While hunting for game in Africa, a man by the name of "Allan Quartermain" (John Colicos) kills a man in self-defense who is clad in leopard skins and wearing a strange medallion around his neck. Puzzled by the strange inscriptions on it, he then consults with a colleague of his named "Sir Henry Curtis" (David McCallum) and, together with a former Royal Navy officer by the "Captain John Good" (Patrick MacNee), the three set off to find a treasure hidden in an unchartered part of Africa by the famous King Solomon. Now, having seen two similar movies under the title of "King Solomon's Mines" produced in 1937 and then again in 1950, I must say that this low-budget film pales in comparison to both of them. Not only was the script in need of serious improvement but the acting of David McCallum was particularly bad as well. That being said, if a person is looking for an adventure movie of this sort, I strongly recommend either of the two previously mentioned films as this one isn't really worth one's time.
11 Reviews
An enjoyable, hard to find adventure
chris_gaskin12311 December 2002
Warning: Spoilers
I was only aware that this movie existed when I picked up a copy from a market stall recently. It has long been deleted on video in Britain, so I was lucky to find it, and glad I did.
An expedition sets off from England to a remote part of Africa to search for King Solomon's treasure. On the way they encounter several dangers. These include unfriendly natives, crocodiles, quicksand, a volcano and, best of all, some rather shoddy looking dinosaurs and other giant creatures. We get to see a Brontosaurus, a giant snake and two giant crabs. The Brontosaurus actually helps the party along as it it used to pull their boat up a steep mountain. They eventually find what they are looking for. The treasure is buried under a city which is ruled by a Queen. Not surprisingly, one of the party falls in love with the Queen but she gets killed by a native. The city is destroyed at the end by the volcano and an earthquake.
This movie was clearly done on a low budget. As well the cheap looking monsters, which would have been a lot better if Ray Harryhausen animated them, the lava and ash from the volcano looks like leaves and red water.
The movie stars some well known British actors: David MaCallum (The Man From UNCLE, The Great Escape), Patrick Macnee (The Avengers, A View To A Kill) and Wilfred Hyde-White (North West Frontier, In Search Of The Castaways). The Queen of the city is played by Bond girl Britt Ekland (The Man With The Golden Gun). All play good parts.
This movie also contains some good African scenery.
I rather enjoyed watching this and is worth seeing if you get the chance, due to it being quite hard to find.
Rating: 4 stars out of 5.
An expedition sets off from England to a remote part of Africa to search for King Solomon's treasure. On the way they encounter several dangers. These include unfriendly natives, crocodiles, quicksand, a volcano and, best of all, some rather shoddy looking dinosaurs and other giant creatures. We get to see a Brontosaurus, a giant snake and two giant crabs. The Brontosaurus actually helps the party along as it it used to pull their boat up a steep mountain. They eventually find what they are looking for. The treasure is buried under a city which is ruled by a Queen. Not surprisingly, one of the party falls in love with the Queen but she gets killed by a native. The city is destroyed at the end by the volcano and an earthquake.
This movie was clearly done on a low budget. As well the cheap looking monsters, which would have been a lot better if Ray Harryhausen animated them, the lava and ash from the volcano looks like leaves and red water.
The movie stars some well known British actors: David MaCallum (The Man From UNCLE, The Great Escape), Patrick Macnee (The Avengers, A View To A Kill) and Wilfred Hyde-White (North West Frontier, In Search Of The Castaways). The Queen of the city is played by Bond girl Britt Ekland (The Man With The Golden Gun). All play good parts.
This movie also contains some good African scenery.
I rather enjoyed watching this and is worth seeing if you get the chance, due to it being quite hard to find.
Rating: 4 stars out of 5.
King Solomon's Cheese
lexfannia11 August 2005
This movie deserved a working over on Mystery Science Theater. Even though it has nothing whatever to do with King Solomon it's worth a watch because it is an unintentional laugh-riot. Really! It's worse than "Destroy All Monsters." Be sure to check out the following: the cheesy medallion (looks like the Shriners have been here), the obviously polyester Norfolk jacket on "Allan Quatermain," David MaCallum's badly done stutter (which does draw attention away from his even worse acting), the incredibly bad process work on all the "monsters," the monsters themselves - the hand puppet which menaces the little girl, the giant snake that menaces Macallum while he sinks in oatmeal, the red-lighted eyes on the motorized crabs, the amazingly hilarious boat (oh, brother!!) which appears to be made of plywood mounted on an old sand dredge and looks like a leftover from a Jr.Sr. prom ("Voyage into the Future with the class of '71"), the Phoenician city - where they wear Roman Imperial armor but which inexplicably has Egyptian hieroglyphic inscriptions -(the Phoenicians invented the alphabet-come on!),and worst of all, Macallum and Ekland (with her fright wig) playing smoochy-face -oh the horror! The best parts are that the intrepid explorers manage to lose the comic Frenchman ,and the African guy -Snuffleupagus or whatever - evidently chose to die heroically rather than be in any more scenes.
This movie is BAD! - Spoilers
khalleron11 November 2005
Warning: Spoilers
From the mind of Harry Alan Towers comes another piece of cinematic sludge. Supposedly based on the work of H. Rider Haggard, the only similarity it bears to anything Haggard actually wrote is that it takes place in Africa (albeit an Africa that has dinosaurs - which our intrepid adventurers use to pull their canoes!), and has some characters with the same names.
