Stanley and Livingstone

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...

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...

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.

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