Stanley and Livingstone (1939)

Fine film, featuring one unmatched sequence every student of film should see

Lost in the flood of great films in Hollywood's greatest year (1939), Stanley and Livingstone pays more attention to historical fact than most so-called history films of that era.

Of especial interest is the footage shot in Kenya by among others, the famous Osa Johnson. The African landscape and peoples shot by this second unit crew raise S&L far above the usual Tarzanesque studio back lot scenes that supposedly depict Africa (always jungle in those days, never veldt or mountains). Supervised by one Captain A. J. Klein, the actions shots involving actual Kenyans easily surpasses the competent and workmanlike Hollywood work of director Henry King.

The attack by outraged locals (lots of Samburu and Maasai hired for the occasion, I would guess) on Stanley's expedition, who believe it to be another slaver caravan, is a model of how to build excitement and action. The score here is perfect, and the long shot showing the unwary expedition in the foreground as a distant line representing the first of thousands of plumed warriors appears on the hilly far horizon is the predecessor of similar shots from Spartacus to The Lord of the Rings.

A proper DVD, with historical background and perhaps some of the surviving unused footage from Kenya, would be valuable not only as a cinematic gem, but as a cultural document. January 6, 2008

DVD wanted

I teach college US history in north San Diego County. As previously reviewed by another, this film is a gem! I show clips from this film in class to my students for background on the beloved story of finding Dr Livingstone while illustrating Western imperialism in Africa and the new late 19th century masculine figure emerging in this time: the adventuring Christian with commerce, Christianity, and civilization in his hands.

Melinda S. Courtney
Palomar College December 31, 2007

More People Should See This

I'm still waiting for this gem to be put on DVD. I doubt if a lot people are familiar with this film, and that's a shame, and perhaps the reason it hasn't been put on disc. I remember being surprised how good it was the first time I saw it. I liked it even better the second time.

What's to like? Well, Spencer Tracy, to begin with. It's also interesting to see this true story about a man living in the heart of Africa in a time when few white men had ever gone to that continent. Livinstone (Sir Cedric Hardwicke) also was a good witness for his Christian faith, and even made a strong admirer out of partner and skeptic Stanley, played by Tracy.

Completing the fine cast in this film are Nancy Kelly (who looks beautiful), Walter Brennan and Charles Coburn.

The film could have been a spectacular visual one if it had been done in Technicolor, since the locations are in Africa, not some Hollywood set....but tough to get everything. I'm not complaining. Great film. April 22, 2006

DR. LIVINGSTONE, I PRESUME

Darryl F. Zanuck's movie version of the historic journalistic coup has Spencer Tracy and Sir Cedric Hardwicke doing excellent work in their leading roles (Walter Brennan is hilarious in a supporting one). The film has the speed of a contemporary newspaper drama plus the substance of history. In 1866, a well-known Scottish explorer and missionary named David Livingstone left the east coast of Africa as the head of a native expedition hoping to discover the sources of the Nile. When Livingstone failed to return after three years, he was either believed dead, in prison or insane. At this point, James Gordon Bennett, of the New York HERALD, decided that there was enormous journalistic prestige to be derived from settling the Livingstone mystery once and for all. He assigned his star reporter, Henry Stanley, to find the explorer - "dead or alive". When Stanley found Livingstone alive and well, the HERALD had to use 21 sets of headlines to express its jubilation. Ironically, Stanley became even more famous than the man he sought and found! The first words (the heading) of their historic conversation became a classic catch-phrase. November 10, 2001

Walter Brennan is hilarious as Spencer Tracy's sidekick

This is a fun movie, and the performance of Walter Brennan as Spencer Tracy's sidekick, provides some really great humor to the story. His timing is impeccable. I watched this movie after reading King Leopold's Ghost, by Adam Hochschild; I highly recommend this book. November 19, 1998

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