Stanley and Livingstone

This is an interesting movie for a couple of reasons. It suffers from coming out in 1939, which may be the great year of movie releases in history. Its history might be quite different if it was not buried amongst the movie icons that also came out that year.

The first thing I found worth noting was how Hollywood converted the basic western format into an African safari. You could see/hear so many western standard devices as you viewed the film. It was once stated that all movies can be converted into a cowboy movie. This movie was a very short trip in that respect.

The second, and best part, was the whole historical concept of the story, despite the difference from the actual story, which were so eloquently detailed below. The story of this journey, along with the journey of Lewis and Clark, or one-armed Capt. John Wesley Powell through the southwest, especially the Grand Canyon, make up some of the greatest adventures of modern times.

All in all, this movie is a good adventure.

Spencer Tracy is on top form in this story of the British-born American journalist Henry Stanley who is despatched by his editor into the uncharted reaches of the African interior to track down the famed explorer David Livingstone, rumours of whose death having been reported by reputable British newspapers. Armed with plenty of money and his reliable sidekick "Slocum" (Walter Brennan) they set off and with some help from the rather fever-ridden British consul in Zanzibar find themselves crossing Africa staring the most beautiful and dangerous travails head on. The screenplay is based in fact, as we all know, so there is little jeopardy in regard to the results of their trekking, but the film takes it's time to develop a bit more of a look into what motivates both men, and how these motivations evolve as their exposure to the dark content and it's peoples moulds and changes opinions and priorities. Sir Cedric Hardwicke is convincing as the missionary explorer who has an innate, if middle-class, decency about him, as is Charles Coburn (Lord Tyce), the publisher of a rival newspaper all too eager for Stanley to fall flat. Though one could never describe him as versatile, the usually charismatic Brennan delivers consistently too. The on-location filming gives us a grand scale vista of their escapades and Tracy and Hardwicke's thoughtful and considered delivery makes this well worth a watch.

A brash young newspaper reporter is sent into the unexplored regions of Central Africa to find a highly revered missionary-explorer who has seemingly disappeared. This is the account of their meeting - a fateful encounter which would not only transform the young man, but would profoundly change the history of Africa itself. This is the story of STANLEY AND LIVINGSTONE.

Here is one of the excellent adventure films from the golden year of 1939 & it is a very enjoyable evening's entertainment. More than just that, though. It is rare for Hollywood movies of the period to show actual spiritual epiphanies in the lives of their protagonists. That STANLEY AND LIVINGSTONE makes that significant attempt only adds to its prestige.

Spencer Tracy does an admirable job as Stanley, who - in the movie, at least - is basically moved or motivated by the whims of others. The two men who control his destiny, his publisher and Livingstone, could not be more different; yet each help prepare him for a profound spiritual turnabout in his life. Stanley's infatuation with a pretty English woman he meets in Zanzibar is also destined to lead only to inspiration, not love. Tracy's great skill as an actor helps make all these changes in Stanley's life clear to the audience. His delivery of one of the most famous greetings in history - `Dr. Livingstone, I presume?' - is perfect, spoken with just the right mixture of relief, awe & absolute weariness.

Walter Brennan has great fun with the role of an old Indian scout sent along to protect Stanley. Brennan - like Tracy, already a double Oscar winner - effortlessly walks away with several of his scenes. His colorful performance is a good counterpoint to Tracy's more mannered interpretation.

Best of all is the quiet, understated performance of Sir Cedric Hardwicke as the saintly Livingstone. With his comely, calm voice, Sir Cedric, who does not appear until late in the film, easily captures the attention of the viewer. He makes his character come alive and helps us understand why Livingstone was so important and revered a figure in the 19th Century. He is the very picture of vital, vibrant, muscular Christianity. Leading his native converts in a spirited rendition of `Onward! Christian Soldiers,' Sir Cedric gives the film its most delightful moments. (This rousing hymn, with words by the Reverend Sabine Baring-Gould, was not set to music by Sir Arthur Sullivan until 1872, so it's not possible Livingstone could have sung it in 1871. A small quibble - it's still a great scene.)

The rest of the fine cast - Richard Greene, Charles Coburn, Henry Hull & especially Henry Travers - offer splendid support in small roles.

