1950 - KING SOLOMON'S MINES, movie adventure in the grand tradition

MGM put to together a lavish remake of this old H. Rider Haggard story featuring the character Alan Quatermain.  Quatermain is  clearly the inspiration for Indiana Jones and just about every other adventurer in the movies.  

With this film MGM shot on location in Africa in what must have been really challenging locations considering the period the film was made in.  The story in a very brief nutshell has Quatermain leading a safari in search of the missing husband of Deborah Kerr.   The husband apparently had a map which lead to the fabled King Solomon's diamond mines. The various incidents that occur along the safari highlight the on location scenes and the wild animals of Africa.

Stuart Granger plays Alan Quatermain and Deborah Kerr with her flaming red hair (photographed in technicolor) is obviously going to be the love interest.  But probably the most interesting casting are the native Masai tribe.  I doubt any audience had seen anything like them especially while they were performing their ceremonial dances.

 

The film was photographed by Robert Surtees one of MGM's greatest cameramen who particularly excelled at color photography. Surtees had a long career starting in 1928 and working until 1978.  When you needed someone to master a complex production and produce great photography he was the man.

 

Compton Bennett was the original director but was replaced by Andrew Marton a specialist in photographing "2nd unit" action.  In this instance Marton was the right man for the job, King Solomon's Mines is a classic Hollywood adventure film.

The film was written by Helen Deutsch another old Hollywood pro, the running time is 103 minutes.

1965 - CRACK IN THE WORLD, good 1960's science fiction

Scientists in Africa are drilling a hole in the Earth's core in order to release the magma which they will use to tap into an unlimited source of energy.  At one point they hit a barrier resistant to drilling so they decide to fire a nuclear missile into the hole in order to break through, bad idea as it turns out.

This is a very good piece of what I would call mid 60's science fiction.  Obviously the effects are dated but the film still manages to whip up a decent amount of interesting visual ideas, i.e. "the crack in the world."

 

The characters in this film actually have a little character development for a change.  The older scientist played by Dana Andrews, in charge of the project is married to the former girlfriend of his chief geologist played by Kieron Moore.  Janette Scott is the former girlfriend who manages to get a lot of her clothes torn off by the end of the film.

Andrew Marton was a 2nd unit director a man usually responsible for the large scale action and battle scenes found in many movies.  Here Marton is calling the shots for the entire film.  Eugene Lorie was in charge of the production design and special effects.

The film runs 90 minutes and was written by Jon Manchip White and Julian Zimet and doesn't insult your intelligence.

1966 - AROUND THE WORLD UNDER THE SEA, a retro TV star reunion from the 1960's.

This cheesy underwater drama is from Ivan Tors the man responsible for such TV classics as Flipper and that film classic Zebra in the Kitchen.  The submarine "Hydronaunt" is on a mission to plant sensors on the ocean floor that will alert scientists to the presence of earthquakes.  But really this film is a 60's TV star gathering.  Let's go to the cast:

Lloyd Bridges - star of one of TV's first syndicated shows Sea Hunt.

Brian Kelly -  star of Flipper he played Ranger Ricks.

Marshall Thompson - star of Daktari.

David McCallum - Ilya Kuryakan from The Man From UNCLE.

Gary Merrill - a character actor from the 1950's.

Keenan Wynn -  who had been kicking around the film business since the mid 30's in just about every MGM film I can think of.

Shirley Eaton -  a good looking 60's blonde who appeared in a number of crappy British comedies.  She was hired because she looked good in a bikini.

OK obviously you would have to be in your late 50's or early 60's to remember these actors but these people were all over the TV screen during the 1960's.  This film is a real nostalgia wallow.

110 minutes.

1962 - THE LONGEST DAY, on Blu Ray

The black and white photography in The Longest Day looks pretty spectacular  in this upgraded Blu Ray disc.  The film itself is starting to look a little ragged.  

Overall creative control was in the hands of Daryl F. Zanuck who had left 20th Century Fox and was now an independent producer.  Zanuck wanted to emphasize the actual story of the D-Day Invasion however he decided to stick as many known early 1960's actors as he could find into this film.  Seen today most people probably wouldn't know who they are.  The exception is John Wayne who sticks out like a very sore thumb.  It's like he wandered in from the set of The Comancheroes still playing a Texas Ranger

It's a little unfair to criticize a film like this for it's lack of explicit violence, however the fighting is pretty sanitized and the seasick soldiers coming off of their landing craft were hardly charging up the beaches.  Still the film does do a good job laying out the invasion plan and many of the vignettes are true.  

The large scale battle sequences with "the cast of thousands" are still impressive and the aerial helicopter shots are particularly outstanding.

178 minutes, written by Cornelius Ryan, Roman Gary, James Jones, David Pursall, Jack Seddon and probably and uncredited Darryl F. Zanuck.