Director: Robert Stevenson
Year:  1937
Rating: 6.5

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I hadn't realized that there was this early version of King Solomon's Mines from 1937 until I tripped over it the other day. Stewart Granger made parhaps the best known one in 1950 and later Richard Chamberlain made a dud version with Sharon Stone in 1985. All of course derived from the book by H. Rider Haggard though I have no idea if any of the versions stay faithful to the source.


This one rather amazingly gives top billing to the legendary African-American singer Paul Robeson. A black man in a Hollywood mainstream production getting his name above the rest of the white cast had to be a rarity back then. In an odd piece of casting Quartermain is portrayed by Cedric Hardwicke who was far from the image we normally have of this heroic character being into his forties but looking much older and rather creaky. Hardwicke almost always played dramatic roles.


Quartermain is a hunter in Africa but gets put into a position by the delightful Anna Lee to go into unknown territory to look for her father who went off on his own to search for the treasure of King Solomon's Mines. Along on the search is Roland Young doing his understated British gentleman shtick, John Loder who takes the romantic lead away from Quartermain and of course Robeson who mysteriously tags along. On the way Robeson manages to fit in three songs which seem quite out of place but then it's Robeson so who is to complain. The first hour sort of creeps along but the final 30 minutes is quite good.