To their great credit, 20th Century Fox actually sent a crew to British East Africa to film authentic safari footage which was then interspersed with shots of the actors. These on-location scenes, under the supervision of chief white hunter Captain A. J. Klein, add a great deal of veracity to the movie, providing views of natives, wildlife & scenery not possible to replicate in a Hollywood studio. (Some of the resulting rear projection shots, with Tracy or Brennan superimposed over the real African film, are rather annoying in their fakery, but this is a very small irritation.)

***********************************

As STANLEY AND LIVINGSTONE deals with the lives of two men who had a profound impact upon the Victorian world, a little check of the actual historical facts is in order.

David Livingstone was born to a poor Scots family in 1813. One of seven children, Livingston's family lived in a single room atop a tenement for laborers. Although working 14-hour days in a cotton mill, he eked out the time to educate himself. Becoming a committed Christian early in life, by the age of 20 he had determined to become a medical missionary. After studying in Glasglow, he was sent by the London Missionary Society, at the age of 27, to South Africa in 1841.

Upon arriving, Livingstone walked the 600 miles to his mission station on the edge of the Kalahari Desert. He spent the next eight years very hard at work there and at his new mission at the headwaters of the Limpopo River, marrying a missionary's daughter and beginning to raise a young family. Then, feeling God wanted a change in his life, Livingstone began to explore the interior of the continent. If proper maps could be made of this vast unknown territory, he reasoned, Africa could be opened to missionaries, educators, scientists & geographers - all enhancing civilization, spreading Christianity & bringing about an end to the hideous Arab slave trade.

Thus began a life of trekking that would take Livingstone over 29,000 miles. In 1849 & again in 1851 (this time with his family) Livingstone crossed the Kalahari, making contact with the natives of the Zambezi region. Sending his family back to Britain in 1852, Livingstone spent the next four years trying to find a connection between the Zambezi and either African coast, in the hopes of opening up the interior to civilizing commerce. Although he failed in his quest, Livingstone became the first European to traverse the entire width of the Southern continent and to see the tremendous falls on the Zambezi, which he named Victoria Falls.

Returning to England in 1856 to much laud & acclaim, he was given an audience with the Queen and met with enthusiastic crowds wherever he appeared. His book, Missionary Travels and Researches in South Africa, was a bestseller.

Back to Africa in 1858, (with an official appointment as Her Majesty's Consul for the East Coast of Africa) Livingstone's next expedition - up the Zambezi by steamboat - was met with tragedy. Members of the party, including Mrs. Livingstone in 1862, died of malaria and the river proved ultimately unnavigable. Livingstone was ordered home to London in 1864.

Livingstone remained a hero to the public and the publication of his new book, Narrative of an Expedition to the Zambezi and Its Tributaries, only enhanced his reputation. In 1866, under the auspices of the Royal Geographic Society and with the new appointment as British Consul for Central Africa, Livingstone began his last great quest - the search for the true source of the Nile. Spending the next seven years in fruitless wandering, and appalled by the sufferings of the slaves he encountered, Livingstone was broken in health and out of communication with England for nearly five years. There was enormous public interest as to his fate.

It was at this point that Stanley tracked him down, in the village of Ujiji on Lake Tanganyika, in the Autumn of 1871. After exploring near the Lake together, Stanley left in March of 1872. Livingstone stayed behind, but continued his search, although in very ill health. He died while kneeling at prayer, on May 1, 1873, at the age of only 60. As per his request, his heart was reverently buried in Africa. His porters carried his mummified body nearly a thousand miles to the sea, where it was returned to London. On April 18, 1874, Dr. David Livingstone was buried in Westminster Abbey. His epitaph, which includes a verse from St. John's Gospel, reads `Brought by faithful hands over land and sea, here rests David Livingstone, missionary, traveller, philanthropist, born March 19, 1813, at Blantyre, Lanarkshire, died May 1, 1873, at Chitambo's village, Ulala. Other sheep have I which are not of this fold; them also I must bring.'

***********************************

Stanley was not, as many believe, American. Neither was he English, as the movie oddly insists. In fact he was Welsh and he was born John Rowlands in 1841, to unmarried parents. After a wretchedly humiliating youth spent in a workhouse, he sailed as a cabin boy in 1859 to New Orleans. Taking the name of an early benefactor, Henry Stanley managed to fight on both sides of the American Civil War before being discharged for dysentery.

