The Snows of Kilimanjaro

Rating:
Summary: 1952 Gregory Peck feature not a classic !
Review: A colorized version of a b/w film shot in exotic European locations, three legendary Hollywood screen actors of the 40s and 50s (Gregory Peck, Susan Hayward, and Ava Gardner), based on a story considered a classic of American literature. . .how could you go wrong? How, indeed? But something doesn't translate well here, sadly.

"The Snows of Kilimanjaro" is a slow-moving film, a bit disjointed, told completely in flashbacks. I remember reading excerpts from Ernest Hemingway's story of the same name for an upper-level English composition course I took over 20 years ago from one of the long-haired hippie professors who were the bane of my existence back then. Problem with that particular prof was that he forced us to read dark, depresssing mediocre literature; I never liked anything he wanted us to model our own writing after--and still don't like the authors he held up as paragons of good writing.

SYNOPSIS: Successful American writer Harry Street (Peck) is forced to reflect on his past successes and failures and analyzes his life as he faces death at the foot of Mt. Kilimanjaro. He is camped on the slope of the famous African mountain with his second wife, Helen, who listens to him bemoan his lost (dead) first wife, Cynthia, as he drifts in and out of consciousness following an accident. The cause of his medical condition is not clear, as the couple can't agree whether he was scraped by a poisonous thorn or if he got injured while rescuing an African native from an angry hippopotamus, so this just added to my confusion. I'm not even sure if Helen is actually his wife; Susan Hayward is listed simply as "Helen" with no last name in all cast-lists I could find for this film. I missed something, what with all the flashbacks and cuts back to the camp-site where Street lay on his deathbed, surrounded by vultures in the trees and cackling hyenas at night.

The bright spot I found in this film was in Hildegard Knef's rather campy portrayal of "Countess Liz," to whom Street was affianced after divorcing Cynthia and before taking off to Africa with Helen. (Confused? So was I!) I don't think she meant to be funny, but I found her accent reminiscent of Madeline Kahn's character in "Young Frankenstein," which I found a hoot. Kahn may have used Knef as her role-model! I mean, I thought Harry and Liz were living in Paris, and I thought Liz was probably French. I researched Hildegard Knef a bit and found that she was born in Germany; she sounded like a German imitating a French accent, and I got a kick out of it.

One final detail that I might point out could help other viewers when they watch this film. At first I found it odd that two similar-looking brunette actresses (Hayward and Gardner) were cast as Harry Street's wives, but then I remembered something that the character says when he met Helen. Harry is giving a voice-over narrative during some of the flashbacks and is actually speaking to his dead wife Cynthia. He says, basically, "I'd follow any woman who reminded me of you in some way."

How very sad. Harry and Cynthia were happy together, but divorce because of a personal tragedy that happens between them, so Harry moves on to fabulously wealthy but overly-controlling Liz, only to realize at the last minute that he is still in love with his first wife. Harry goes to Spain, too late, to find Cynthia. I think he somehow thought he could replace Cynthia with a similar-looking woman, but it just couldn't be the same.

RECOMMENDATION: Get this if you're a big fan of Gregory Peck, Ava Gardner (she gives a good performance), or Susan Hayward, but don't think you're getting a top-notch rendition of a piece of American Literature (consider the source; it's a work by Hemingway!). Another translation for high-school students: don't substitute viewing this film for reading the Cliff's-Notes!! You'll end up more confused than if you simply read the book.

Rating:
Summary: SNOWS OF KILIMANJARO,THE
Review: A FOREIGN ADVENTURE SET IN A BROAD COLORFUL STORY.THE HERO-AUTHOR (GREGORY PECK) IS LYING INJURED ON THE SLOP OF AFRICA'S FAMOUS MOUNTAIN, Mt. KILIMANJARO.REFLECTING ON HIS PAST ADVENTURES AND ROMANCES..ALSO STARRING SUSAN HAYWARD & AVA GARDNER..MADE IN 1952.. STORY FROM HEMINGWAY'S NOVEL.RUNNING TIME:117min.DIR:HENRY KING

Rating:
Summary: HAS LITTLE TO DO WITH KILIMANJARO...
Review: As he lay dying,

Peck pines for Ava whom he

loves, while Hayward waits.

