Ceticultsot Beautiful, moving film.

Teringer An Exercise In Nonsense

Ogosmith Each character in this movie — down to the smallest one — is an individual rather than a type, prone to spontaneous changes of mood and sometimes amusing outbursts of pettiness or ill humor.

Arianna Moses Let me be very fair here, this is not the best movie in my opinion. But, this movie is fun, it has purpose and is very enjoyable to watch.

HotToastyRag While King Solomon's Mines is a pretty famous movie, and arguably the inspiration for the Indiana Jones franchise, it's not really favorites of mine. Still, someone else might like it, so I'll try to be unbiased. H. Rider Haggard's famous novel has seen several film adaptations, but the 1950 version is the most famous. Sorry, Richard Chamberlain. In it, the adventurous hero Allan Quartermain, played by Stewart Granger, is hired to find a man who's gone missing while searching for the legendary mines in Africa. The man's wife and brother-in-law, played by Deborah Kerr and Richard Carlson, accompany the search party, and all three find an abundance of adventures along the way.If you like adventure movies, and don't mind if they're a touch slower than they were in the 1980s and 1990s, you can rent this one and see the inspiration behind your modern favorites. If you're just looking for a good Deborah Kerr movie, you can try From Here to Eternity or The Grass is Greener instead.

LeonLouisRicci First Off...Famed Adventure Novelist H.R. Haggard (the source material) was a Man's Man and the Book had NO Female Characters. So MGM in Their Typical Know it All Manner Hires a Woman to Write the Screenplay for this Manly Adventure Story. Sheesh.Secondly, although the Movie goes to Great Lengths and Spends a lot of Money going On Location to Africa and gets some Extraordinary Footage of the Wildlife and the Terrain, but then Assembles it into a Bland Romantic Story with an Ending that is Anti-Climatic. Sheesh.The Movie is Stilted with a Montage that is Clunky and Sophomoric and the Film Ends Up not much Better than a Tarzan Movie with its Positioning of the Dangers of the Dark Continent Paraded Out in Low-Budget Fashion Quickly and with Little Suspense. Sheesh.Look there is a Lion...Look there is a Snake...Look there is a Giraffe...Look there is an Crocodile and so on. These Things Happen so Quickly and without Setup that it is Nothing More than an Excuse. Sheesh.Overall the Native Africans and the Native Wildlife and the Native Landscape Steal the Show from the Adventure and the Romance. It is an Overrated Movie that is OK and Worth a Watch for some Travelogue Eye Candy. Don't Blink or You will miss King Solomon's Mine, but it isn't Missing Much because it isn't Much. Sheesh.

romanorum1 The setting: East Africa, 1897. Macho safari guide and hunter Alan Quatermain (Stewart Granger), offered a generous down payment of five thousand pounds, reluctantly decides to assist Elizabeth Curtis (Deborah Kerr) in finding her missing husband. But Quatermain is not confident that a woman can undertake what will be a perilous journey into the interior. Mr. Curtis had left his home several years earlier in order to find King Solomon's diamond mines in darkest (uncharted) Africa. Why Mrs. Curtis wants to find him is that she takes on some responsibility because of her less-than-decent treatment of him. She tells Quatermain that she is independently wealthy, unlike her husband, and that she still loves him (!). She even has a hand-drawn map of Curtis' trek. Yet these types of movies, where the wife is trying to find her long-lost beau, send a signal that you just know the missing dude isn't going to be worth it. So the movie develops into a love story between the two leads. Accompanying the two is Mrs. Curtis' loyal brother John (Richard Carlson). A key player is seven-foot tall and lean Umbopa (Siriaque) of the Watusi tribe. After fifty minutes of the movie have passed, he joins the expedition out of nowhere. Unassuming for most of the film's remainder, he has a significant moment at the end. By the way, the indigenous cultures are treated with deference, and the natives get significant screen time.We see many wonderful wild animals, including elephants, rhinos, lions, and leopards. But the expedition is fraught with all kinds of difficult situations: dangerous snakes (black Mamba, cobra, and others), an unfriendly native tribe, and a massive stampede of zebras, giraffes and gazelles. Then there are unpredictable bearers who later desert, stealing much of the supplies. Despite the setting of the story, it is nice to see that our hero Quatermain shuns the indiscriminate shooting of animals. Africa is a beautiful place, but one has to be tough to live there. After learning about the fate of Curtis, our heroes are trapped in a cave-mine without food. At the denouement there is an exciting three-minute duel between two men: a usurper of the tribal throne and the legitimate king. This clash really is not much different than that of a USA western setting with two dudes fighting it out, one good and one bad. If the bad guy wins, then it will be an undesirable ending for the few survivors of the expedition.This movie is an enjoyable adventure story with tense situations, and is nicely edited and acted throughout. Although Deborah Kerr is often frightened and has nightmares, remember that she is supposed to be proper and unsuspecting of a safari's hardships. The photography is magnificent! On-location shooting is always a plus, even if supplemented by such places as California and New Mexico. But there is no stock footage in this feature! Yes, Africa is the real star. In its day the film must have been a real eye-opener.

ncmike1 It's Quatermain, not Quartermain. I had just finished reading the book, and the film doesn't follow it at all except in a very few places. However, the film still stands out as a good adventure, with excellent photography and views of Africa not seen before including the animals and the natives. Wonderful for its time, I guess, but doesn't really hold up for today's audiences. I still enjoyed it for what it is. The stampede scene was, however, pretty darn good. I have no idea how they got that to happen especially with so many different kinds of animals. What made me laugh, though, was the giant spider. It was so fake. And why was it even called King Soloman's Mines? They spent about 1 minute looking at the gems, and then went on with the unrelated story. Overall, it was just OK.