Born Free *** (1965, Bill Travers, Virginia McKenna, Geoffrey Keen) – Classic Movie Review 3186

Director James Hill’s heart-warming 1965 British animal adventure movie scooped composer John Barry a pair of Oscars for Best Original Music Score and his title Best Original Song Born Free (shared with Don Black for the lyrics).

Bill Travers and Virginia McKenna expertly play married couple George and Joy Adamson, the real-life African bush senior game warden and his wife, who raise three lion cubs in northern Kenya. Elsa becomes a tame lioness, which the couple later sets out to re-condition to a life in the wilds.

The film’s main attraction is cinematographer Kenneth Talbot’s expertly and lovingly photographed Technicolor documentary footage, while both the star couple give attractive and appealing performances, and the lions are magnetic. But the movie doesn’t really get going much as dynamic drama.

Life with the lions proved irresistible, catnip at the box office, and it was an enormous hit anyway. It was a Columbia release so it’s a shame it wasn’t an MGM film with the lion roaring at the start! A sequel, Living Free followed in 1972 with Susan Hampshire and Nigel Davenport.

The original on-screen screenplay credit to Gerald L C Copley was a blacklist pseudonym for Lester Cole, basing the script on the bestselling book by Joy Adamson.

Also in the cast are Geoffrey Keen as Kendall, Peter Lukoye as Nuru, Omar Chambati as Makkede, Bill Godden, Bryan Epson, Robert S Young, Robert Cheetham, Surya Patel and Geoffrey Best as Watson.

© Derek Winnert 2015 Classic Movie Review 3186

Check out more reviews on http://derekwinnert.com