King Solomon's Mines (1950) (DVD)Stewart Granger and Deborah Kerr star in this expansive epic ofadventurer Allan Quartermain, hired to find a missing explorer--who mayhave found the fabled, lost diamond mines of King Solomon. Filmed onlocation in Africa. Winner of two Academy Awards. Based on H. RiderHaggard's novel.Adventure yarns dont come more ripping than King Solomons Mines, the classic Great White Hunter tale. Novelist H. Rider Haggards hero, Allan Quatermain (Stewart Granger), reluctantly agrees to lead an Englishwoman (Deborah Kerr) and her brother (Richard Carlson) deep into uncharted territory in Africa, in search of the ladys lost husband. What follows is a cavalcade of boys adventure stuff: charging rhinos, cannibals, an incredible wildlife stampede, and the back-of-the-neck-tingly thrill of venturing into unmapped lands. The location shooting, including tribal rituals, is marvelous throughout, and the movie manages to pack a great deal of material into 102 minutes without ever seeming rushed. A remake of a 1937 film, King Solomons Mines was itself remade badly, with Richard Chamberlain, in 1985, and Quatermain was essayed by Sean Connery in League of Extraordinary Gentlemen, but purists will prefer Stewart Grangers stalwart-yet-sardonic hero--his career never quite got over the role. --Robert Horton