The Adventurers (1951 film)

The Adventurers
Original British 1-sheet poster
Directed by David MacDonald
Produced by Aubrey Baring
Maxwell Setton
Written by Robert Westerby
Starring Dennis Price
Jack Hawkins
Siobhan McKenna
Music by Cedric Thorpe Davie
Cinematography Oswald Morris
Edited by Vladimir Sagovsky
Production
company
Distributed by General Film Distributors
Release date
 7 March 1951 (London)
Running time
 86 minutes
Country United Kingdom
Language English

The Adventurers is a 1951 British adventure film directed by David MacDonald and starring Dennis Price, Jack Hawkins, Peter Hammond.[1] In the wake of the Boer War several men journey into the South African veldt in search of diamonds.

Production

The film was based on an original story by the novelist and screenwriter Robert Westerby, one of several he wrote for the independent production company Mayflower Pictures. It was made at Pinewood Studios, with some location filming in South Africa. Production was completed in 1950, but the film wasn't released until the following March by General Film Distributors.

Plot

As the Boer War finalises a South African soldier hides a cache of diamonds he finds on a body. He returns to the town he left three years earlier where his girl has married a disgraced English officer. Needing funds to get back to pick up the diamonds the Boer enlists the help of a fellow soldier as well as the Englishman and a local hotel keeper.[2]

Cast

Release

The film was originally known as The South Africa Story. It had its world premiere aboard the Queen Mary liner.[3] The film was cut by 12 minutes for its U.S. release, and was twice retitled, as Fortune in Diamonds and The Great Adventure.[4]

Critical reception

Allmovie noted "an African variation of Treasure of the Sierra Madre, The Adventurers is buoyed by an unusually vicious performance by Jack Hawkins" ;[5] while the Radio Times wrote, "this could have been quite stirring if it hadn't been morbidly under-directed at a snail's pace by David MacDonald" ;[4] and TV Guide found that, despite its borrowings from Sierra Madre and from von Stroheim's Greed, "it is nevertheless an often-gripping film."[6]

References

  1. ↑ "The Adventurers". BFI.
  2. ↑ Perkins, Jeremy. "The Adventurers (1951)". Retrieved 1 July 2013.
  3. ↑ "Germans to see Australian film". The Mail. Adelaide: National Library of Australia. 19 May 1951. p. 11 Supplement: SUNDAY MAGAZINE. Retrieved 27 January 2014.
  4. 1 2 Tony Sloman. "The Adventurers". RadioTimes.
  5. ↑ "Fortune in Diamonds (1951) – Trailers, Reviews, Synopsis, Showtimes and Cast – AllMovie". AllMovie.
  6. ↑ "The Adventurers". TV Guide.
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