The Adventurers (1951 film)

Production

The film was based on an original story by the novelist and screenwriter Robert Westerby, one of several he wrote for the independent production company Mayflower Pictures. It was made at Pinewood Studios, with some location filming in South Africa. Production was completed in 1950, but the film wasn't released until the following March by General Film Distributors.

Plot

As the Boer War finalises a South African soldier hides a cache of diamonds he finds on a body. He returns to the town he left three years earlier where his girl has married a disgraced English officer. Needing funds to get back to pick up the diamonds the Boer enlists the help of a fellow soldier as well as the Englishman and a local hotel keeper.

Cast

Release

The film was originally known as The South Africa Story. It had its world premiere aboard the Queen Mary liner. The film was cut by 12 minutes for its U.S. release, and was twice retitled, as Fortune in Diamonds and The Great Adventure.

Critical reception

Allmovie noted "an African variation of Treasure of the Sierra Madre, The Adventurers is buoyed by an unusually vicious performance by Jack Hawkins" ; while the Radio Times wrote, "this could have been quite stirring if it hadn't been morbidly under-directed at a snail's pace by David MacDonald" ; and TV Guide found that, despite its borrowings from Sierra Madre and from von Stroheim's Greed, "it is nevertheless an often-gripping film."