Killers of Kilimanjaro | |
---|---|
Directed by | Richard Thorpe |
Screenplay by | John Gilling |
Based on | story by Cyril Hume and Richard Maibaum from book African Bush Adventures by J. Hunter and Daniel P. Mannix |
Produced by | John R. Sloan executive Irving Allen Albert R. Broccoli |
Starring | Robert Taylor Anthony Newley |
Cinematography | Ted Moore |
Edited by | Geoffrey Foot |
Music by | William Alwyn |
Production company | |
Distributed by | Columbia Pictures |
Release date |
|
Running time | 91 minutes |
Country | United Kingdom |
Language | English |
Killers of Kilimanjaro is a 1959 British CinemaScope adventure film directed by Richard Thorpe and starring Robert Taylor, Anthony Newley, Anne Aubrey and Donald Pleasence [1] for Warwick Films.
The film was originally known as Adamson of Africa. [2]
Warwick Films had made three films in Africa, Safari, Zarak and Odongo. The movie was announced in July 1956 and inspired by the story of the Tsavo maneaters recounted in the 1954 book African Bush Adventures by J.A. Hunter and Daniel P. Mannix. [3] It was based on a story by Richard Maibaum and Cyril Hume. (Warwick also announced they would make a second African film, the musical The Golden Fiddle, which would ultimately not be made.) [4]
A screenplay was done by Peter Viertel, who had worked on The African Queen, and written a novel of the experiences called White Hunter, Black Heart . In September 1957 Alan Ladd, who had made three films for Warwick, was the announced as male lead – it was meant to be part of a six-picture deal between Ladd and Warwick worth $2 million that also included The Man Inside and It's Always Four O'Clock. [5]
In the final event Ladd made no further films for Warwick - the lead role went to Robert Taylor. Taylor signed in January 1959 at which time the film was called African Bush. [6] Co-stars Anthony Newley and Anne Aubrey were under contract to Warwick, and had just made Idol on Parade for the company. [7]
In February 1959 Taylor left for Moshi, Tanganyika. [8] That was the same location used for Mogambo and Tarzan's Greatest Adventure. [9] Filming was completed by April. [10]
The film's title was changed to Killers of Kilimanjaro. This upset Chief Thomas Marealle of the Chagga tribe, on whose lands the film was shot, and he made an official complaint. [11] Mount Kilimanjaro lies about 125 kilometres (78 mi) west of Tsavo in Tanzania.
The Monthly Film Bulletin said "enthusiasts for screen slaughter should be amply entertained." [12]
The New York Times called it "a compendium of jungle cliches". [13]
According to Jeffrey Richards, movies such as Killers of Kilimanjaro pushed the narrative that the British were not in East Africa to further their own ends, but instead perpetuated the myth that they were there to protect the natives from the evil Arab slavers. [14]
Moshi is a municipality and the capital of Kilimanjaro region in the Northeastern Tanzania. As of 2017, the municipality has an estimated population of 201,150 and a population density of 3,409 persons per km2. In the last official census of 2022, the municipality had a population of 221,733. The municipality is situated on the lower slopes of Mount Kilimanjaro, a dormant volcano that is the highest mountain in Africa. The name Moshi has been reported to refer to the smoke that emanates from the nearby mountain. The municipality covers about 59 square kilometres (23 sq mi) and is the smallest municipality in Tanzania by area.
The Honourable Sir Charles Cecil Farquharson Dundas, KCMG, OBE was a British colonial administrator who served as Governor of the Bahamas from 1937 to 1940 and Governor of Uganda from 1940 to 1944. He was the fifth son of Charles Saunders Dundas, 6th Viscount Melville.
The Chagga is a Bantu ethnic group from Kilimanjaro Region of Tanzania and Arusha Region of Tanzania. They are the third-largest ethnic group in Tanzania. They historically lived in sovereign Chagga states on the slopes of Mount Kilimanjaro in both Kilimanjaro Region and Arusha Region.
Richard Thorpe was an American film director best known for his long career at Metro-Goldwyn-Mayer.
Richard Maibaum was an American screenwriter, film producer, and playwright, best known for his work on the James Bond films. He wrote 13 of the 16 Eon Productions Bond films produced between 1962 and 1989, beginning with Dr. No and ending with Licence to Kill.
Ted Moore, BSC was a South African-British cinematographer known for his work on seven of the James Bond films in the 1960s and early 1970s. He won the Academy Award for Best Cinematography for his work on Fred Zinnemann's A Man for All Seasons, and two BAFTA Awards for Best Cinematography for A Man for All Seasons and From Russia with Love.
Anne Aubrey is a retired English film actress.
United World College East Africa (UWCEA) is an independent international school in Tanzania, and a member of the United World Colleges movement. Established in 1969 as International School Moshi, the school is based on two campuses on the slopes of Mount Kilimanjaro and Mount Meru near the city of Moshi, the capital of the Kilimanjaro region in north east Tanzania.
