White Witch Doctor (film)
6.2 /10 1 Votes
Director Henry Hathaway Music director Bernard Herrmann Duration Country U.S.A. | 6/10 IMDb Genre Adventure Screenplay Ben Roberts, Ivan Goff Language English | |||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||
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Writer Ivan Goff , Ben Roberts Release date 1 July 1953 Based on White Witch Doctor
1950 novel
by Louise A. Stinetorf Cast Susan Hayward (Ellen Burton), Robert Mitchum (John 'Lonni' Douglas), Walter Slezak (Huysman), Mashood Ajala (Jacques), Joseph C. Narcisse (Utembo), Timothy Carey (Jarrett)Similar movies Susan Hayward appears in White Witch Doctor and Woman Obsessed | ||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||
White witch doctor 1953 trailer
White Witch Doctor is a 1953 Technicolor adventure film made by 20th Century Fox. It was directed by Henry Hathaway and produced by Otto Lang from a screenplay by Ivan Goff and Ben Roberts, based on the 1950 novel by Louise A. Stinetorf. The music score (notable for its use of the serpent, an obsolete instrument) was by Bernard Herrmann, and the cinematography by Leon Shamroy.
Contents
The film stars Susan Hayward and Robert Mitchum, also featuring Walter Slezak, and was set in the Belgian Congo in 1907.
Plot
The arrival of nurse Ellen Burton to the Belgian Congo is unwelcome to hunter John "Lonni" Douglas (Robert Mitchum), who captures animals for zoos. He warns her against traveling upriver to join a female doctor who is working with native tribesmen.
Short of money, Lonni is intrigued when partner Huysman (Walter Slezak) tells him there is gold to be found in the region where Ellen will be traveling. Lonni volunteers to accompany her, along with gun bearer Jacques.
Ellen (Susan Hayward) is a widow who once discouraged her physician husband from his dream of coming to Africa to give medical aid. She talks a witch doctor out of killing a woman with an abscessed tooth. Upset with her, the witch doctor places a deadly tarantula in Ellen's tent.
The doctor she is there to assist has died of fever. The king is pleased when his son is saved from a lion by Lonni, his wounds treated by Ellen, but then the king takes her hostage when Huysman, heavily armed, arrives to search for gold. Huysman's men knock Lonni unconscious and tie him up, but Jacques sacrifices his own life to save that of Lonni, who returns to Ellen's side for good.
Cast
Production
Henry Hathaway filmed footage in Africa, but the majority of the film was shot on Fox's studio backlot. The head of 20th Century Fox Darryl F. Zanuck demanded that [Emily] Louise Allender Stinetorf's (who had been a Quaker missionary in Palestine) original story be jettisoned for action and a love story.
References
White Witch Doctor (film) WikipediaWhite Witch Doctor (film) IMDb White Witch Doctor (film) themoviedb.org