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Where No Vultures Fly |
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Where No Vultures Fly - 1951 | 107 mins | Drama | ColourThe Production TeamDirector: Harry
Watt. Producer: Michael Balcon. Associate Producer: Leslie Norman. Script: W.P. Liscomb, Ralph Smart and Leslie Norman. (from a story by Harry Watt) Cinematography: Geoffrey Unsworth. (Wildlife photography by Paul Beeson) Editing: Gordon Stone. Music: Alan Rawsthorne. |
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The CastAnthony Steel - Bob Payton Dinah Sheridan - Mary Peyton William Simmons - Tim Peyton Harold Warrender - Mannering Meredith Edwards - Gwyl |
Plot SynopsisEncouraged by Hal Mason, Michael Balcon's production controller
and trouble-shooter who had been at the Studios from almost the start
of the post-Basil Dean regime, Harry Watt was sent to East Africa on a
story finding trip. The result was Where No Vultures Fly based on the
real-life memoirs of Mervyn Cowie, who had made a reputation as a conservationist.
In the film Anthony Steel played a Kenyan game warden, Bob Payton, who,
distressed and revolted by the constant attrition of African fauna, decides
to set about establishing a national park in Kenya. Having taken over
some thousand square miles of territory, he has to do battle with the
ivory poachers and hostile tribes who have been enlisted in their support,
before he realises his dream, a land 'where no vultures fly', the Mt.
Kilimanjaro Game Preserve Park.
Shot in TechniColour by Geoffrey Unsworth, with special wildlife photography
by Paul Beeson, the film is a capable travelogue but, at 107 minutes,
far longer than any Ealing film since Scott of the Antarctic, with flat
spots that could have been eliminated by tighter editing. Dinah Sheridan
performed gracefully as Mrs Payton, and Harold Warrender played a villain
who meets his just desserts. But the film acted as a timely and resounding
appeal on behalf of the wildlife preservation cause, and received the
accolade of selection as the Royal Film Performance presentation of
1951, which ensured that its box-office receipts were handsome. |
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