#the snow of kilimanjaro 1952

[vintagehollywood1]

Ava Gardner and Gregory Peck in The Snows of Kilimanjaro 1952

[pelopides]

Gregory Peck & Ava Gardner THE SNOWS OF KILIMANJARO, 1952

[emeraldexplorer2]

Ava Gardner and Gregory Peck in “The Snows of Kilimanjaro” (1952)

[erstwhile-punk-guerito]

[thelucindariver]

A sense of abandon falls over the memoirs of Harry Street, so the injury during his last safari journey becomes an expedient to try to heal a wound in the soul. This chronology of meaningful sentimental circumstances lived in a selfish way now helps to clarify at what price the protagonist achieved success as a novelist. "Art and life" is an hendiadys.

★★★★★

[project1939]

Day 61- Film: The Snows of Kilimanjaro 

Release date: September 17th, 1952. 

Studio: 20th Century Fox 

Genre: Adventure 

Director: Henry King 

Producer: Darryl F. Zanuck 

Actors: Gregory Peck, Susan Hayward, Ava Gardner, Leo G. Carroll, Torin Thatcher, Ava Norring 

Plot Summary: Harry Street, a famous writer, is dying of gangrene in Africa. While waiting for help to arrive, his latest wife tries to make him comfortable. As he confronts death, he reminisces about his past loves, and especially his first wife, Cynthia. 

My Rating (out of five stars): *** ½  

(Spoilers) This is another one of those movies that is so mixed, it’ll be hard to write about. There were many good things about it, but a lot of it didn’t work. Much of the trouble, from my perspective, comes from the attempt to adapt the original short story into a Hollywood production. Almost all of the problems the film had were changes made to the original work.  

The Good: 

Gregory Peck. He was perfect as a masculine writer and lover of women. He was good at letting the right amount of emotion creep through at the right times. He played a dying man really well, too- he successfully showed the anxiety, the pain, the reflection, and even the irritation with people around him. I cared about his character, even though I didn’t totally like him. 

The Technicolor. The print I saw on Youtube was beautiful, vibrant, and warm.

Gregory Peck in Technicolor. We’re talking about one of the most insanely gorgeous and sexy men of the Classical Hollywood era here- then add that luscious color... It could be the most boring movie in the world, and I would still be captivated just watching him! 

The location footage. There was a lot of cool footage of Africa, especially the wildlife footage. It was clearly filmed on location.

Susan Hayward. I liked her in this. She’s absolutely stunning in Technicolor as well, and I liked her complicated character. She loves Peck, but she also knows he doesn’t really love her. 

The ominous eerie feel to the present scenes in Africa. It almost feels like there’s a plodding drumbeat in the background, counting down Peck’s last moments on Earth. It’s very chilling. 

Hildegarde Knef. She was in Diplomatic Courier, and I loved her in that. This role didn’t give her nearly as much to do, but I enjoyed seeing her. I loved the scene when she was sculpting. 

The Bad: 

The ending! The ending! I knew Hollywood would probably change it, but I had a little hope they might not. They let Bette Davis die at the end of Dark Victory, right? Sadly, Hollywood would not stay faithful to the material this time. The fact that Peck survived just stripped most of the power from the story. Then it got worse, because they made him suddenly fall in love with Susan Hayward as well! It was just the kind of ridiculous thing you’d fear. 

Ava Gardner. I don’t know why, but there is just something I don’t like about her. Maybe it’s cause she’s such a “man’s woman” type and I don’t find her appealing at all... But her being cast as Peck’s one true love did not work for me. I didn’t care about her, I didn’t care about their romance, and I didn’t understand why she had such pull over Peck for the whole movie. 

The whole plot with Ava Gardner. I suppose I addressed a lot of that above! But, as I wrote, the whole thing was a miss for me. 

The absurdly ludicrous reunion of Peck and Gardner in Spain. Hemingway never would have written such a stupidly unbelievable scene. 

The rear projection and sets for Africa, especially when juxtaposed with actual location footage. Both the rear projection and the sets were so obvious it was distracting. 

The whole idea that ambushing and shooting a large animal proves a guy's manhood. Same with the bullfighting. I don't get why these things are supposed to prove how macho a man is. It bores me.