Rating:
Summary: Snows of Kilimanjaro
Review: Bought the DVD in assembling a Gregory Peck collection. Version was the one with Ava Gardner on the cover of the pack. The film was complete, but there was annoying technical noise, and quite a bit of fluttering in the picture. I may at some point buy another version of this DVD, but I do not recommend the technical quality of this particular production.

Rating:
Summary: Snows of Kilimanjaro
Review: Bought the DVD in assembling a Gregory Peck collection. Version was the one with Ava Gardner on the cover of the pack. The film was complete, but there was annoying technical noise, and quite a bit of fluttering in the picture. I may at some point buy another version of this DVD, but I do not recommend the technical quality of this particular production.

Rating:
Summary: An interesting Hemingway adaptation
Review: Ernest Hemingway hated this adaptation of his work, and disparagingly referred to it as "The Snows of Zanuck." I think he was overestimating his own writing, and I think the film is no worse than the work upon which it was based. Methinks he doth protest too much. Hemingway was heard to grumble: "I sold Zanuck one short story, not my whole body of works." The Casey Robinson screenplay is witty and honest, with the right blend of cynicism and naivetee. Gregory Peck is a gruff, grumbly, handsome-as-a-devil Hemingway "hero," and Ava Gardner makes a memorable, heartbreakingly beautiful Cynthia. Susan Hayward makes the best of the film's most thankless role (she looks great in a pith helmut, too). The layers of flashbacks perfectly convey the sense of a man reevaluating his past as he faces imminent death. Much has been made of the ending, and the way it deviates from the original story. I don't see the sunny Hollywood ending purists have denounced, since we really don't know the status of the dying writer as the helicopter arrives. The soundtrack is a bit loopy and out-of-synch in places, and the special effects (especially the river crossing) look pretty bad by today's standards, but the acting adds a depth and humanity which is missing from Hemingway's original work. A fun piece of escapist safaridrama along the lines of the superior "King Solomon's Mines" or "Mogambo."

Rating:
Summary: Possibly hollywood's worst Hemingway adaptation
Review: Ranks right down there with Hemingway's Adventures of a Young Man. Stiff Peck at his honking woodenest, vapid Gardner, shrill Hayward, the adaptation like something out of a romance mag. Only Bernard Hermann's music which he later recycled for Vertigo was of professional quality.

Rating:
Summary: reminiscing with Harry
Review: Using Ernest Hemingway's story of a writer in Africa, as well some of his other fictional themes blended in, this is a wordy but occasionally poetic tale of a man with a severe leg wound, reminiscing about his travels and the women in his life, as he lies close to death at the foot of Mt. Kilimanjaro, with his latest love by his side.
As the ambitious, hard-drinking, hard-living writer (some will say elements of the story are like Hemingway's life), Gregory Peck puts in a good performance, though of all his great films, this one would be near the bottom, perhaps because the part of Harry Street is never particularly likable or heroic, but is of a rather self-centered man with a talent for words but little insight into life, and essentially a boring man, despite his many adventures.
The women in his life are all beauties and played by Susan Hayward, Ava Gardner (excellent as "Cynthia") and Hildegard Knef, and Leo G. Carroll plays "Uncle Bill".

Directed by Henry King with a score by Bernard Hermann, perhaps the best thing in the film is the cinematography by Leon Shamroy, especially the bullfight scene, which is superbly filmed (animal rights people will not like this film because of that scene, as well as the typical Hemingway safari sections).
The film takes place in Africa, as well as France and Spain, where Harry Street joins the Civil War, and finally back to Africa for the purpose of "working the fat off his soul".
The film received two Oscar nominations: Best Color Cinematography (losing to Archie Stout's work for "The Quiet Man") and Best Art Direction/Set Decoration ("Moulin Rouge").
Suggested for serious Peck fans only, total playing time is 117 minutes.


Rating:
Summary: I just love Hemmingway.
Review: While sick and dying of an infection in Africa, a journalist thinks back on his life.