This film was shown the other day on the wonderful TALKING PICTURES Channel. I was pleasantly surprised how good the filom was and it had high production values being filmed partially in Kenya – in Colour and Cinemascope – so we got the full blast. There may have been stock footage which I have seen mentioned but I do not think so – I reckon all that appeared was filmed on the location shoot.

The Story is as follows :-

An expert African guide, Ken Duffield ( Victor Mature) seeks revenge against the leader of a gang of rebellious Mau Mau who killed his family while he was away. His licence revoked for his own good, Duffield is hired anyway by a wealthy hunter, Sir Vincent Brampton, (Roland Culver) who is used to getting his own way and seems quite ruthless.  Also we have Sir Vincent’s fiancée, Linda Latham played by Janet Leigh.

John Justin also stars – he was a big star in English Films years before but he was away fighting for his country – and when he returned he did not seem to have the same status and popularity as before. A pity really as he was pretty good in his role here.

Safari 1956 with the FOUR quite big Stars of the day – and they were all very good in this action packed film.

Victor Mature in Safari with Roland Culver and Janet Leigh – ABOVE

Victor Mature in Safari – Again with Roland Culver ABOVE

Victor Mature in Safari – chats to Janet Leigh who he is getting close to ABOVE

This is a  wonderful film and not what you might expect.  The scenery is breathtaking and clear and in Cinemascope.  The actors were well up to the job on this film. It was a great blending of talent and location. This film is not a documentary about animals but it . The film had suspense and  action – and COLOUR.

Above: Janet Leigh and John Justin relax at the side of the river then John goes off to talk to someone and Janet Leigh decides to go for a ride on the river in the small boat they have there. This starts one of the film’s most thrilling sequences.

The well know Oscar Wilde play makes the screen here in 1948

Shooting took 66 days. Paulette Goddard’s husband, Burgess Meredith, was making the film  – Mine Own Executioner for Korda at the same time.    After filming, the two of them appeared on stage in Dublin in Winterset

Korda subsequently lent some of the costumes for the wedding of Princess Elizabeth and Prince Philip.

These wonderful structures were built at Denham

Work going on erecting the outside sets.

Above: Alexander Korda – typically with Large Cigar in Hand – directing Glynis Johns in a scene from An Ideal Husband 1947

This film was shot in glorious Technicolor. It is a film I have not seen lately if at all if I think about it although it gets good reviews.

Arnold Ridley who as we all know, became so famous as Private Godfrey in Dad’s Army did have a very long acting career before he got that role.

In the Fifties he appeared in the film Green Grow The Rushes – which we have featured here and also an episode of White Hunter with Rhodes Reason.

He had been injured  during World War I ,and so the young Arnold Ridley was forced to give up a his acting career and turn to writing. He hit the jackpot with ‘The Ghost Train’ which was a great West End success and has been filmed at least twice. He had other plays during the 1920s and 1930s but with the success of The Ghost Train. 

The Ghost Train above – Arthur Askey in the Film Version – Very Good it was too !!

Above – a really lovely picture of Arnold Ridley with his son, Nicholas – Born 1946

In later life he returned to acting, and was cast in  his most famous role as Private Godfrey in the BBC comedy series Dad’s Army (1968) from 1968 to 1977.

The horrors of World War 1  had come flooding back when, in September 1939, he went to war once more, returning to France with the British Expeditionary Force – this time with the rank of major.

In an unpublished memoir written towards the end of his life, he recalled: ‘Within hours of setting foot on the quay at Cherbourg, I was suffering from acute shell-shock again. It took the form of a mental suffering that can best be described as an “inverted” nightmare.

‘I (had) suffered badly from nightmares between the wars. They always took the same form. Somehow or other, my discharge had gone wrong and I was back in the Army again. Not amid shot, shell, bayonet and other horrors, but merely back in France awaiting orders to go up to the front line once more. These dreams were so real that sometimes it would take me an hour or more to persuade myself that what I had dreamed was impossible.

‘Now it was no longer impossible. My dream had caught up with me. My real and conscious life was now my nightmare – a nightmare from which I had no awakening.’

However the picture Below needs no introduction :

The Post before this was on the subject of the Walt Disney Classic The Story of Robin Hood and His Merrie Men.

This starred Richard Todd – and once during a Radio Show he was introducing a clip from Treasure Island – and he said of Robert Newton – ‘What a Voice – and What an act to follow – and I should know because I was the person who did just that in Walt Disney’s next production made in England The Story of Robin Hood and His Merrie Men.

Richard did indeed follow on in the Disney Live Action Film and The Story of Robin Hood and His Merrie Men was a big success on a World Scale – so it appears Walt Disney chose wisely.

I have heard it said that Walt’s daughters had wanted Richard Todd to be cast as Robin Hood following his success in the The Hasty Heart which had gone so well in the USA.  It would seem that his daughters persuaded their father to cast him – and as a Father of two daughters, I can understand that they would get their way – but they were absolutely right on this.

Coming back to Treasure Island – Below

Again I have recently acquired some superb – and crystal clear pictures of Treasure Island as below :-

Above: On board the Hispaniola

Above: ‘One More Step Mr Hands, and I blow your brains out ‘

But of course Israel Hands did not heed the warning

Above: Long John escapes with Jim – who he releases on the shore further down.

Above: Long John chats with Captain Smollett and Squire Trelawney

Above: Long John approaches the Stockade and asks for a Truce

Just for good measure, we have included  BELOW this Delightful Publicity Still from the Film – Bobby Driscoll here with Captain Flint