The Naked Earth

The Naked Earth (1958)

Adventure's Mighty Era!

Africa, early 20th century, an Englishman marries the girlfriend of a late friend and faces natives and adventures, on the banks of a river infested with crocodiles.

Date of release
1958-02-05
TMDB
10.0 / 10 (1)
Runtime
1h 36m
Genres
Adventure, Drama
Director
Vincent Sherman

Casting

Interesting facts

The Naked Earth is a 1958 British drama film directed by Vincent Sherman and written by Milton Holmes and Harold Buchman. The film stars Richard Todd, Juliette Gréco, John Kitzmiller, Finlay Currie, Laurence Naismith and Christopher Rhodes. The film was released on February 4, 1958, by 20th Century Fox.

Production

Executive Arthur Abeles had worked with Vincent Sherman on The Hasty Heart. He showed the script to Sherman in London and the director liked it. Sherman later wrote in his memoirs, "I felt that out of this story I could get a film similar to some of the French and Italian classics that I had seen in the thirties, which were down to earth, dramatic, and filled with honest humor.

Sherman took the project to Robert Clark of Associated British who agreed to make the film if Sherman could get his name "cleared" - he was politically suspect at the time due to his leftist beliefs. Sherman was eventually able to do this. However Clark was not able to offer the money that the film required. Instead the film was sold to 20th Century Fox; head of British productions was Robert Goldstein.

It was the first of three films Adrian Worker made for his own company in association with 20th Century Fox. Worker said filming proceeded smoothly and was completed on time and on budget.

The lead role was originally offered to Richard Burton who turned it down. It was then offered to Richard Todd, who had worked with Sherman on The Hasty Heart and had signed a four-picture deal with 20th Century Fox; Todd liked the script and agreed to make it. The female lead was offered to Joan Collins who turned it down. Darryl F.

Filming took place on location in Uganda and at Elstree Studios in London. According to Todd "the film was obviously turning out well" but "an unpleasant schism was developing between" Vincent Sherman "and the producer, who was also the screenwriter, and relations between them grew progressively worse.

Read on Wikipedia · Text from Wikipedia, CC BY-SA 4.0. Data from Wikidata.

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