Kim (1950 film)

Last updated
Kim
Kim - Poster.jpg
1950 Theatrical Poster
Directed by Victor Saville
Written byHelen Deutsch
Leon Gordon
Richard Schayer
Based on Kim
1901 novel
by Rudyard Kipling
Produced byLeon Gordon
Starring Errol Flynn
Dean Stockwell
Paul Lukas
Robert Douglas
Thomas Gomez
Cecil Kellaway
Arnold Moss
Laurette Luez
Cinematography William V. Skall
Edited by George Boemler
Music by André Previn
Production
company
Distributed by Loew's, Inc.
Release date
  • December 7, 1950 (1950-12-07)
Running time
113 minutes
CountryUnited States
LanguageEnglish
Budget$2,049,000 [1]
Box office$5,348,000 [1]

Kim is a 1950 adventure film made in Technicolor by Metro-Goldwyn-Mayer. [2] [3] It was directed by Victor Saville and produced by Leon Gordon from a screenplay by Helen Deutsch, Leon Gordon and Richard Schayer, based on the classic 1901 novel of the same name by Rudyard Kipling.

Contents

The film starred Errol Flynn, Dean Stockwell, and Paul Lukas. The music score was by André Previn. The film was shot on location in Rajasthan and Uttar Pradesh, India, with some parts being in present-day Uttarakhand, as well as the Alabama Hills near Lone Pine, California, due to its resemblance to the Khyber Pass. Of particular interest is the location filming at La Martiniere College in Lucknow.

The film is set within the Great Game, a political and diplomatic confrontation between the British Empire and the Russian Empire. In the film, an orphan boy is trained as a spy by agents of the British Raj, and tasked with maintaining surveillance of two Russian spies.

Plot

Kim, an orphan boy in 1885 India during the British Raj, occasionally works for his friend Mahbub Ali, a roguish horse trader who is also a secret agent for the British. Mahbub Ali becomes aware of a Russian-backed plot to invade India from Afghanistan.

Meanwhile, Kim encounters an elderly Buddhist lama from Tibet, who is on a quest to find the "River of the Arrow", whose waters will cleanse him spiritually. Mahbub Ali has the young boy become the kindly priest's "chela" or disciple so that he can deliver a message to Colonel Creighton, Mahbub Ali's superior. On the journey along the Grand Trunk Road, the two travelers grow to love each other.

One day, British soldiers set up camp. Kim notices that their regimental flag depicts a red bull on a green field, which matches a prophecy left him by his now-deceased father, so he sneaks into the encampment. He is taken for a thief by a sentry. During the ensuing scuffle, his captors discover documents Kim possesses which show that he is actually the son of Kimball O'Hara, an Irish soldier who had served in the regiment. The lama decides that Kim should live among his own kind to be educated (despite the boy's resistance) and pays for his tuition at the finest boarding school in India. The boy chafes at the school's many restrictions, but eventually settles down.

Mahbub Ali convinces Colonel Creighton that the boy has the potential to become a wonderful spy; to that end, Kim receives extra training from the shopkeeper Lurgan during the first part of his summer vacation.

While traveling in disguise, Kim overhears a plot to assassinate Mahbub Ali and warns him, saving his life. He is then reunited with his lama and sent to notify Hurree Chunder to keep an eye on two Russian spies posing as surveyors. When he finds Chunder murdered, he takes on the mission himself without informing anyone. When news of Chunder's death reaches the British, Colonel Creighton sends Mahbub Ali to take Chunder's place. Kim talks the Russians into hiring him as their servant. An emissary meets with the Russians. The newcomer becomes suspicious of Kim and forces him onto a narrow ledge on a cliff to try to get the truth from him. The Russians beat the lama. Mahbub Ali tosses the emissary off the cliff, rescues Kim and takes the interlopers at gunpoint. When a small Russian force approaches, the spies attempt to overpower him, forcing him to kill them. Then he and Kim start a rockslide which buries the approaching Russians. Afterward, the injured lama has a vision of his river, stumbles to it, and dies, contented.

Cast

Production

Earlier proposed versions

MGM originally announced the film in 1938 as a vehicle for Freddie Bartholomew and Robert Taylor but World War II saw this put on hold.