The way the whole story had to be cleaned up for Hollywood. No prostitutes, of course. Marriage to all the women, of course. Attrition for sins, of course.  

[lizztaylor]

Ava Gardner as Cynthia Green in The Snows of Kilimanjaro (1952)

[vintage-tigre]

Ava Gardner and Gregory Peck, 1952

"The Snows of Kilimanjaro"

[gatabella]

Ava Gardner at the premiere of The Snows of Kilimanjaro, 1952

[gatutor]

Ava Gardner-Gregory Peck "Las nieves del Kilimanjaro" (The snows of Kilimanjaro) 1952, de Henry King.

[vintagehollywood1]

Gregory Peck and Ava Gardner ✨

[pelopides]

Gregory Peck & Ava Gardner THE SNOWS OF KILIMANJARO, 1952

[may-the-stars-be-with-you]

Ava Gardner and Gregory Peck in "The snows of Kilimanjaro" - 1952.

[byneddiedingo]

Ava Gardner and Gregory Peck in The Snows of Kilimanjaro (Henry King, 1952)

Cast: Gregory Peck, Susan Hayward, Ava Gardner, Hildegard Knef, Leo G. Carroll, Torin Thatcher, Ava Norring, Helene Stanley, Marcel Dalio, Vicente Gómez, Richard Allan. Screenplay: Casey Robinson, based on a story by Ernest Hemingway. Cinematography: Leon Shamroy. John DeCuir, Lyle R. Wheeler. Film editing: Barbara McLean. Music: Bernard Herrmann.

The film version of The Snows of Kilimanjaro is handsome and dull, just like its protagonist, Harry Street, who lies waiting for death on the plains below the mountain as his life flashes past his eyes. Harry is a writer who has spent his life doing all the things he thinks a writer should, which amounts to a men's magazine version of masculinity: hunting big game, going to bullfights and to war, and sleeping with beautiful women. The actor who plays Harry, Gregory Peck, is handsome, too. And if he's also a little dull it's because Peck is miscast: The part needs an actor with a lived-in face, someone like Humphrey Bogart, who was considered for the role. At 36, Peck was about ten years too young for the role. (The 52-year-old Bogart might have been a shade too old.) Still, Peck does what he can, and it's credible that women like Ava Gardner, Susan Hayward, and Hildegard Knef would have fallen hard for him. But the screenplay by Casey Robinson is a rambling muddle that turns Hemingway's spare prose into melodrama, partly by crafting Gardner's role out of nothing -- or borrowing hints of it from other Hemingway works like The Sun Also Rises and A Farewell to Arms. Henry King, one of those studio directors who were handed big projects because they wouldn't mess them up, brings no particular vision or style to the film. The handsomeness of the movie is mostly in its casting, and in the Oscar-nominated cinematography of Leon Shamroy. Bernard Herrmann's score helps, too.  

[kaospheric]

My favourite films of the 1950s

1950: Sunset Boulevard

1951: A Streetcar Named Desire

1952: The Snows of Kilimanjaro

1953: Niagara

1954: Johnny Guitar

1955: The Night of the Hunter

1956: Autumn Leaves

1957: The Bridge On The River Kwai

1958: Touch of Evil

1959: Suddenly, Last Summer

[reylokisses]

Thank you for the tag, @oh-great-authoress! 🥰

Three ships:

Reylo

Spock x Uhura

Gingerrose

(It’s hard to pick just three!)

First ship:

Probably Ash x Misty and Jessie x James from Pokémon; I can’t remember having any other ships before them.

Unless you mean which ship I first read fanfiction for - in that case Puzzleshipping from Yugioh, and Spock x Uhura from the Star Trek reboot.

Last Song: Since You Been Gone by Rainbow

Last Movie: The Snows of Kilimanjaro (1952)

I only had time to watch the first two minutes; I hope I’ll get the time to watch it all the way through in the next few weeks! 🤣

Currently reading: The Pilgrim’s Progress by John Bunyan

Currently watching: American Horror Story Season 10

Currently writing: I’m thinking about writing a post describing what I loved about The Little Mermaid 2023

No pressure tags: @affidecrystal @welsharcher @l10ng1rl @reylo-of-light-blog @bellablueb @wingedtoaster @bensolothelastskywalker @afirewiel and anyone else who wants to do it ❤️