Ceylonese valet who knows more than he's telling. After the plantation endures an outbreak of cholera and a drought that sends thirsty elephants into an stampeding frenzy, Elephant Walk delivers a spectacular finale that's still quite impressive; the sight of Liz fleeing from a pack of rampaging pachyderms is enough to make this a worthwhile diversion. With its exotic settings and fashionable wardrobe, Taylor's fans should consider Elephant Walk a must-see, and everyone else will enjoy the fiery climax. It's this movie's version of the burning of Atlanta, which is fitting because Gone with the Wind star Vivien Leigh was replaced by Taylor shortly after filming began, and can still be glimpsed in a few long shots. --Jeff Shannon
Robert Standish's novel "Elephant Walk" is about a tea plantation owner's bride doing battle with the hold his dead father has over him and her new life. It was to have been shot on location in Ceylon starring the iconic Vivien Leigh. She, Peter Finch (as her husband), and Dana Andrews (as his foreman) were dispatched to what is now Sri Lanka. Shooting had begun when the bi-polar Leigh sadly suffered another episode and what was to be a prestige production shut down. But the footage in the can was too good to waste, forget the money already spent, and Paramount resumed the film in Hollywood as an adult vehicle for the lovely young Elizabeth Taylor.
The result, regrettably, is what you'll see on this new DVD.
Leigh can be seen in many long and medium shots. She, Finch and Andrews appear in actual exotic locations, and some of those scenes are intact, such as the tea harvesting, a show of costumed dancers, and masses of elephants stampeding about. These sun-lit locations are in stark contrast to the studio-lit settings into which they have been edited. We see Leigh arriving at a jungle mansion, strolling onto a veranda and sitting down to tea, a mountain landscape behind her, only to cut to Taylor on a set with that landscape seen on a screen. It is tantalizing to wonder what kind of classy melodrama this might have been had Leigh not suffered a breakdown.
It's also very easy to mourn that non-movie while watching this one. Taylor is beautiful in Edith Head gowns and lavish interiors, but she is not yet the actress of "A Place in the Sun" or "Virginia Woolf" (one scene, in which men ignore her after dinner, is repeated later in "Giant.") Taylor is only as responsive as her director, and she's had some fine ones. Finch (Leigh's lover then) and Andrews (too old opposite Taylor) try hard, but the script and leading lady were not in their league. "Elephant Walk," patched together as it is, is still an interesting curio, pretty to behold, and perhaps that's how it should be remembered. It certainly won't be otherwise.
Elephant Walk
It was a long time since I last saw this great movie and it was a pleasure to again watch it and bring back memories of how the old time actors out performed the current day performers.
Jungle Soap
For a good two-thirds of "Elephant Walk" the film is bogged down by uninteresting melodramatics, namely a love triangle involving the film's principal actors(Elizabeth Taylor, Peter Finch, Dana Andrews). The last third of the film is redeemed by a compelling cholera epidemic and a well staged elephant stampede in the film's setting, a tea plantation in Ceylon. The main actors acquit themselves well despite the fact that they are participating in an opulently staged soap opera. Other pluses here are the stunning interior designs and gorgeous Edith Head creations. Of course, young Liz is stunning to look at. That said, if you want to check out a better plantation melodrama "The Naked Jungle" with Charlton Heston and Eleanor Parker would be well worth your while.
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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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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John Wayne personally produced many of his '50s films, which is why some of them have languished in corporate limbo following his death. The High and the Mighty was one of his most popular vehicles (no pun intended). This long, necessarily sedentary drama aboard an endangered airliner is a CinemaScope bridge between 1932's Grand Hotel and 1970s disaster movies. Despite Wayne's iconic presence as a pilot--now copilot--who survived the plane crash that wiped out his family, it's an ensemble movie with an impressive cast: Robert Stack sharing the cockpit, Oscar® nominees Claire Trevor and Jan Sterling, Laraine Day, Robert Newton, Paul Kelly, John Qualen, Regis Toomey, the ubiquitous Paul Fix, and director William A. Wellman's good-luck character actor Douglas Fowley.... More Info about this DVD Actor(s): John Wayne - Claire Trevor - Laraine Day Director(s): William A. Wellman DVD Release Date: Released the 02 August 2005 Usually ships in 24 hours
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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... More Info about this DVD Actor(s): Deborah Kerr - Stewart Granger Director(s): Andrew Marton - Compton Bennett DVD Release Date: Released the 11 January 2005 Usually ships in 24 hours
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Leave Her to Heaven is one of the most unblinkingly perverse movies ever offered up as a prestige picture by a major studio in the golden age of Hollywood. Gene Tierney, whose lambent eyes, porcelain features, and sweep of healthy-American-girl hair customarily made her a 20th Century Fox icon of purity, scored an Oscar nomination playing a demonically obsessive daughter of privilege with her own monstrous notion of love. By the time she crosses eyebeams with popular novelist Cornel Wilde on a New Mexico-bound train, her jealous manipulations have driven her parents apart and her father to his grave. Well, no, not grave: Wilde soon gets to watch her gallop a glorious palomino across a red-rock horizon as she metronomically sows Dad's ashes to the winds. Mere screen moments later,... More Info about this DVD Actor(s): Gene Tierney - Cornel Wilde Director(s): John M. Stahl DVD Release Date: Released the 22 February 2005 Usually ships in 24 hours
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