In 1942 it was reactivated to star Mickey Rooney, Conrad Veidt (as Red Lama) and Basil Rathbone, from a script by Leon Gordon and produced by Victor Saville. [4] However this was postponed out of fear of offending Indians and also war-time allies the Russians, who were the villains. [5]

Development

In 1948 the Indian government approved the film and the Cold War meant it was permissible to have Russian villains. In January 1949 the project was reactivated as a vehicle for MGM's child star Dean Stockwell. Errol Flynn was signed in September. [6]

Paul Lukas and Flynn went to India but all scenes involving Dean Stockwell were shot in Hollywood. [7] Flynn left for India in November after attending a Royal screening of That Forsyte Woman in London. [8]

Shooting

Locations used in the film included La Martiniere Lucknow (depicted as St. Xavier's College) in Lucknow, the horse market at the Kashmir Gates, Sirala, and the Himalayan foothills and the Khyber Pass. Doubles were used for Dean Stockwell and the characters of Huree Babu, Creighton Sahib and Lurgan Sahib (these hadn't been cast at the time of filming). [5]

The unit returned to MGM in January 1950 to shoot the rest of the movie on the backlot.

Trivia

The musical leitmotif is the march D'Ye Ken John Peel, especially in scenes depicting the Presidency armies as predecessors of the British Indian army. [9]

Reception

Box office

The movie was successful at the box office: according to MGM records the movie earned $2,896,000 in the U.S. and Canada and $2,465,000 in other markets, making it one of the studio's more popular films of the year. [1] It was one of the most popular films at the French box office in 1951, with admissions of 2,514,860. [10] According to Filmink magazine, it was "the biggest gross of any Flynn movie during its initial release (not counting for inflation). Clearly in the right role and the right movie he remained a potent box office draw. " [11]

It made an overall profit of $1,064,000. [1]

Radio adaptation

Kim was presented on Lux Radio Theatre on February 18, 1952. The one-hour adaptation featured Errol Flynn and Dean Stockwell in their roles from the film. [12]

Related Research Articles

<i>Kim</i> (novel) 1901 picaresque novel by Rudyard Kipling

Kim is a novel by Nobel Prize-winning English author Rudyard Kipling. It was first published serially in McClure's Magazine from December 1900 to October 1901 as well as in Cassell's Magazine from January to November 1901, and first published in book form by Macmillan & Co. Ltd in October 1901. The novel is notable for its detailed portrait of the people, culture, and varied religions of India. "The book presents a vivid picture of India, its teeming populations, religions, and superstitions, and the life of the bazaars and the road." The story unfolds against the backdrop of the Great Game, the political conflict between Russia and Britain in Central Asia. The novel popularized the phrase and idea of the Great Game.

<span class="mw-page-title-main">Errol Flynn</span> Australian actor (1909–1959)

Errol Leslie Thomson Flynn was an Australian-American actor who achieved worldwide fame during the Golden Age of Hollywood. He was known for his romantic swashbuckler roles, frequent partnerships with Olivia de Havilland, and reputation for his womanising and hedonistic personal life. His most notable roles include Robin Hood in The Adventures of Robin Hood (1938), which was later named by the American Film Institute as the 18th-greatest hero in American film history, the lead role in Captain Blood (1935), Major Geoffrey Vickers in The Charge of the Light Brigade (1936), and the hero in a number of Westerns such as Dodge City (1939), Santa Fe Trail, Virginia City and San Antonio (1945).

<i>Dodge City</i> (film) 1939 film

Dodge City is a 1939 American Western film directed by Michael Curtiz and starring Errol Flynn, Olivia de Havilland, and Ann Sheridan. Based on a story by Robert Buckner, the film is about a Texas cattle agent who witnesses the brutal lawlessness of Dodge City, Kansas and takes the job of sheriff to clean the town up. Filmed in Technicolor, Dodge City was one of the highest-grossing films of the year. This was the 5th of 8 movies that de Havilland and Flynn appeared in together.

<span class="mw-page-title-main">Dean Stockwell</span> American actor (1936–2021)

Robert Dean Stockwell was an American actor with a career spanning seven decades. As a child actor under contract to Metro-Goldwyn-Mayer, he appeared in Anchors Aweigh (1945), Song of the Thin Man (1947), The Green Years (1946), Gentleman's Agreement (1947), The Boy with Green Hair (1948), and Kim (1950). As a young adult, he played a lead role in the 1957 Broadway play Compulsion and its 1959 film version; and in 1962 he played Edmund Tyrone in the film version of Long Day's Journey into Night, for which he won two Best Actor Awards at the Cannes Film Festival. He was nominated for a Golden Globe Award for Best Actor – Motion Picture Drama for his starring role in the 1960 film version of D. H. Lawrence's Sons and Lovers.

<i>The Sea Hawk</i> (1940 film) 1940 film by Michael Curtiz

The Sea Hawk is a 1940 American adventure film from Warner Bros. that stars Errol Flynn as an English privateer who defends his nation's interests on the eve of the launch of the Spanish Armada. The film was the tenth collaboration between Flynn and director Michael Curtiz. Its screenplay was written by Howard Koch and Seton I. Miller. The rousing musical score by Erich Wolfgang Korngold is recognized as a high point in his career.

