Copyright 1955 by Group Film Productions Ltd. New York opening at the Palace: 21 October 1955. U.S. release through Lippert Pictures: 9 September 1955. U.K. release through General Film Distributors: March 1955. Australian release through British Empire Films: 21 September 1956 (sic). 101 minutes. (Available on a very good Spirit Entertainment DVD).
SYNOPSIS: On arriving in Kenya, a British settler discovers that his brother has been murdered by Mau Mau terrorists.
NOTES: One of the top ten British money-makers of 1955 in the U.K.
COMMENT: Here's a movie that cries out for Rank's Independent Frame process work. Instead the makers have reverted to the cheaper, more obvious and somewhat primitive method of inter-cutting differently graded second unit footage peopled by obvious doubles with studio cut-ins against process screens and glaring photographic blow-ups.
Hurst's clumsily heavy-handed direction, its lumbering pace emphasizing every cliché in the banal dialogue as well, further undermines the picture's credibility.
Nonetheless, despite all these obtrusive defects of technique, as well as shallow writing and superficial acting (particularly by the three principals, although Sinden is partly exonerated by terrible miscasting), plus the fact that Miss McKenna's role has been built up by Mr. Estridge (she is forced to emote through two or three totally extraneous scenes, whilst others have been padded out way beyond their levels of interest and/or importance); — despite all these problems "Simba" still packs a mighty punch.
It's a case of the powerful theme overcoming the triteness of its telling. And it must be admitted that Hurst does handle the horrifying action scenes forcefully, partly by the very unobtrusiveness, lack of involvement and even the clumsiness of his technique.
Although some critics complained that Bogarde was being stereotyped in truculently unsympathetic parts, his public didn't seem to mind. He topped both Motion Picture Herald polls of British showmen for 1955, as the top picture-goer magnet among British stars, and as the top box-office star in the U.K. over all.
SYNOPSIS: On arriving in Kenya, a British settler discovers that his brother has been murdered by Mau Mau terrorists.
NOTES: One of the top ten British money-makers of 1955 in the U.K.
COMMENT: Here's a movie that cries out for Rank's Independent Frame process work. Instead the makers have reverted to the cheaper, more obvious and somewhat primitive method of inter-cutting differently graded second unit footage peopled by obvious doubles with studio cut-ins against process screens and glaring photographic blow-ups.
Hurst's clumsily heavy-handed direction, its lumbering pace emphasizing every cliché in the banal dialogue as well, further undermines the picture's credibility.
Nonetheless, despite all these obtrusive defects of technique, as well as shallow writing and superficial acting (particularly by the three principals, although Sinden is partly exonerated by terrible miscasting), plus the fact that Miss McKenna's role has been built up by Mr. Estridge (she is forced to emote through two or three totally extraneous scenes, whilst others have been padded out way beyond their levels of interest and/or importance); — despite all these problems "Simba" still packs a mighty punch.
It's a case of the powerful theme overcoming the triteness of its telling. And it must be admitted that Hurst does handle the horrifying action scenes forcefully, partly by the very unobtrusiveness, lack of involvement and even the clumsiness of his technique.
Although some critics complained that Bogarde was being stereotyped in truculently unsympathetic parts, his public didn't seem to mind. He topped both Motion Picture Herald polls of British showmen for 1955, as the top picture-goer magnet among British stars, and as the top box-office star in the U.K. over all.