''Where No Vultures Fly'' is a 1951 British

adventure film An adventure film is a form of adventure fiction, and is a genre of film. Subgenres of adventure films include swashbuckler films, pirate films, and survival films. Adventure films may also be combined with other film genres such as action, an ...

directed by

Harry Watt Harry Watt (18 October 19062 April 1987) was a Scottish documentary and feature film director, who began his career working for John Grierson and Robert Flaherty. His 1959 film ''The Siege of Pinchgut'' was entered into the 9th Berlin Inter ...

and starring Anthony Steel and

Dinah Sheridan Dinah Sheridan (born Dinah Nadyejda Ginsburg; 17 September 1920 – 25 November 2012) was an English actress with a career spanning seven decades. She was best known for the films ''Genevieve'' (1953) and ''The Railway Children'' (1970); the lon ...

. It was released under the title ''Ivory Hunter'' in the United States. The film was inspired by the work of the conservationist

Mervyn Cowie Mervyn Hugh Cowie, (13 April 1909 – 19 July 1996) was a conservationist who pioneered wildlife protection and the development of tourism throughout East Africa. Early life Cowie was a descendant of Scottish farmers who migrated to Sout ...

.The New Pictures
''Time'', 1952-08-25. The film's opening credits state that "the characters in this film are imaginary, but the story is based on the recent struggle of Mervyn Cowie to form the National Parks of Kenya."Where No Vultures Fly
British Film Institute. The title ''Where No Vultures Fly'' denotes areas where there are no dead animals.Ivory Hunter (1951)
''New York Times'', 1952-08-19. The film had a sequel, '' West of Zanzibar''.

Plot

The film is set in East Africa. It is about a

game warden A conservation officer is a law enforcement officer who protects wildlife and the environment. A conservation officer may also be referred to as an environmental technician or technologist, game warden, forest ranger, forest watcher, forest gu ...

called Bob Payton (Anthony Steel). He is horrified by the destruction of wild animals by ivory hunters. He establishes a wildlife sanctuary. He is attacked by wild animals and must contend with a villainous

ivory Ivory is a hard, white material from the tusks (traditionally from elephants) and teeth of animals, that consists mainly of dentine, one of the physical structures of teeth and tusks. The chemical structure of the teeth and tusks of mammals is ...

poacher Poaching has been defined as the illegal hunting or capturing of wild animals, usually associated with land use rights. Poaching was once performed by impoverished peasants for subsistence purposes and to supplement meager diets. It was set a ...

(Harold Warrender).

Featured cast

Production

Development

''Where No Vultures Fly'' was one of a series of "expeditionary films" Harry Watt made, like ''The Overlanders'', where he would find the story from visiting a location. "These expeditionary films are really journalistic jobs", he wrote later. "You get sent out to a country by the studio, stay as long as you can without being fired and a story generally crops up." Watt got the idea of the film after a chance remark from a game warden in

Tanganyika Tanganyika may refer to: Places * Tanganyika Territory (1916–1961), a former British territory which preceded the sovereign state * Tanganyika (1961–1964), a sovereign state, comprising the mainland part of present-day Tanzania * Tanzania Main ...

. He was shooting zebras and when Watt wondered if it was necessary, the warden remarked that Watt "talk like

". This prompted the director to track down Cowie in Nairobi, who inspired the story. W. P. Lipscomb wrote the script based on Harry Watt's original idea. Ralph Smart worked on it. According to Leslie Norman "the script was turned down generally, so I went in and added a bit which made them accept it."Brian McFarlane, ''An Autobiography of British Cinema'', Metheun 1997 p440 The film was a co-production between Ealing and South Africa's African Films, with half the financing coming from South Africa. (Africa Films was a South African theatre chain.)

Shooting

Dinah Sheridan flew to Kenya at the end of November 1950 for a four month shoot. Watt took a full unit to Africa and based it at

Amboseli Amboseli National Park, formerly Maasai Amboseli Game Reserve, is a national park in Kajiado South Constituency in Kajiado County, Kenya. The park is in size at the core of an ecosystem that spreads across the Kenya-Tanzania border. The local ...

, south of Nairobi. They built a complete village of huts for the crew to live in. Anthony Steel contracted malaria during filming on location in Kenya.

Reception

The film was selected for the 1951 Royal Command Performance, over other contenders such as '' A Place in the Sun'' and ''

Outcast of the Islands ''Outcast of the Islands'' is a 1951 British adventure drama film directed by Carol Reed based on Joseph Conrad's 1896 novel ''An Outcast of the Islands''. The film features Trevor Howard, Ralph Richardson, Robert Morley and Wendy Hiller. Pl ...

''.

Box office

It was the second most popular film at the British box office in 1952. It also made $800,000 in the US, which was considered strong at the time for a British film. It made Anthony Steel a star of British cinema. In 1957, the film and its sequel were listed among the seventeen most popular films the Rank organisation ever released in the US.

References

External links

* *
''Where No Vultures Fly''
at

BFI Screenonline Screenonline is a website about the history of British film, television and social history as documented by film and television. The project has been developed by the British Film Institute and funded by a £1.2 million grant from the National Lot ...

{{Harry Watt 1951 films British adventure films Films directed by Harry Watt Films about hunters Films set in Kenya Films shot in Kenya Ealing Studios films 1951 adventure films 1950s English-language films 1950s British films