<span class="mw-page-title-main">Kim's Game</span> Memory game

Kim's Game is a game or exercise played by Scouts, the military, and other groups, in which a selection of objects must be memorised. The game develops a person's capacity to observe and remember details. The name is derived from Rudyard Kipling's 1901 novel Kim, in which the protagonist plays the game during his training as a spy.

<span class="mw-page-title-main">La Martinière College, Lucknow</span> Trustee school in Lucknow, India

La Martinière College is an elite educational institution located in Lucknow, the capital of the Indian state of Uttar Pradesh. The college consists of two schools on different campuses for boys and girls. La Martinière College was founded in 1845 and La Martinière Girls' College was established in 1869. La Martiniere Boys' College is the only school in the world to have been awarded royal battle honours for its role in the defence of Lucknow and the Lucknow residency during the Indian Rebellion of 1857. The two Lucknow colleges are part of the La Martinière family of schools, founded by the French adventurer Major General Claude Martin. There are two La Martinière Colleges in Kolkata and three in Lyon. La Martinière provides a liberal education and the medium of instruction is the English language. The schools cater for pupils from the age of 5 to 17 or 18, and are open to children of all religious denominations, the boys' school has a Chapel, a Hindu Temple and a Mosque on its campus and has remained a non-denominational school since its inception, unlike the two La Martiniere Schools in Calcutta which are Christian schools, controlled by the Anglican Church of North India. Both the schools have day scholars and residence scholars (boarders).

<i>Objective, Burma!</i> 1945 film by Raoul Walsh

Objective, Burma! is a 1945 American war film that is loosely based on the six-month raid by Merrill's Marauders in the Burma Campaign during the Second World War. Directed by Raoul Walsh and starring Errol Flynn, the film was made by Warner Bros. immediately after the raid. The plot of the film is almost a carbon copy of Northwest Passage (film); an MGM production which starred Spencer Tracy released in 1940.

<i>The Charge of the Light Brigade</i> (1936 film) 1936 film by Michael Curtiz

The Charge of the Light Brigade is a 1936 American historical adventure film from Warner Bros., starring Errol Flynn and Olivia de Havilland. It was directed by Michael Curtiz and produced by Samuel Bischoff, with Hal B. Wallis as the executive producer. The film's screenplay is by Michael Jacoby and Rowland Leigh, from a story by Michael Jacoby, and based on the 1854 poem "The Charge of the Light Brigade" by Alfred, Lord Tennyson. The music score was composed by Max Steiner, his first for Warner Bros., and the cinematography was by Sol Polito. Scenes were shot at the following California locations: Lone Pine, Sherwood Lake, Lasky Mesa, Chatsworth, and Sonora. The Sierra Nevada mountains were used for the Khyber Pass scenes.

<i>Umrao Jaan</i> (2006 film) 2006 Indian film by J. P. Dutta

Umrao Jaan is a 2006 Indian period musical romantic drama film produced and directed by J. P. Dutta, based on the Urdu novel Umrao Jaan Ada, and is about the famous Tawaif of the title. Aishwarya Rai stars in the lead role along with Abhishek Bachchan, Shabana Azmi, Sunil Shetty, Divya Dutta, Himani Shivpuri and Kulbhushan Kharbanda in supporting roles.

<i>Fours a Crowd</i> 1938 film by Michael Curtiz

Four's a Crowd is a 1938 American romantic comedy film directed by Michael Curtiz, starring Errol Flynn, Olivia de Havilland, Rosalind Russell and Patric Knowles. The picture was written by Casey Robinson and Sig Herzig from a story by Wallace Sullivan. This was the fourth of nine films in which Errol Flynn and Olivia de Havilland appeared.

<i>Kim</i> (1984 film) 1984 British TV series or programme

Kim is a 1984 British television film directed by John Davies and based on Rudyard Kipling's 1901 novel Kim. The film stars Peter O'Toole, Bryan Brown, John Rhys-Davies, Nadira, Julian Glover, Jalal Agha and Ravi Sheth in the title role.

<i>Northern Pursuit</i> 1943 film by Raoul Walsh

Northern Pursuit is a 1943 American World War II adventure thriller film directed by Raoul Walsh and starring Errol Flynn as a member of the Royal Canadian Mounted Police (RCMP) who tries to uncover a Nazi plot against the Allied war effort. The film was set in Canada during the early years of the war.

