The Snows of Kilimanjaro

Starring: Gregory Peck, Susan Hayward Director: Henry King Dvd Release: 7th December, 1999 Number Of Discs: 1 Format: Colour, NTSC, Region 0 Encoding Subtitled In: English, French

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This film is based on the Ernest Hemingway novel The Snows Of Kilimanjaro. Gregory Peck plays the part of a writer, Harry Street, who is a wounded hunter on safari in West Africa. Street suffers with a fever while his long suffering wife Helen, played by Susan Hayward, tries to comfort him & keep him away from the demon drink. Street remembers the past, amid his fever, including varied adventures & past love. Gregory Peck is suitable as the romantic lead, though the big sets & artificial trees, filmed against a huge painting of Mount Kilimanjaro rob the film of the impact which the film would have possessed had the film actually been shot in Africa. Ava Gardner’s smoldering presence is a shining light in this production & one actor that helps to lift the film throughout. The three stars are for a combination of the film’s quality & for the quality of this DVD, which leaves a lot to be desired. Quite frankly this DVD looks like a direct transfer from a poor print & there are no subtitles or any of the features we have come to expect of DVDs these days. The film itself is a missed opportunity – it could have been a classic, but for some unknown reason it is sadly unconvincing.

Gregory Peck was an American film actor. Born Eldred Gregory Peck in La Jolla, California, he was the son of a Missouri mother & a chemist called Gregory Peck, whose mother Catherine Ashe was an Irish immigrant from County Kerry. Catherine Ashe was related to the Irish patriot Thomas Ashe, who took part in the Irish Easter Rising in the year of Pecks birth & died on hunger strike in 1917. Pecks parents divorced when he was five & he was reared by his grandmother. Peck was sent to a Roman Catholic military school in Los Angeles at the age of 10. When he graduated, he went to San Diego State University, but dropped out a year later. For a short time, he took a job driving a truck for an oil company. In 1936, he enrolled as a pre-med student at the University of California, Berkeley. He majored in English & rowed on the university crew. He was recruited by the schools Little Theater & appeared in five plays his senior year. After graduation, Peck dropped the name Eldred & headed to New York City in 1939 to study at the Neighborhood Playhouse. Posters Of Gregory Peck

Editors Choice: Old Gringo, The Scarlet And The Black, The Boys From Brazil, Macarthur, The Omen, The Omen Quadrilogy, Mackennas Gold, Marooned, View DVDology

Susan Hayward was an American actress. Born Edythe Marrenner in Brooklyn, New York, she began her career as a photographers model. She went to Hollywood in 1939, aiming to become the unknown who won the role of Scarlett OHara in Gone With the Wind. Although she didnt get that role, she won the role of the female lead in Beau Geste. She played a dramatic role in Among the Living & a Southern belle in Reap the Wild Wind. In 1947 Hayward received the first of her five Academy Award nominations for Smash-Up, the Story of a Woman. Other major films included Ill Cry Tomorrow & I Want to Live!, for which she won the Oscar. The brain cancer which took her life is traced by some back to her work in The Conqueror, filmed about 100 miles downwind of active Nevadan nuclear-weapon test sites & in sets dressed with truckloads of dirt from the area. 1959 - Won Best Actress in a Leading Role - I Want to Live!. 1956 - Nominated Best Actress in a Leading Role - Ill Cry Tomorrow. 1953 - Nominated Best Actress in a Leading Role - With a Song in My Heart.

Editors Choice: The Snows Of Kilimanjaro, The Conqueror, Demetrius And The Gladiators, Garden Of Evil, Tulsa, Smash Up, The Fighting Seabees, View DVDology

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