Meli or Mangi Meli Kiusa bin Rindi Makindara, also known as, , was a king of the Chaga in Moshi, one of the sovereign Chagga states in the late 1890s. Mangi means king in Kichagga. He was hanged by the German colonial government together with 19 other Chagga, Meru, and Arusha leaders. Thomas Kitimbo Kirenga, Sindato Kiutesha Kiwelu, King Ngalami of Siha, Tanzania, King Lolbulu of Meru, King Rawaito of Arusha, King Marai of Arusha, and King Molelia of Kibosho were among the noblemen on 2 March 1900.
Boy on a Dolphin is a 1957 American romantic adventure film theatrically released by 20th Century-Fox. It is set in Greece and shot in DeLuxe Color and CinemaScope. It was directed by Jean Negulesco and produced by Samuel G. Engel from a screenplay by Ivan Moffat and Dwight Taylor, based on the 1955 novel of the same name by David Divine.
Warwick Films was a film company founded by film producers Irving Allen and Albert R. Broccoli in London in 1951. The name was taken from the Warwick Hotel in New York City where Broccoli and his wife were staying at the time of the final negotiations for the company's creation. Their films were released by Columbia Pictures.
The Man Inside is a 1958 British crime adventure film directed by John Gilling and starring Jack Palance, Anita Ekberg, Nigel Patrick, Anthony Newley and Bonar Colleano. It was produced by Irving Allen and Albert R. Broccoli for Warwick Film Productions. The screenplay by David Shaw was based on the 1954 novel of the same name by M. E. Chaber. It was Bonar Colleano's final film role.
Guns of the Timberland is a 1960 American Technicolor lumberjack Western film directed by Robert D. Webb and starring Alan Ladd, Jeanne Crain, Gilbert Roland and Frankie Avalon. It is based on the 1955 book Guns of the Timberlands by Louis L'Amour.
Idol on Parade is a 1959 British comedy film directed by John Gilling and starring William Bendix, Anthony Newley, Sid James and Lionel Jeffries. The screenplay was by John Antrobus, based on the 1958 William Camp novel Idle on Parade which was inspired by Elvis Presley's conscription into the US Army. It was produced by Irving Allen and Albert R. Broccoli for Warwick Films. Jeep Jackson serves his two years of compulsory National Service in the British military.
The Hellions is a 1961 British Western film directed by Ken Annakin starring Richard Todd, Anne Aubrey, Lionel Jeffries, Ronald Fraser and Colin Blakely that was set and filmed in South Africa.
Sia Lives on Kilimanjaro is a children's book written by Astrid Lindgren and with photographs by Anna Riwkin-Brick. The original Swedish edition was published in 1958 by the Rabén & Sjögren publishing company in Stockholm. The English translation was published in 1959, in London by Methuen, and in New York by Macmillan. The book was published as part of the Children's Everywhere photo book series. It is a story of a young girl who wants to visit the king at the Chagga Feast, but her father tells her she is too young, and her brother tells her only boys are allowed. The story is about self-determination.
The Bandit of Zhobe is a 1959 British CinemaScope adventure film directed by John Gilling and starring Victor Mature, Anne Aubrey and Anthony Newley. It was written by Gilling and Richard Maibaum. In British India a bandit goes on a rampage in the mistaken belief that the British have killed his family, which later proves to not be the case. It was produced by Albert Broccoli for Warwick Films and features extensive use of footage from Gilling's previous Zarak (1956).
A Dog of Flanders is a 1960 American drama film directed by James B. Clark, with stars David Ladd, Donald Crisp and Theodore Bikel. It is based on the 1872 novel of the same name by Ouida. It was released on March 17, 1960, by 20th Century Fox in CinemaScope and Color by De Luxe.
No Time to Die is a 1958 British war film directed by Terence Young and starring Victor Mature, Leo Genn, Anthony Newley and Bonar Colleano. It is about an American sergeant in the British Army during the Second World War.
The Chagga States or Chagga Kingdoms also historically referred to as the Chaggaland were a pre-colonial series of Bantu sovereign states of the Chagga people on Mount Kilimanjaro in modern-day northern Kilimanjaro Region of Tanzania. The Chagga kingdoms existed as far back as the 17th century according to oral tradition, a lot of recorded history of the Chagga states was written with the arrival and colonial occupation of Europeans in the mid to late 19th century. On the mountain, many minor dialects of one language are divided into three main groupings that are defined geographically from west to east: West Kilimanjaro, East Kilimanjaro, and Rombo. One word they all have in common is Mangi, meaning king in Kichagga. The British called them chiefs as they were deemed subjects to the British crown, thereby rendered unequal. After the conquest, substantial social disruption, domination, and reorganization by the German and British colonial administrations, the Chagga states were officially abolished in 1963 by the Nyerere administration during its third year as the newly independent nation of Tanganyika.