<i>The Green Years</i> (film) 1946 film by Victor Saville

The Green Years is a 1946 American drama film directed by Victor Saville and featuring Charles Coburn, Tom Drake, Beverly Tyler and Hume Cronyn. It was adapted by Robert Ardrey and Sonya Levien from A. J. Cronin's 1944 novel of the same name. It tells the story of the coming-of-age of an Irish orphan in Scotland.

<i>That Forsyte Woman</i> 1949 film by Compton Bennett

That Forsyte Woman is a 1949 American romantic drama film directed by Compton Bennett and starring Greer Garson, Errol Flynn, Walter Pidgeon, Robert Young and Janet Leigh. It is an adaptation of the 1906 novel The Man of Property, the first book in The Forsyte Saga by John Galsworthy.

<i>The Dark Avenger</i> 1955 British film by Henry Levin

The Dark Avenger is a 1955 British historical action adventure film in CinemaScope directed by Henry Levin. The screenplay was written by Daniel B. Ullman. The film stars Errol Flynn, Joanne Dru and Peter Finch. The music score is by Cedric Thorpe Davie. It is also known as The Warriors in the United States, and had a working title of The Black Prince in the United Kingdom.

<i>Murder at Monte Carlo</i> 1934 film

Murder at Monte Carlo is a British 1934 mystery crime thriller film directed by Ralph Ince and starring Errol Flynn, Eve Gray, Paul Graetz and Molly Lamont, the production was Flynn's debut film in a lead role in England. The film is currently missing from the BFI National Archive, and is listed as one of the British Film Institute's "75 Most Wanted" lost films.

<i>Istanbul</i> (film) 1957 film by Joseph Pevney

Istanbul is a 1957 American CinemaScope film noir crime film directed by Joseph Pevney, and starring Errol Flynn and Cornell Borchers. It is a remake of the film Singapore, with the location of the action moved to Turkey. The plot involves an American pilot who becomes mixed up with various criminal activities in Istanbul.

Alexander Malcolm Jacob was a diamond and gemstone trader in Simla, India. Probably a Jacobite Christian, his grandfather was an engineer in Constantinople, and his father was the first soap manufacturer in the Ottoman Empire.

<i>Mara Maru</i> 1952 film by Gordon Douglas

Mara Maru is a 1952 American noir action film starring Errol Flynn, Ruth Roman and Raymond Burr. Directed by Gordon Douglas, it was the last movie Flynn made for Warner Bros where he had started out in Hollywood in 1935.

References

  1. 1 2 3 4 The Eddie Mannix Ledger, Los Angeles: Margaret Herrick Library, Center for Motion Picture Study.
  2. ↑ Variety film review; December 6, 1950, page 15.
  3. ↑ Harrison's Reports film review; December 9, 1950, page 195.
  4. ↑ "SCREEN NEWS HERE AND IN HOLLYWOOD: Remake of George M. Cohan's 'Little Johnny Jones' Is Scheduled by Metro MELODRAMA AT CRITERION ' Mayor of 44th Street' Opens Today -- True to the Army' Will Arrive Saturday". New York Times. June 10, 1942. p. 25.
  5. 1 2 THOMAS F. BRADY (Dec 11, 1949). "'KIM' IN INDIA: Metro's Cameras Turn on Kipling Story -- Summary of the Week in Hollywood". New York Times. p. X5.
  6. ↑ Schallert, Edwin (Sep 19, 1949). "Deal for James Stewart as 'Harvey' Star on Foot; Shearer Return Pending". Los Angeles Times. p. 31.
  7. ↑ Tony Thomas, Rudy Behlmer & Clifford McCarty, The Films of Errol Flynn, Citadel Press, 1969 p 172-173
  8. ↑ Mendonca, Clare (27 Nov 1949). "Errol Flynn Flying Out To Delhi: New Indian Films". The Times of India. New Delhi. p. 14.
  9. ↑ Jeffrey Richards: Imperialism and Music: Britain 1876-1953 (Studies in Imperialism). Manchester University Press (Manchester), Palgrave (New York) 2002, ISBN 978-0719061431, p. 300
  10. ↑ 1951 French box office information at Box Office Story
  11. ↑ Vagg, Stephen (November 24, 2019). "The Films of Errol Flynn: Part 4 – Going to Seed". Filmink.
  12. ↑ Kirby, Walter (February 17, 1952). "Better Radio Programs for the Week". The Decatur Daily Review. p. 40. Retrieved June 1, 2015– via Newspapers.com. Open Access logo PLoS transparent.svg
This page is based on this Wikipedia article
Text is available under the CC BY-SA 4.0 license; additional terms may apply.
Images, videos and audio are available under their respective licenses.