King Solomon's Mine and Lady in the Lake

Actually, these two films have no direct connection except through me. They are both films based on books. In the case of Solomon's mine, I had recently bought a selection of nicely bound and produced hard cover books that I found offered for $1.00 at my local branch of the Los Angeles County Library system. I only selected books I had never read which included Haggard's novel written in 1885.

In the case of Chandler's Lady in the Lake I saw the last 20 or 25 minutes of it on the tube and became confused as to what had happened. Consequently, I bought the book from my favorite book store, Powell's Books of Portland, Oregon and read it as well.

After I had read both of these books I re-watched video's of the two films. What interested me most is that neither film was much like the story they were based on. I'll discuss them separately.

KING SOLOMON'S MINE - 1950

In H. Ryder Haggard's original novel the story covered the trip of a party of three Englishmen and a native South African to an mysterious and unknown land in the heart of Africa where supposedly, Solomon had stored his treasure in a cavern. The men were led by a man named Allan Quatermain who was a well known African hunter in his early 50's. Their objective was to find the brother of one of the Quatermain's two companions. With much hazardous journeying they crossed through jungles and then a terrible desert to eventually climb a couple of peaks remarkably named the Sheba's Two Breasts which had snow at their summits. From there they descended and crossed a into a lush valley along an ancient road that led to a village or Krall.

At this point they learned that a Black African man who had joined their party was of royal blood. A tremendous battle between thousands of native men ensued where in their claimant to the throne's forces conduct a ferocious battle with the troops of his cousin who had usurped the throne. After this venture they were led to the cavern and discovered the huge fortune of mostly diamonds but also of gold and ivory that had been accumulated by Solomon. There through treachery they were trapped in the cavern but fortunately managed to find a way out along the course of a river that exited the cavern on the slopes of the mountain the cave was located in.

In 1950 a rousing beautifully shot color film was made of this story. This is generally acknowledged to be the best of the films made of Haggard's adventure novel. I remembered very little of the film except for the tall Watusi man who played the true king but most of all beautiful Deborah Kerr sitting next to a thundering waterfall looking as beautiful as she could look. The party included Quatermain, a handsome Stewart Granger, Richard Carlson playing the brother of the missing man and Kerr as a replacement for the novels third man. I discovered later that the waterfall that Kerr was sitting next to was the famous Murchinson Fall that exits Lake Victoria.

Again there was a desert, though the peaks known as the two breasts were not involved. And eventually the party arrived at the Krall where the usurper to the throne lived. Again there is a battle but in this case just the usurper and the rightful king fight, and of course the latter wins by throwing a spear into the body of his opponent. They are led to the mine and because of treachery are locked in its depths, but they find the river and manage to swim out to safety.

I must admit to enjoying the film version of the story more than that of the book. Haggard, was largely influenced by the Zulu war which had occurred in that part of South Africa a few years earlier in 1879. The people he described were related to the Zulu's and had the same military practices as those used by the Zulu people during their war with the English. These people were entirely fictional. The actual Watusi people used in the film were different in stature from the Zulu's who were a tall and muscular. The Watusi tended to be tall and slim

The Zulu War was an important part of the British experience in Southern Africa. Three major battles were fought, and the Zulu's armed just with spears won all three of them but with a terrible loss of life. There is a history of this war that came out in the 1965 which covers it in great detail. If you like history you may like this book, "The Washing of the Spears." It was written by Donald R. Morris who had a long career in the United State Navy and in intelligence operations. The books title of washing of the spears is meant their being blooded after use in a battle.

THE LADY IN THE LAKE - 1947

This story was one of Raymond Chandler's most well liked. In involved four murders three of which being committed by one person. The fourth was a subsequent murder of the protagonist of the first three murders. It involves Chandler's hard boiled detective, Philip Marlowe, being hired to locate the wife of an important publisher of crime novels. The story takes Marlowe up to a lake in the San Bernardino mountains where the Publisher has a mountain home. In checking out what might have happened there a body is discovered under a pier in the lake. This body turns out to the wife of a handyman who works at the site.

The wife Marlowe is searching for, Crystal Kingsley apparently ran off with a guy who has been courting her, a kind of low life womanizer named Chris Lavery. Marlowe visits him and is accosted by the police when a neighbor of the womanizer spots him hanging around. The local police don't much like private eyes such as Marlowe.

Later Chandler visits the womanizer's home again and discovers the owner of the rented house coming down the stairs with a gun in her hand which she says she found on the stairs. She's there because he's behind in his rent. Later Marlowe discovers the guy slumped dead in his shower from bullet wounds.

The case seems to be getting more and more involved in that Marlowe discovers that the wife of the doctor who lived across the street died a few months back of mysterious causes. No autopsy was ever done on her body. That's murder number three. Finally Marlowe comes back again and he meets the person who has done all three crimes. There, while they are talking he is sapped from behind. When he wakes up he finds that person dead and laying on the floor next to him.

Marlowe reviews the case and explains who did what and who they were. I'm not going to reveal it here, you'll either have to read the book or see the film.

When the film was made starring Robert Montgomery as Marlowe they used a different technique. In it the only time you saw Marlowe was when he was in front of or looking in a mirror. At all other times people talking to him in the film address the camera. This includes the couple of times he gets knocked out.

The story was changed so that emphasis was placed on other roles. Audrey Totter had the lead role and she played a person with very little action in the book, the secretary of the man who hired Marlowe, publisher Derace Kingsley. In the film she hires Marlowe without telling her boss. Initially Totter plays the role pretty smoothly, but eventually she seems to come over so broadly that you tend to laugh at her outbursts and become over her performance. Much better, at least to me, was Jayne Meadows who played the landlord of the murdered guy. Her performance was more in keeping with that of book.

