Killers of Kilimanjaro [Adamson of Africa] * (1959, Robert Taylor, Anne Aubrey, Grégoire Aslan) – Classic Movie Review 13,215

The 1959 British adventure film Killers of Kilimanjaro was was shot in CinemaScope in Tanganyika, and stars Robert Taylor, Anthony Newley and Anne Aubrey.

Director Richard Thorpe’s 1959 British CinemaScope and colour adventure film Killers of Kilimanjaro [Adamson of Africa] is based on a book by John A Hunter and Daniel P Mannix, and stars Robert Taylor, Anthony Newley, Anne Aubrey, Donald Pleasence and Grégoire Aslan. It comes from American producers Irving Allen and Albert R Broccoli’s British production company Warwick Films.

Killers of Kilimanjaro is an East African-set adventure yarn about a 1900 pioneering new railway map worker called Robert Adamson (Robert Taylor) helping a woman named Jane Carlton (Anne Aubrey) to look for her fiancé and her father who have vanished in the wilds. Grégoire Aslan plays the slaver-baddie Ben Ahmed, who wants to take over the railway, but Adamson stirs up a local tribe to defeat him and henchmen.

Ted Moore’s CinemaScope widescreen photography gives the wildlife some bite, and there are one or two decent action scenes, but, with little conviction in the script by John Gilling and Earl Felton or the performances, there is precious little else of any interest. It is tame, tired stuff and some of it is quite laughable, with a set of bad colonialist attitudes.

It is inspired by the story of the Tsavo maneaters detailed in the 1954 book African Bush Adventures by John A Hunter and Daniel P Mannix.

The cast are Robert Taylor as Robert Adamson, Anthony Newley as Hooky Hook, Anne Aubrey as Jane Carlton, Donald Pleasence as Captain, Grégoire Aslan as Ben Ahmed, Allan Cuthbertson as Saxton, Martin Benson as Ali, Orlando Martins as Chief, John Dimech as Pasha, Martin Boddey as Gunther, John Dimech as Pasha, Earl Cameron as Witchdoctor, Harry Baird as Boraga, Anthony Jacobs as Mustaph, Joyce Blair, and Barbara Joyce.

Killers of Kilimanjaro [Adamson of Africa] is directed by Richard Thorpe, runs 91 minutes, is made by Warwick Films, is released by Columbia Pictures, is written by John Gilling and Earl Felton, based a story by Richard Maibaum and Cyril Hume, based on the book African Bush Adventures by John A Hunter and Daniel P Mannix, is shot in colour and CinemaScope widescreen by Ted Moore, is produced by Irving Allen (executive producer) Albert R Broccoli (executive producer) and John R Sloan, and is scored by William Alwyn, with Art Direction by Ray Simm.

It was shot from February to April 1959 in Moshi, Tanganyika, also used for Mogambo and Tarzan’s Greatest Adventure.

Warwick Films had previously made three films in Africa, Safari, Zarak and Odongo.

© Derek Winnert 2024 – Classic Movie Review 13,215

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