After having seen all those modern versions of this adventure classic, one version longer than the other, it's quite refreshing to see the first ambitious version of the 30s, which actually is the one that sticks closest to the book, with only 80 minutes of intensive action while the others could stretch to almost 3 hours. Here the story starts chronologically with the Silvestre adventures, he is actually here alive, although even this film fails to visit his cave, one of the most dramatic chapters of the book, here you have the correct combat between Sir Henry and Twala, who is one-eyed as he should be, here there is the dance of the witches, the crucial moment of the book, neglected by all the other versions, with the proper eclipse, and so on. There is also plenty of good humour here, missing in both the 1950 and 2004 versions, and above all, you have Paul Robeson as a singing Umbopa. It's an early Robert Stevenson direction, but already here you feel his professional hand leading the adventure saga with efficiency and to great effect. It's not the best version, the prize goes to the 1950 Stewart Granger-Deborah Kerr realistic version, but there are many good details here that you will miss in all later versions. Cedric Hardwicke is perfect as Allan Quatermain, and Roland Young is even more perfect as commander Good with the famous monocle, so important to the story, and his beautful white legs. Gagool is not very much impressive here though, just an old hag, while in all versions you miss the beautful and crucial character of Foulata, who actually is the one who saves them all by sacrificing herself to Gagool. This could be seen as the first Indiana Jones adventure, all the ingredients here you will recognize in almost all the Indiana Jones chronicles, always focussing on archeology and history for a leading theme, which also dominates almost all of Haggard's adventure tales.
Review of King Solomon's Mines
