Snows of Kilimanjaro, The (1952)

20th Century-Fox
Director: Henry King
Starring: Gregory Peck, Ava Gardner, Susan Hayward

One of Ernest Hemingway’s favorite short stories receives the lavish Hollywood treatment featuring a star-studded cast in a Technicolor spectacle taking audiences on an adventure across the world. With all its attractiveness the adaptation would be an immediate critical and commercial success finishing the year as one of the top highest grossing films of 1952. However, Hemingway would loath the final product, a bastardization of his original story, and with time the picture rapidly faded in favor and in the minds of audiences until the point of being a neglected relic of the period.

The Snows of Kilimanjaro is an adventure/drama about a writer recounting key life moments as he lies on his death bed in the heart of Africa. Disillusioned American writer Harry Street (Gregory Peck) stricken by a terrible infection while on safari near Mt. Kilimanjaro is cared for by his wife Helen (Susan Hayward), left with nothing but his thoughts of his life. The recounting of his past generally focused on his romance with Cynthia Green (Ava Gardner), a love he shared at the dawn of success as a writer, but would sour when his personal aspirations collided with her desire to settle down. Harry was left chasing after happiness, but is hinds himself ever pinning for Cynthia, who even after her death finds himself reminded in Helen. Harry’s selfishness and firm attachment to his past troubles Helen as he lies dying on the safari, but it is Helen’s love that cares for and saves him, snapping Harry back to realize the love before him.

A rather slow and monotonous melodrama, one must be reminded that this feature was released in a period when the spectacle of the silver screen in glorious Technicolor alone was enough to attract audiences from all around. The visuals of Europe and Africa, culture and animals, with a cast that included Peck, Hayward and Gardner, and a Hemingway story made for a picture that brought many to the theater for this 20^th Century-Fox feature. Despite all its initial critical and commercial success, the picture is clearly segmented for this contemporary viewer and easily understood as to why it is a mostly forgettable feature.

Nearly ten years after Ernest Hemingway published the short story “The Snows of Kilimanjaro” 1936 it was considered for an adaption by an independent film producer who would eventually sell the rights to 20^th Century-Fox for hefty profit. The studio would attach to the project the names of director Henry King and stars Gregory Peck and Susan Hayward, the three having come off 1951’s David and Bathsheba. Like the biblical epic this picture was to get the prestige treatment by the studio with Technicolor and plenty of location shooting.

Hemingway’s original text was only a short story and Fox would flesh out plot to fill up enough story fit for a feature length picture. Screenwriter Casey Robinson added several new pieces to Harry’s story, creating most notably a new character in Cynthia Green, an early love interest of his whose relationship would leave a lasting, emotional impact and major plot point. Furthermore, Fox altered the ending in favor of a more positive, happy ending over Hemmingway’s original where Harry Street dies. For the film, Helen saves Harry’s life and those rejuvenates their love for each other, a far cry from the original’s intent. Immediately Hemingway was upset with the direction Fox was taking his tale, voicing his objection, but with absolutely no creative control on this adaptation he would distance himself from what he saw as a ruining of his original story.

Ava Gardner’s role in the production would serve primarily as another attraction to the marquee as her appearance in the picture and her character are swift, lacking, and forced into story that did not call for her. The new Mrs. Frank Sinatra, Ave Gardner was a hot ticket item in popular culture as the beauty was known more for her looks than serious talent in most cases. Sinatra was not too keen on his wife working at the time as his possessiveness did not allow her to be out of his sight. To appease Gardner Sinatra insisted on chaperoning her to Hollywood, taking time off his Las Vegas residency to accompany her to Hollywood for what was planned as only ten days on set. As it turned out she would be needed for a little time longer, further upsetting Sinatra.

Despite all the drama and adventure of the picture would have us believe, production for the picture was rather safe. Location shooting was made most notably in Africa, but director and talent would never have to leave Hollywood. Cameramen on location captured mostly establishing shots, background plates, and staged shots with stand ins from a distance while Peck, Hayward, and Gardner shot all their scenes comfortably in California at the Fox studio or ranch. The film also utilized the old trick of reusing captured footage from other films to flesh out the setting. For instance, the bull fighting scene from time Harry Street was in Spain were assembled from footage captured from the 1941 bullfighting movie Blood in the Sand (1941).

The Snows of Kilimanjaro was an enormous success for Fox. With primarily positive critical reviews, thanks in large part of the constructed majesty of the production, the film experienced more than its share of commercial success, amassing the studio’s top box office numbers that year and the third highest grossing picture of 1952. Nominated for Best Cinematography (Color) and Art Direction, the feature succeeded at portraying the prestige of lavish color feature showcasing far off places and sights many could not even dream of. Time would change that as future features made visuals clearer, brighter, and took stars closer to the action, and audiences feeling closer to the settings with this film’s simple point and shoot establishing shots.

Hemingway openly despise The Snows of Kilimanjaro, cracking wise to friend and star of the picture, Ava Gardner, that his favorite parts were her and the hyena that stalked Harry Street in the picture.

The lack of interest for The Snows of Kilimanjaro becomes evident in cinema history with its overall lack of interest in the film itself by not just viewers, but by its own studio. Many Hemingway stories would find their way to the silver screen, but this one flopped with the passage of time, even falling into public domain and a lack of genuine preservation.