KING SOLOMON'S MINES (1950)

In Africa, adventurer Allan Quartermain (Stewart Granger) hires himself out as a guide for hunters, though we can see that he is often disgusted with the amateurs that he works for. A widower, he misses his son in England and is thinking of leaving Africa to go home when he is approached by Elizabeth Curtis (Deborah Kerr) and her brother Jack (Richard Carlson) to help them find her husband who came to Africa to find the rumored treasures of King Solomon’s mines but hasn't been heard from in years. Allan is inclined to say no until they offer him 5000 pounds, which he reckons he could send to his son. He believes the mines are a myth, but when he sees that they have a map that Curtis sent showing the mines across a desert in unexplored territory, Allan decides to help them. Of course, the trip is no picnic: first, Allan has to get Elizabeth, a proper British lady, to wear fewer clothes in the heat. Along the way, there are threats from spiders and snakes and stampeding zebras, and halfway through the trip, most of the natives accompanying them flee when they recognize a spear belong to a hostile tribe. They run across a lone white man (Hugo Haas) who offers to help them, but Allan recognizes him as a wanted murderer, and figures he plans to keep all of them as food for the locals, so they get away. The one loyal native left is a deposed Watusi king, and after they cross the desert, they realize that the mines are in Watusi territory, so he may be of more help then they imagined. When they finally find the mines (and the treasure, and Curtis's skeleton), they find themselves trapped by the rebel king and his forces. If they can get out, can the real king help them get back home unmolested?

The 1885 book this is based on, by H. Rider Haggard, seems to be the template for most of the pulp fiction tales of fabulous lost worlds in unexplored lands. I don't know if this might have influenced Edgar Rice Burroughs when he created Tarzan in 1912, but it certainly seems to have been a template for the many Tarzan movies (and other African adventures) what with its white hunter, maiden in distress, dangerous animals, treacherous creep in disguise, mysterious map, and lost treasure. There have been other film versions of this story, but this one has the advantage of Technicolor and location shooting in Africa, so when the story bogs down or becomes too predictable, you can still enjoy the backgrounds. Because this was an "A" production, the acting is a notch or two above most of the Tarzan films. Granger is not of my favorite actors—it always seems to me that he thinks he is a little too good for the movies he's in—but he is adequate here though he lacks in the heroic physique area; Kerr, who is too good for this, is a good trooper and shines; Carlson does the best he can with a part that recedes into the background as sparks fly between Granger and Kerr. Not exactly a must-see—at 100 minutes, it could stand to be 15 minutes shorter—but mildly interesting, especially as an example of the kind of movie Hollywood doesn't (for better or worse) make any more. BTW, Haggard spelled the character's name "Quatermain," but MGM stuck an "R" in there, to make it easier for Americans to say, perhaps.[TCM]