Simba (1955)

Interesting facts

• Filmed in: Kenya and Pinewood Studios

Simba is a 1955 British war drama film directed by Brian Desmond Hurst, and starring Dirk Bogarde, Donald Sinden, Virginia McKenna, and Basil Sydney. The screenplay concerns a British family living in East Africa, who become embroiled in the Mau Mau Uprising.

Production

The box-office success of The Planter's Wife (1952) saw Rank become interested in making films about other contemporary Imperial stories and head of production Earl St. John put out a call for story submissions to do with the Mau Mau Uprising. Anthony Perry obliged with a treatment and he was sent to Kenya, where his advisers included Charles Njonjo.

Desmond Hurst said, "We have to be most scrupulous with a subject like this Every care must be taken to give both the European and African view to the whole situation."

The film was shot at Pinewood Studios, with second unit photography in Kenya. The producers had originally hoped to cast Jack Hawkins in the lead and used a double in Kenya to match him in long shot. When Hawkins was unavailable, Bogarde was cast instead and much of the Kenyan footage covering Hawkins could not be used.

Several of the Mau Mau were played by real Mau Mau rebels under death sentence; they were executed three days after filming.

Brian Desmond Hurst was a very touchy man. When he directed me in Simba... He overheard me tell the actor Sydney Tafler that I thought Simba was ‘fair’. His face turned red and he looked at me and said something I would not accept from anybody. He called me a ‘bloody nigger’. Sydney looked at me as if to say ‘forget it’. He could see me getting angry. So I just walked away. I said nothing. It wasn’t a very happy film.

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