After spending some time on Atlantic merchant ships, Stanley cultivated his flair for writing and became a newspaper correspondent in 1866, traveling with the U. S. Cavalry in its conflicts with Midwest Indians. In 1867 Stanley joined the New York Herald and soon accompanied the British in their successful excursion against the self-proclaimed Emperor Theodore II of Ethiopia.

From 1869 to 1871, Stanley journeyed for the Herald to Suez, the Crimea, Persia & India before undertaking the assignment to find Livingstone. (It was on this expedition that Stanley began the harsh, often cruel punishment of African resistance which would stain his reputation.) The film is correct in depicting the British geographical hierarchy's disinclination to initially believe his claims as to finding the old doctor. Stanley's 1872 book, How I Found Livingstone became a bestseller and answered his critics.

After reporting on the 1873 British assault against the Ashanti Kingdom on the Gold Coast, Stanley began his most ambitious & dangerous expedition yet: to fill in the blank spaces left by Livingstone's death in the knowledge of Central African topography. From 1874 until 1877, Stanley traveled across the entire width of the continent from East to West, beginning in Zanzibar and finishing up at the mouth of the Congo. In betwixt, he circumnavigated & explored Lakes Victoria & Tanganyika, and traveled the lengths of the Lualaba & Congo Rivers. He survived a horrendous cannibal attack, virulent disease and the drowning & desertion of many of his native bearers. He once again showed his ruthlessness in dealing with defiance, at one point shooting dozens of villagers that showed hostility. Of the 359 individuals that started the trip with Stanley, only 108 finished it. His 1878 book, Through The Dark Continent, answered many questions in European minds about African geography. The major colonizing powers were not slow to take notice.

In 1879, Stanley undertook the interests of Belgian King Leopold II and spent 5 years helping to open the Congo region to commerce, as described in his 1885 book, The Congo And The Founding Of The Free State.

Working for the British Crown, Stanley undertook the dangerous mission in 1888-89 to resupply & rescue the British Pasha of the Egyptian Sudan, who was surrounded & threatened by the fundamentalist Islamic forces of the mad Khalifa. This assignment, although with great loss of life, proved successful, as Stanley described in yet another book, In Darkest Africa, 1890.

Having lived through enough thrills for ten men, Stanley married in 1890 and began a series of lecture tours. In 1895 he entered Parliament and made his last tour of Africa in 1897, which resulted in his final book, Through South Africa, 1898.

Henry Morton Stanley was knighted by Queen Victoria in 1899 for his services to Britain. Sir Henry died in 1904 & was also buried in Westminster Abbey.

***********************************

Together, Livingstone & Stanley hold the greatest responsibility for the exploration of Central Africa. The knowledge they gave to the world promoted Christianity in the region and helped to crush the slave trade. They also initiated the Scramble for Africa, in which the major European powers all took a chunk of the continent for themselves. This huge colonial land grab was completed by the time of Stanley's death. However, Livingstone's beneficent treatment of the Africans and his championing of their rights in no small measure helped directly influence their eventual nationalistic drives for self-determination & independence.

David Livingston was the greatest Scottish/British missionary of the 19th Century, in helping to spread Christianity in Africa. He also did what he could to make an end of the slave trade in Africa. Finally, a typical Victorian with insatiable curiosity, he explored much of central Africa, discovering Lake Nyasa (the third largest lake on the continent) and striving to find the source of the Nile (he mistakenly believed in an ancient story that it was a set of huge fountains in central Africa). In 1870 rumors started to spread that Livingston (who had not been heard of for several years) was dead. Probably, in the back of his contemporaries minds, were memories of the death of Sir John Franklin in 1847, while searching for the Northwest Passage. Franklin's two ships of men died of exposure and starvation, but their fate was not fully discovered until 1859. For years it was believed some of the men might still be alive. So it was reversed in Livingston's case - the worst was feared for the missionary.

Enter an American publisher of vision - James Gordon Bennett Jr. The son of a Scottish immigrant who created America's first successful daily newspaper, the New York Herald, Gordon Bennett had a scandalous and colorful career in the U.S., and finally decided to go to Paris and create a European counterpart to his American paper. He built better than he knew. The New York Herald is no longer in existence, even after it absorbed it's rival the New York Tribune to become the Herald - Tribune (the New York paper died in 1966 after a major newspaper strike). The Paris Herald - Tribune still flourishes to this day.