If you have a choice, read this book and don't bother with the movie. Go the other route with King Solomon's Mines. The book ends up killing more native African people than you would think was possible. Besides, Deborah Kerr looks particularly young and beautiful in the trek after Solomon's riches. One other thought. Stewart Granger as Quatermain is far more concerned about the welfare of the native animals than the Quatermain of the book. The latter leads a shooting of several elephants just to secure their tusks, something the Quatermain of the film would never approve of.

Through the years Philip Marlowe was played by several different actors, most particularly by Humphrey Bogart who also played Sam Spade the other most famous private eye of this type. Dick Powell played Marlowe in one film, George Montgomery in another, and Elliot Gould had the role several years later. In addition James Garner and Robert Mitchum took a crack at the character. In some respects, Philip Marlowe is the closest modern day challenger to Sherlock Holmes.

Supporting Players

Back in the early days of talking pictures, those of the 30's, 40's and 50's supporting players were an important part of each picture. Supporting players were people that you might recognize but would be unlikely to remember their names. To a great extent they would be type cast. Particular directors or produceers would request certain people whenever they had a role of a certain type. However, this wasn't always true. Preston Sturges for example tended to use people outside their normally expected role. A really good example is Jack Norton who was noted through nearly 100 separate films for playing drunks. When Norton played a drunk there was no question as to what his problem was. A good example is the W.C. Fields film "The Bank Dick" where Norton playing a movie film director is completely pie eyed and stumbling along held up by two filming assistants. When Sturges used Norton in "Hail the Conquering Hero" he had him cast as a band director leading a marching band. Norton didn't have any screen credit for this role, and not everyone recognized him which would not have been the case if he had played his typical drunk. Incidentally his screen role title in The Bank Dick was A Pismo Clam.


Things have changed in recent years. The film "An Education," a well received film from 20o9, is an interesting example. It starred Casey Mulligan in the lead role along with Peter Sarsgaard, and Olivia Williams. There were several lead supporting players. Far down the list was Emma Thompson, who has played leads and directed and produced films very successfully for several years. Her work is widely known, but here she was a lower supporting player playing the role of an English girls school principal, with just three short scenes. Even more remarkable was Sally Hawkins who has played lead roles in several films including the recent fun film "Poppy." Her role consisted of about four lines of dialogue with not more than 25 words.


In the earlier days this just didn't happen. A lead actor might not play a supporing role of any type until they reached thesenior or near-senior age backet. Supporting roles were for extras, standins and the like. A real good example of this paradox is the well known but mostly under-appreciated Fanklin Pangborn. Pangborn played in nearly 100 films in his nearly 50 year film career. In most of these he is easily recognized as a rather prissy clerk at a counter or the like. He sported a very skinny moustache and looked about what he portrayed. A slightly different take on his role was in the Bing Crosby short film "Blues In the Night" which was released in 1933. Bing's singing by then was greatly appreciated. During this period he made six films for Matt Sennett that mainly consisted of shallow roles but lots of singing. Arguably the best of these was "Blues In the Night.' In this one Pangborn oddly enough played a film director in his prissy style. He drove a big contervible, perhaps a Deusenberg or some othe vehicle of that class. Twice he manages to fall into or be pushed into a swimming pool where several persons are gathered around. Among them was Toby Wing the very delectable teenager, she was 17 at the time, who most people remember only as Dick Powell's companion in the "Young and Helathy" number for the film "42nd street." Toby has no lines in this film which was typical of her fate. But she was easily remembered for sexy appearance in the 42nd Street number.

An oddity of the "Blues in the Night" film is something that normally would happen on camera result in thescene having to be re-shot. Bing is talking to the films female lead Babe Kane near the pool. As they are talking you can see in the distant background a young woman running full out. She disappears in back of a car. You see her next at the swimming pool and you then recognize that it was the peroxide blond Wing.

Toby did have a line in one of Cary Grant's earlier but not particularly popular pictures. Grant plays a Parisian specialist at making women beautiful in face and figure. It's a very shallow role. Toby is one of the women who comes to him for help. She has a couple of lines of dialogue and takes off her dress and stands in her undergarments. Her beauty and lovely figure made her career advance as much as it did. Incidently in this role she is called Consuelo of Claghorne. Grant, the Parisian beauty expert is Dr. Maurice Lamar.

Pangborn made films forever. Some of his memorable roles were in Preston Sturgess films including "Hail the Conquering Hero" which we discussed above relative to Jack Norton, Pangborn played the organizer and director of the welcoming program for Eddie Bracken's faux hero. This is the same segment where Norton is scene as one of the band leaders.

Here is a short list of films where Pangborn plays in his typical humorous style. All of these are highly rated humor films. You can't go wrong if you make a point of viewing some of them: Sullivan's Travels - 1941, the most highly rated of Preston Sturgis films. The Bank Dick - 1940, where Pangborn plays a bank examiner whose last name is surprisingly,"Snoopington." My Man Godfrey - 1936, a classic screwball comedy starring the real experts in that type of role, William Powell and Carole Lombard. Palm Beach Story - 1942, another Preston Sturges classic starring Joel McCrea and Claudette Colbert, which also includes Jack Norton playing a member of the Ale and Quale club. Flying Down to Rio - 1933, the first pairing of Fred Astaire and Ginger Rogers. Mr. Deeds Goes to town - 1936, with Gary Cooper and Jean Arthur. There are a number more where Pangborn contributes his particular expertese, but if you sample some of these you will get acquainted with the Franklin Pangborn style.