We've just finished reading the book, so we decided we needed to check out the film version. I say "the," but there have been several (most recently one in 2004 starring Patrick Swayze!), but this is the only one to feature the mighty Paul Robeson. The book itself is a real 19th century rip-snorter, with blood-curdling tales of elephant slaughter, followed by an enraged bull-elephant literally pulling a poor native guide in half, and in general mass slaughter, involving various hacking implements, along with a pair of mountains referred to as "Sheba's Breasts," complete with nipples. It is the tale of three Englishman, the narrator, Alan Quartermain, Sir Henry Curtis (a giant viking of a man) and (for comic relief) Good, an ex-sailor friend of Sir Henry's. The latter two seek out the former, a renowned white hunter, to try to find Sir Henry's brother George. It so happens that Quartermain was the last to see George as he set off across the desert to try to find the fabled titular diamond mines. Quartermain is of the opinion that none could survive this journey, because he himself has a map given to him by a Spaniard, whose Spaniard ancestor drew it 300 years before, but who died on the spot, having got only about halfway across the desert. But Sir Henry will pay handsomely, including a large portion up front, and Quartermain figures that's enough to set his son, who is studying to be a doctor, up, and having lived an eventful life (and lost his wife), he's prepared to risk almost certain death. In the book, there's a good deal of description of planning the trip, and some elephant hunting beforehand, and meeting a mysterious Zulu who calls himself Mbopa, who is as fine and strapping a figure as Sir Henry, shows up and volunteers to make the trip with them. In the film, however, although all these characters appear, the subplot about the brother is removed and in its place are a rather disreputable Irishman. O'Brien, and his daughter, Kathy are there when Quartermain meets the Spaniard, and the father gets the map and sets out across the desert, leaving the daughter in Quatermain's charge. Also, Mbopa was on the cart with the Spaniard, so Quartermain distrusts him.
Sir Henry gets involved because he and Good are booked to go hunting with Quartermain but Kathy persuades Sir Henry to tell some of Quartermain's guides to obey her and makes off with one of his wagons. Sir Henry feels responsible, and so, off they go. They soon catch up with Kathy, but she refuses to go back without Pa, so on they go. They abandon their wagons (as in the book) because the oxen can't survive the desert, but apparently O'Brien didn't know that, because they find his abandoned cart in the middle of the desert, albeit with a note from O'Brien saying he's gone on on foot. So, on they go. They almost die of thirst, but Mbopa (in the book it's a bushman guide) "smells water" and they dig to find some, which sustains them long enough to make it to the mountains that the Spaniard has on his map as the gateway to the land that contains the mines. In the book, the climb over the mountains is a harrowing ordeal that involves the poor water-smelling bushman dying of cold in the same mountain cave that contains the frozen corpse of the 300-year-old Spaniard, but this is glossed over in the film, and we cut to down in the valley on the other side, where we first encounter the people of Kukuanaland. Again, in the book, we are introduced to two important characters: Infadoos, an old general, and Scragga, the evil son of the evil King Twala. And while we see both characters named in the opening credits, we are never officially introduced. It's as if their parts are cut from the final film. (This is still better than the 1950s Deborah Kerr remake, where none of the lead roles are Africans.) The book is interesting, in that, although very far from politically correct, the book (and Quartermain's voice) are very appreciative of the nobility of the characters of key Kukuana figures, and the speeches that are given by various members of their culture are stirring and poetic. This is pretty much all left up to Paul Robeson's Mbopa (who pretty quickly reveals himself to be the rightful king of Kukuanaland, Ignosi, whose father Twala, with the help of the ghastly Methuselah-like witch Gagool (who also features in the film, and is quite well-done) dispatched, leading his mother to flee with him into the desert. He also gets to show off his legendary singing voice, although I could've done without those musical numbers. The war scenes in the book rival Helm's Deep in Lord of the Rings, but I've never enjoyed such things, and was rather glad that they were truncated rather in the film, although, true to the book, Sir Henry gets to slay the evil Twala in a fight (although not in a post-battle duel, as in the book). One major character cut out of the film is the beautiful dusky maiden Foulata, who falls madly in love with Good (despite him being a comic character, with half-shaved face and no trousers (thus displaying his "beautiful white legs," to go with his false teeth and monocle, all of which enable Quartermain to convince the Kukuanalanders that they are white gods from the stars)), and he with her, which causes Quartermain much internal anguish, knowing that their union will never be sanctioned. Foulata solves the problem by being killed by Gagool in the mines, but not before she is crushed under a giant stone door. This leads to an entombment of our three main white characters (along with vast wealth in diamonds and gold) that they escape though back passages into the mines, but the film replaces this with an active volcano, very effectively done, and the discovery that somehow O'Brien beat them to the mines, although he broke his leg while there (in the book it is Sir Henry's brother who has a broken leg, but in an oasis in the desert that they find on the way home). They leave Mbopa/Ignosi now restored as king over Kukuanaland and head home.
Overall, very well-cast for the most part (particularly Robeson, Cedric Hardwicke as Quartermain, and Roland Young as Good, who gets to deliver several laugh-out-loud lines, and Twala and Gagool are very effective), but Sir Henry is all wrong (too small!) and the Irish characters are just annoying.
The scenery is amazing (filmed in Southern Africa), a cast of hundreds, at least, actual Africans, too, and the special effects for the volcano are amazing for the time. But why do screenwriters insist on making unnecessary changes to books?
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