Elephant Walk (1954)

Director:

William Dieterle

Writers:

John Lee Mahin (writer)
Robert Standish (novel)

Release Date:

21 April 1954 (USA)

Genre:

Adventure | Drama | Romance

Tagline:

One man claimed the land. Two men claimed the woman who lived there.

Plot:

The young bride of a rich planter finds herself the only white woman at Elephant Walk tea plantation, British Ceylon.

Plot Keywords:

Elephant | Plantation | Ceylon | Tea | Cholera

Cast

  (Cast overview, first billed only)

Elizabeth Taylor	...	Ruth Wiley
Dana Andrews	...	Dick Carver
Peter Finch	...	John Wiley
Abraham Sofaer	...	Appuhamy
Abner Biberman	...	Dr. Pereira
Noel Drayton	...	Planter Atkinson
Rosalind Ivan	...	Mrs. Lakin
Barry Bernard	...	Planter Strawson
Philip Tonge	...	Planter John Ralph
Edward Ashley	...	Planter Gordon Gregory
Leo Britt	...	Planter Chisholm
My Lee Haulani	...	Rayna (as Mylee Haulani)
Jack Raine	...	Norbert
Victor Millan	...	Koru (servant)
Henry Carr

Runtime:

103 min

Country:

USA

Language:

English

Color:

Color (Technicolor)

Aspect Ratio:

1.37 : 1

Sound Mix:

Mono (Western Electric Recording)

Certification:

UK:U | Australia:G | South Korea:12 | Finland:K-16 | USA:Approved (PCA #16612) | Sweden:15

Filming Locations:

Iverson Ranch, Chatsworth, Los Angeles, California, USA

Company:

Paramount Pictures

Trivia:

Vivien Leigh was originally cast. Her mental illness begun affecting things during filming, and so she was replaced by Elizabeth Taylor. Many long shots and shots from behind are still of Leigh.

Goofs:

Continuity: At the beginning of the film, John Wiley (Peter Finch) does a voiceover reading of a page from "The Diary of Elephant Walk", shown on screen. Near the bottom of the page, Wiley (Finch), reading it aloud, says, "It was pouring with rain," even though the text seen on the screen reads "It was pouring rain." (In fact, as an Englishman, Wiley would normally have said - and written - "pouring with rain". "Pouring rain" is the American usage.)

Movie Connections:

Referenced in Edith Head: The Paramount Years (2002) (V)

Soundtrack:

Many Dreams Ago

Oh Give Me A Home, Where The Elephants Roam

Elizabeth Taylor, fresh from Chillingford-on-the-Thames, has just married Ceylonese tea planter Peter Finch and he's taken her back home. He's got quite a place over in what is now Sri Lanka, a 'bungalow' big enough to have a polo field. And that's exactly what they do there. He and his father's friends get on bicycles and play polo in the living room.

It's all tradition you know started by Finch's dad who is known to one and all as 'the Guv'nor.' He must have been something else, in everyone's memory he becomes almost a caricature of the colonial Briton.

The man must truly have been nuts or else he was one of those colonials who Noel Coward warned went out in the noon day sun a little too long. He built this palatial estate right on a well worn path that the elephants use to get to fresh water when the streams dry up in their neck of the woods. The local natives have to periodically ward them off with noise. They can't kill them because of the strict conservation laws and the Buddhist tradition.

Maybe I missed something here, but did he have to build the house right there? Does make for a spectacular climax though.

Peter Finch feels the need to keep traditions up and all the friends come over every week, get stinking drunk, and play bicycle polo in the living room. Not exactly the home Liz had in mind. She seeks some solace with overseer Dana Andrews who being American is not into all the colonial British traditions.

Elephant Walk, which is also the name of the Finch estate, has the advantage of some really beautiful cinematography in Sri Lanka. Lends an air of realism to a rather unreal plot.

Check out Abraham Sofaer who plays the major domo of Elephant Walk with the biggest handlebar mustache on record. One that Terry-Thomas would have envied.

Vivien Leigh was supposed to do Elephant Walk, but she bowed out do to health issues. That tuberculosis did flare up at the right time though.