The Snows of Kilimanjaro

Hemingway's portrait of the artist as a romantic hero provides Twentieth Century-Fox with ample scope to meander from Africa to Paris, Spain and back again, sampling the attractions of Hayward, Gardner and Knef en route. Although Henry King shows some sympathy for these suppliant females, veteran screenwriter Casey Robinson's intelligent, talky adaption finally endorses the great white writer's bullish philosophy: 'Real writing is like a hunt... a life-long safari; and the prey is truth'. Framed as a deathbed reminiscence, the film does tend to ramble, and seems particularly uneven in its mixture of back-projected wildlife footage, studio and location work, while Peck's weighty Harry Street remains resolutely aloof, to the point where he will not deign to expire.