In-between the Ralph Thomas directed and Betty Box produced
movies Doctor at Large (1957) and Tale of Two Cities (1958) Dirk
Bogarde played Scotsman Bruce Campbell in a British adventure film Campbell’s
Kingdom (1957). Campbell had been told he has only six months to live;
he has an unnamed terminal disease. Following this devastating piece of news he
then finds out that he has inherited a small valley in the Canadian Rocky
Mountains known as Campbell’s Kingdom from his grandfather. Before the old man
died in suspicious circumstances he was convinced that his land had a rich vain
of oil beneath it. But when Bruce arrives from England he discovers that the
land is to be flooded on completion of a nearby dam, which means he only has a
short time to determine if his grandfather was correct and save the valley. The
dam is being built by a corrupt construction contractor Owen Morgan (a menacing
Stanley Baker) who will stop at nothing to finish the dam even if it means
resorting to dirty tricks to stop Campbell proving that there is oil on his
land and therefore preventing the flooding of the valley.
Assisting Bogarde in his quest is Barbara Murray who plays
the daughter of old man Campbell’s crooked partner, who had swindled the locals
out of their savings, and Bruce’s love interest Jean Lucas. Michael Craig plays
the geologist Boy Bladen. James Robertson Justice, with a dubious Scottish
accent, play’s a drilling contractor whose willing to risk every thing on
Bladen geology results, the ones that Owen Morgan has been suspected of
tampering with!
Set in the Alberta, the movie was shot in the Italian
Dolomites and at the Pinewood Studios in England. The movie was seen at the time
as an attempt to emulate Hollywood’s western genre action films but most
critics of the period did not think it succeeded. Returning to it now it turns out
to be a very satisfying watch. It was based on a cracking old fashioned
adventure yarn written by Hammond Innes in 1952 and adapted by Robin Estridge.
With a great cast and an exciting climax its well worth 102 minutes of your
time. Another significant release from Network.
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