The Last Safari | |
---|---|
Directed by | Henry Hathaway |
Written by | John Gay |
Based on | Gilligan's Last Elephant (novel) by Gerald Hanley |
Starring | |
Cinematography | Ted Moore |
Edited by | John Bloom |
Music by | John Dankworth |
Production company | Paramount Pictures |
Distributed by | Paramount Pictures |
Release date |
|
Running time | 110 minutes |
Country | United Kingdom |
Language | English |
Box office | 297,680 admissions (France) 1,095,900 admissions (Spain) [1] |
The Last Safari is a 1967 British adventure film directed by Henry Hathaway. It stars Kaz Garas and Stewart Granger. [2] It was based on the 1962 novel, Gilligan's Last Elephant by Gerald Hanley.
Miles Gilchrist (Stewart Granger) is a big game hunter in Africa. He goes on a safari to shoot an elephant who killed his friend. He is accompanied by Casey (Kaz Garas), an American millionaire intrigued by Gilchrist's story, and Grant (Gabriella Licudi), Casey's half-caste girlfriend.
Miles feels he is to blame for his friend's death, and has to redeem himself. He sees hunter Alec Beaumont (Liam Redmond) refusing to eat with Grant, an indication of how life is different in Africa. Casey and Miles help to save a group of white hunters ambushed in a Masai village.
Later, Miles and Casey are nearly killed by a herd of charging elephants, led by a rogue elephant. Casey refuses to fire knowing Miles also won't shoot, but is not afraid. Casey bids Miles farewell and leaves Africa and Grant, who stays behind in the hopes of finding a new benefactor.
The Last Safari was the first of a four-picture deal between Hathaway and Paramount. [3] Kaz Garas was an actor under contract to Hal Wallis. [4]
The film involved five weeks location shooting in Kenya. [5] [6] The corporate jet used in the film was a Learjet 23 leased from Busy Bee. It was painted in zebra stripes for use in the film. [7]
The Los Angeles Times called The Last Safari, "... a most satisfying film of its kind". [8]
Stewart Granger later called this "my last real film... the worst film ever made in Africa!" [9]
Mogambo is a 1953 Technicolor adventure/romantic drama film directed by John Ford and starring Clark Gable, Ava Gardner, and Grace Kelly, and featuring Donald Sinden. Shot on location in Equatorial Africa, with a musical soundtrack consisting entirely of actual African tribal music recorded in the Congo, the film was adapted by John Lee Mahin from the play Red Dust by Wilson Collison. The picture is a remake of Red Dust (1932), which was set in Vietnam and also starred Gable in the same role.
Sean Leslie Flynn was an American actor and freelance photojournalist best known for his coverage of the Vietnam War.
Stewart Granger was a British film actor, mainly associated with heroic and romantic leading roles. He was a popular leading man from the 1940s to the early 1960s, rising to fame through his appearances in the Gainsborough melodramas.
Captain Boycott is a 1947 British historical drama film directed by Frank Launder and starring Stewart Granger, Kathleen Ryan, Mervyn Johns, Alastair Sim and Cecil Parker. Robert Donat makes a cameo appearance as the Irish nationalist leader Charles Stewart Parnell. The film explains how the word boycott appeared in the English language. Ironically, the titular character plays a secondary role in the film, as an anti-hero, and the hero of the film is Hugh Davin.
Henry Hathaway was an American film director and producer. He is best known as a director of Westerns, especially starring Randolph Scott and John Wayne. He directed Gary Cooper in seven films.
White hunter is a literary term used for professional big game hunters of European descent, from all over the world, who plied their trade in Africa, especially during the first half of the 20th century. The activity continues in the dozen African countries which still permit big-game hunting. White hunters derived their income from organizing and leading safaris for paying clients, or from the sale of ivory.
North to Alaska is a 1960 American comedy Western/Northern film directed by Henry Hathaway and John Wayne (uncredited). The picture stars Wayne along with Stewart Granger, Ernie Kovacs, Fabian, and Capucine. The script is based on the 1939 play Birthday Gift by Ladislas Fodor and is set during the Nome gold rush.
John Howard "Pondoro" Taylor (1904–1969) was a big-game hunter and ivory poacher of Irish descent. Born in Dublin as the son of a surgeon he developed an urge to go to Africa and become a professional hunter. Taylor mainly hunted for his own account and had little interest in guiding clients. His parents paid for his passage to Cape Town. In Africa he experimented extensively with different types of rifles and calibers which made him an expert in big game rifles. He is credited with developing the Taylor KO Factor, and authored several books. John Taylor died in 1969 in London.
Safari Club International (SCI) is a US organization composed of hunters dedicated to protecting the freedom to hunt. SCI has more than 50,000 members and 180 local chapters. SCI members agree to abide by the organization's code of ethics, which includes making a positive contribution to wildlife and ecosystems, complying with game laws, and assisting game and fish officers.
King Solomon's Mines is a 1950 Technicolor adventure film, and the second film adaptation of the 1885 novel of the same name by Henry Rider Haggard. It stars Deborah Kerr, Stewart Granger and Richard Carlson. It was adapted by Helen Deutsch, directed by Compton Bennett and Andrew Marton and released by Metro-Goldwyn-Mayer.
Ebb Tide is a 1937 American Technicolor adventure film directed by James P. Hogan and starring Oscar Homolka, Frances Farmer and Ray Milland.
Gabriella Licudi was a British actress.
Gerald Hanley was an Irish novelist and travel writer and was born in Liverpool of Irish parents. Hanley's novels reflect his experiences of living in Africa, Burma and the Indian sub-continent, as well as his life as a soldier. His first book, Monsoon Victory was published in 1946, and his last novel, Noble Descents in 1982.
Safari is a 1956 British CinemaScope adventure film directed by Terence Young and set during the Mau Mau Uprising in Kenya. It stars Victor Mature, Janet Leigh, Roland Culver, John Justin, and Earl Cameron, and was intentionally cast to attract an American audience—both the hero and the lead female character are Americans, played by American actors.
Walter Dalrymple Maitland Bell, known as Karamojo Bell after the Karamoja sub-region in Uganda, which he travelled extensively, was a Scottish adventurer, big game hunter in East Africa, soldier, decorated fighter pilot, sailor, writer, and painter.
Liam Redmond was an Irish character actor known for his stage, film and television roles.
Beyond Mombasa is a 1956 British-American Technicolor adventure film directed by George Marshall and starring Cornel Wilde, Donna Reed and Leo Genn. It was set in Kenya and shot on location there and at the Elstree Studios near London. The film's sets were designed by the art director Elliot Scott.
Kaz Garas is a Lithuanian-American retired actor, best known for his starring role in the TV-series Strange Report, and for his numerous portrayals of sheriffs in low-budget thrillers.
Muhammad Iqbal Mauladad (1926–1970), nicknamed Bali, was a big game hunter in Kenya.