Safari

Safari (1956)

Murderous Mau-Mau! Maddened beasts! Mighty jungle love!

Wealthy eccentric Sir Vincent Brampton and his fiancée Linda Latham hire Ken Duffield to lead them on a jungle hunt. Duffield is looking for the murderer of his son; he gets the killer and Linda.

Date of release
1956-06-20
TMDB
5.6 / 10 (18)
Runtime
1h 30m
Genres
Adventure
Director
Terence Young

Casting

Interesting facts

  • Filmed in: Kenya

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 Ken Duffield and the lead female character Linda Latham are Americans, played by American actors.

Production

The movie was one of several action films from Warwick Productions. Rhonda Fleming was originally announced for the female lead role of Linda Latham and the producers were hoping to get Humphrey Bogart to star.

Location filming in Kenya began in June 1955 before the film had been cast. Victor Mature had signed a two-picture contract with Warwick Films and he was assigned to the lead. He was meant to make Zarak but ended up making Safari first. In 1959 Warwick's Irving Allen said "You think I employ Victor Mature because I like that big lug? I employ him because he brings in the money and he isn't a genius boy."

Producer Andy Worker said he had to get Victor Mature drunk before the actor would get on the plane as he was so afraid of flying.

Filming began 1 August 1955 in Elstree Studios in London. Five weeks later the unit transferred to Kenya for location shooting.

The film was shot on location in Kenya simultaneously with John Gilling's Odongo with the Zanzibar-born child actor Juma repeating his role as Odongo. In an interview in 1997, Janet Leigh recalled that the film's second unit was actually attacked by the Mau Mau.

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

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