Interesting to listen to this version of the MGM film because it gives a greater sense of how the writers changed Haggard (in the film version you were distracted by the location footage). The role of Gagool is minimised, there’s barely any stuff involving Umbopa (who here doesn’t join the expedition for a while), our heroes don’t join in any uprising (Umbopa just does a one on one combat at the end). Instead most of the drama concerns the sexual attraction between Quartermain, who here is cynical, swarthy and world-weary, and Mrs Curtis – Deborah Kerr. But it’s alright because she didn’t really like her husband, even though she’s looking for him.
Purists may recoil but that’s a legitimate interpretation of the story – which was more faithfully filmed in 1937. I just think they missed a chance with not having more about Gagool and the exiled king. I didn’t mind this as much as the film version, which I felt threw away opportunities wholesale.
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