Gordon-Bennett Jr. was full of good ideas. He promoted ballooning and aviation (a Gordon-Bennett prize was given to balloonists for many decades).

He loved scoops. In 1871 he decided that he should subsidize a reporter to try to locate the fate of Livingston. He found a useful American reporter in Henry Stanley. He summoned Stanley to Paris.

Stanley's real name was John Rowland. He was English born, but had immigrated to America as a poor boy, went into the south, worked on a plantation and was adopted by it's owner. He adopted that man's last name (Stanley). In the American Civil War he fought as a Confederate, but deserted, then joined the Federal Navy and saw the end of the war as a Union sailor. He drifted into reporting for the New York Herald, which was how he came to Gordon-Bennett's ken.

In choosing Stanley Gordon-Bennett made a brilliant decision. The reporter had brains and determination, and he pushed through with his expedition. Finally, in October 1871, Stanley found David Livingston and made his immortal greeting "Dr. Livingston, I presume?" He stayed with Livingston for a few weeks, and then returned to England.

Despite great proof that he had found the Doctor, many people did not choose to believe Stanley. Then proof from Africa came verifying it, unfortunately it came with news that Livingston had died (in 1873). Livingston's body was returned to England - his heart was carefully removed and buried in Africa.

Now considered a "blooded" African traveler and writer, Stanley decided to enter the field of exploration. He returned several times to Africa, and would finally settle the issues of Lake Victoria (see THE MOUNTAINS OF THE MOON review), and Lake Tanganyika. His four treks through the African continent made Stanley the greatest of the African explorers.

But explorers, especially newspapermen, need to make a living. Enter King Leopold II of Belgium. One of the smartest monarchs of his day, Leopold managed to connive himself into the position of being owner (not monarch, but owner) of the territories that would be called the CONGO (a larger area than the nation of the Congo today). Leopold wanted the natives to be "pacified" before exploiting them as a work force to milk resources in the territories. Stanley was all too willing to be such. He earned his income - a large income. The natives were beaten, tortured, killed by Stanley and his forces of mercenaries. The Congo was organized into a mock-political colony, but in reality it was a slave labor camp that made Leopold one of the richest men in the world. It's capital would be called Leopoldville, and it's second city (with becoming grace) Stanleyville. Few in the 19th Century noticed what was happening. One was the Italian African Explorer Brazza, who tried to stop some of the atrocities and bring them to world attention. He did not succeed in the latter (Leopold was a master at killing bad news items), but a town was built in the Congo named for him - Brazzaville.

Stanley remained a British national hero until his death in 1904. That year Leopold found that the bad news finally came out - two British diplomats in the Congo, Edward Morell and Roger Casement, published documents and photographs of the atrocities. Leopold was forced to give up the personal ownership of the territories (which became the Belgium Congo). Eventually the colony was broken up into several independent countries (after long, bloody civil wars). Their current governments are not the greatest examples of democracy. But there is a universal dislike in their citizens towards the memories of Leopold and his tool. Leopoldville and Stanleyville are no longer named for them. However Brazzaville retains it's name to this day.

Spencer Tracy performance as the explorer is a good one, as is Cedric Hardwicke's as the missionary. Henry Hull is a good Gordon-Bennett (though not as colorful a newspaper editor as his great turn in JESSE JAMES and THE RETURN OF FRANK JAMES). But the film is trying to tell the story on a high tone level. It properly shows the great man Livingston was, but it makes the self-centered Stanley look like he's convinced into bringing Livingston's Christian message to Africa. The real Stanley would have given lip-service to Livingston's ideals, and then pocketed his blood money from Leopold.

Stanley and Livingstone is maybe not the most accurate historical movie presented,but nevertheless a very interesting experience. Spencer Tracy is very good in this one,portraying his character in the naturalistic style he was famed for.Cedric Hardwicke is Dr. Livingstone conveying the concern and love for humanity as a dedicated missionary would have.The treatment of the Africans in this movie would feel very racist today,but I think the attitudes of white supremacy was very true to life since this movie is set in the 1870's. Walter Brennan's comic supporting part is a bit annoying and Charles Coburn's British newspaper editor is a caricature.The African footage is spectacular,especially the native attack on Stanley's caravan. This movie is also crying out for a DVD release