The Adventurers (1951)

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Written by Robert Westerby

Directed by David MacDonald

Running Time: 90 minutes (approx)

Production Year: 1951

Rating: U Certificate

Production Country: UK

Filmed in Black and White

It's post-Boer War South Africa, and former Boer commando, Pieter Brandt (Jack Hawkins) heads into the Veldt to retrieve 'a fortune in diamonds' (the film's alternative title) and he's buried deep within bush country. With him are: expat English weasel, Clive Hunter (Dennis Price) who's stolen Brandt's girl Anne (Siobhan McKenna); slime-ball saloon owner, Dominic (Gregoire Aslan), to whom Hunter owes heavy drinking and gambling debts; and Pieter's former army colleague, Hendrik van Thaal (Peter Hammond), whose father (Ronald Adam) has funded the trip.

There's no love lost between the four adventurers, and the tension heightens into a biting drama of death and deceit as the unforgiving landscape and the quartet's open distrust of one another take their toll.

Making the most of the expansive Veldt and Drakenburg mountain range was Oswald 'Ossie' Morris, the great British cameraman who went on to win an Oscar for the cinematography of Fiddler On The Roof.

Director, David MacDonald always handled action well (see The Moonraker), and in The Adventurers, as Variety commented, he conjures a "rugged realism," getting, "every possible advantage of talent, location and dramatic story."

Cast

Image for Jack HawkinsJack HawkinsPieter Brandt
Peter HammondHendrik van Thaal
Dennis PriceClive Hunter
Grégoire AslanDominic
Charles PatonBarman
Siobhan McKennaAnne Hunter
Image for Bernard LeeBernard LeeO'Connell
Ronald AdamVan Thaal
Martin BoddeyChief Engineer
Phillip RayMan in Restaurant
Walter HorsbrughMan in Restaurant
Cyril ChamberlainWaiter

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