KING SOLOMON’S MINES. Gives the impression of being an unintentional parody

After the huge success of “Raiders of the Lost Ark” and its prequel, the market became flooded with films whose creators tried to grab a slice of the adventure pie for themselves. In most cases, the resulting titles left much to be desired and were mere pale imitations of Indiana Jones’s adventures even at the time of their release. Producer Menahem Golan also decided to bask in Spielberg’s triumph and adapted H. Rider Haggard’s classic adventure novel “King Solomon’s Mines,” first published in 1885, which opened the series about the African exploits of adventurer Allan Quatermain.

The result was a film filled with chases, fights, explosions, and bullets flying everywhere, framed by the quest for the legendary King Solomon’s Mines. The movie maintains a good pace, has decent antagonists (German soldiers from World War I and a slave-trading Turk). However, everything here is a class below the Indiana Jones series. Additionally, the whole thing feels like a parody, and probably an unintentional one. Many of the screenwriters’ ideas simply can’t be taken seriously—like the scene where members of an African tribe throw the protagonists into a giant cauldron to cook them.

The lead role was offered to Richard Chamberlain, known from both cinema (“The Three Musketeers” and its two sequels, “The Towering Inferno”) and television (“Shogun,” “The Thorn Birds,” “The Bourne Identity”). He agreed to take the part but was misled—the producers promised a high-budget adventure film, full of lavish action sequences and inventive gags. Unfortunately, the actor didn’t quite fit the role of a charismatic adventurer who punches enemies and delivers one-liners. During production, it became clear that there wasn’t even enough money to hire stuntmen, so the actors had to do some of the stunt work themselves. Additionally, J. Lee Thompson, an accomplished director (“The Guns of Navarone,” “Cape Fear”), was already a seasoned seventy-year-old and didn’t fully manage the complicated production, which was being filmed in the heart of Africa. Still, a rather good cast was assembled. Apart from the mentioned Chamberlain, we also see Sharon Stone, who had to wait a few more years for stardom, John Rhys-Davies (known from “The Lord of the Rings” trilogy and as Indy’s friend Sallah), and Herbert Lom, the unforgettable Inspector Dreyfus from the “Pink Panther” series. It’s impossible not to mention the film’s strongest asset—Jerry Goldsmith’s fantastic score with a brilliant main theme.

The 1985 “King Solomon’s Mines” is not the only adaptation of Haggard’s novel. The first appeared during the silent film era, and Allan Quatermain himself has become a fixture in pop culture (for instance, in Alan Moore’s comic “The League of Extraordinary Gentlemen” and its film adaptation, where Sean Connery played the adventurer). It’s hard to even call this film an adaptation of the literary text, as aside from a few plot ideas, it has virtually nothing in common with the original. The creators were much more inspired by Indiana Jones than by the book, and the main character is practically Indy’s alter ego, also wearing a hat and wielding an unusual weapon (in this case, a special double-barreled shotgun).

To cut costs, the movie was filmed simultaneously with its sequel, “Allan Quatermain and the Lost City of Gold.” But while the first part has some entertainment value, even if only as a comedy, the sequel is bad on every level and should be avoided. As for “King Solomon’s Mines,” despite all its flaws and its clearly parodic tone (honestly, I’m not sure if it’s intentional), I can’t bring myself to condemn the film. It actually offers quite a bit of fun.

Written by Piotr Zymelka