Our heroes (David McCallum, Patrick McNee and John Colico) set out to seek treasure, armed only with a medallion, and end up precisely where the treasure is, purely by chance. On the way, they meet a motley assortment of extremely lame monsters, pick up a French chef, and McCallum has an affair with the Queen of Phoenicia.
It's so ridiculous, it's a hoot. That's the only reason I didn't give it a 1.
Our heroes (David McCallum, Patrick McNee and John Colico) set out to seek treasure, armed only with a medallion, and end up precisely where the treasure is, purely by chance. On the way, they meet a motley assortment of extremely lame monsters, pick up a French chef, and McCallum has an affair with the Queen of Phoenicia.
It's so ridiculous, it's a hoot. That's the only reason I didn't give it a 1.
Very painful to watch
cj-smedley22 February 2006
Warning: Spoilers
I watched this today, partially attracted to the all-star cast and partly because I have enjoyed so many other films of this ilk. However, this is one to avoid. There are dozens of badly cut scenes where the continuity just does not flow, the billiards challenge at the start, for example. The fighting scenes with the natives are about as good as you would remember in those old black and white Tarzan movies, you know where you see a spear fly through the air and camera cuts to a dead native lying motionless on the floor with it sticking from his thigh. Is that instantaneous death? There are also several quite unnecessary scenes which have nothing to do with the plot, like the little girl being rescued while collecting flowers. The really badly animated clay toys are too painful to watch. If you do see this movie the crabs which inch forward at about 5kph are the highlight. Somehow one manages to creep up on David Mccullum and give him a nip. Its as if there was no time to get out of the way, like when the obelisk in the city falls over, the native has all the time in the world to take a 2 step to the left, but no he screams and it falls on him. I only give this a 2 because of Ekland. And why does Mccullums voice develop a stutter as the movie progresses?
really ?
sandcrab27716 March 2019
King Solomon's Dungheap!!
BrewSwaine30 June 2021
This movie is awful in every way. I can only infer that the Foley Artist was drunk because, although the lip synch is fine, the sound effects are inordinately out of time. But correcting this would merely have been stecoration of an already mammoth pile of fecal matter.
An insult to all H. Rider Haggard fans
cayotica22 May 2022
Dinosaurs, monsters that never existed, a stuttering coward Sir Henry, a womanizing pool sharp Captain Good and video so dark and blurred it hard to see anything. The best thing about the movie was it's ending, no, not how it ended but that the torturous movie finally ended.
I didn't want to give it a one star but that was the lowest I could go.
I didn't want to give it a one star but that was the lowest I could go.
A Gem of the 70's
garrsemail-du19 January 2021
This won't be everybody's cup of tea, however it is a much better version than even the Richard Chamberlain versions are. Chamberlain did a fine Quatermain, MacNee does it very, very well though. As does Ken Gampu playing Umpslopogas as he did with Richard Chamberlain's version playing Umbopo.
From the beginning to the end, this is not a highly polished or high dollar production, but it is very well done for the era it was made in. As a bonus for the guys, somehow they even slipped in quite a few "native" girls jiggling their jigglers in a dance scene.
The plot was done with the standard formula of: Old gentleman telling the story of Lost Treasure, the travel to the Dark Continent, the river with alligators. Then jiggers jiggling, the bad guys (native priests in this case, again) haughty queen, lost treasure, and tragedy while the last three finally walk off into the setting sun.
Don't enter with high expectations of lavish sets and multitudes of extras being killed, used, or dying and this can be a good viewing.
From the beginning to the end, this is not a highly polished or high dollar production, but it is very well done for the era it was made in. As a bonus for the guys, somehow they even slipped in quite a few "native" girls jiggling their jigglers in a dance scene.
The plot was done with the standard formula of: Old gentleman telling the story of Lost Treasure, the travel to the Dark Continent, the river with alligators. Then jiggers jiggling, the bad guys (native priests in this case, again) haughty queen, lost treasure, and tragedy while the last three finally walk off into the setting sun.
Don't enter with high expectations of lavish sets and multitudes of extras being killed, used, or dying and this can be a good viewing.
Fun adventure watch.
etusciuk29 August 2018
I love adventure novels, and am a huge fan of H. Rider Haggard, so when I saw the vhs copy of this film at a yardsale I just had to pick it up. Was it worth it? Yes, I will say it is. Do not listen to the haters, this film is not that bad. It still has its problems though. The production wasnt great so the sound gets kind of low and warbly during some segments. Also the effects are lackluster, but I can forgive that for this being a LOW-BUDGET film from the 1970'S, also for the fact that the director was a TV director, and this film was the only cinema released film he did along with one other film which I have not seen. So i can forgive that issue at least. But the film has some fast paced action scenes and actual tension placed neatly. If you are a fan of old style adventure films, and treasure hunts for that matter, this would be your kind of film.
6 out of 10.
One of the worst movies I ever saw
Henryetta26 February 2004
First I want to point out that I'm a really big fan of David McCallum and I like Patrick MacNee very much. But why did those Sixties-TV-Series-Idols do this movie? Couldn't have been the money (obvious if you consider tricks and settings). I hardly find words to describe this mess of a film. Every "Godzilla"- or "Harryhausen"-movie looks more real than this. It's O.K. for a black & white movie from the 50s, but this one is from 77 (and in colour)!!! The story is always the same. Treasure-hunt, lost civilization, a lovely princess and the unavoidable catastrophe in the end (volcano in this case). If you like bad movies (I mean real bad) please watch it. Otherwise forget about it. It is so bad you can't even laugh about it. Now I know why it is hard to get. I wonder why this isn't made by Alan Smithee...
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