Cornel Wilde, Donna Reed & Christopher Lee in "Beyond Mombasa" (1956)
885Adventurer Matt Campbell (Cornel Wilde) arrives in Kenya to join his estranged brother George Campbell (Roy Purcell) in a business venture. Ralph Hoyt (Leo Genn), a missionary informs him that his brother was killed by a member of the "Leopard Men", a religious cult dedicated to the annihilation of the white man in Africa. Hoyt introduces Matt to his bookish anthropologist niece, Ann Wilson (Donna Reed).
At his hotel, Matt meets professional hunter Gil Rossi (Christopher Lee). After getting drunk at a bar, Matt is chased through an alley by two assailants and then breaks into Ann's house. Ann clobbers the inebriated Matt with a vase, and he awakens the next morning in her office, a chattering chimpanzee by his side.
Hoyt warns Matt that his brother's mine is worthless and advises him to abandon his search for it. Matt joins the funeral expedition to investigate his brother's death and the lost mine. Led by Gil, Matt, Ann and Ralph head for Mombasa, where George is to be buried. There they meet Elliott Hastings (Ron Randell), George's other business partner, who informs them that George's body has already been cremated. Gil accuses Hastings of cremating George's body to destroy evidence that might point to his killer.
Gil, Hastings and Matt decide to use Matt's makeshift map to locate the mine, and when Ralph asks to join them, Ann insists on going along. After everyone retires for the evening, Ketimi (Dan Jackson), one of the native porters, goes into Matt's room holding a glove impaled with claws. Matt asks Ketimi about the glove. Ketimi explains he chased George's killer on the night of the murder, and the man dropped the glove in haste.
At daylight, Gil leads the expedition to the bush in search of the mine. When they stop for the night, the camp seethes with distrust. While sleeping, Hastings is gored by two natives dressed as leopards, and chased off by Matt's gunfire.
They reach the first landmark pinpointed on the map, Ketimi goes to the river to fill his canteen and is killed by a poison dart fired by an assailant hiding in the bushes. The members of Ketimi's tribe consider his death to be an ill omen, and quickly depart, leaving only three porters.
Upon reaching the final landmark, the City of Ruins, the expedition splits up to look for the mine. After Gil locates the mouth of the mine, they all converge there, and Ann, Hastings and Matt descend into the shaft while Gil and Ralph keep watch above. The battery to the Geiger counter dies, Ann goes to get another one and finds Gil dead and her uncle holding a blow gun in his hand. Demented, Ralph then raves that he was forced to kill Ketimi and Gil to protect the land from plunder and exploitation, and that he resurrected the legend of the Leopard Men as an instrument of good. Alarmed, Ann runs back into the mine and declares that her uncle is insane.
Ralph has disabled their rifles, and instructs a band of angry natives to stone them to death. After slipping out a rear tunnel, Ann, Matt and Hastings run for the road but are trapped in the ruined city by Ralph's minions. Then Ketimi's tribe arrives, kills Ralph and disperses the assailants. Their Native Boss (Bartholomew Sketch), Ketimi's father, then assures Matt that his brother's death has been avenged and that the Leopard Men will be disbanded forever. Back in civilization, Matt finalizes his plans for developing the mine, and Ann hands him an application for a marriage license.
A 1956 British-American Technicolor adventure film directed by George Marshall, produced by Adrian D. Worker, written by Richard English and Gene Levitt, based on James Eastwood's unpublished novel "The Mark of the Leopard", cinematography by Freddie Young, starring Cornel Wilde, Donna Reed, Christopher Lee, Leo Genn, Ron Randell, and Dan Jackson.
Sir Christopher Lee performed his final fall stunt, himself, and ripped his arm on an outcrop of quartz in the process.
Set in Kenya, shot on location in Mombasa and at the Elstree Studios near London. The film was produced by Hemisphere, an off shoot of Columbia under the supervision of Mike Frankovich which shot films outside the US. They co produced with Todon, the production company of agent-turned producer Tony Owens and his wife, actor Donna Reed. The film's sets were designed by the art director, Elliot Scott.
After the film was completed, Owen said all of his films "stink - but they made money." However he said this film "is the first one I've done that isn't lousy - and I'm worried."
Through the 1950s, it was common in American and British films to show colonialism in a positive light. Public opinion turned after many colonies became independent and others pushed for this, then such films became unfashionable.
A British-made African adventure, helmed by an American, featuring a stalwart cast, and the obligatory peril-fraught-trek-through-the-jungle, with palpable tension among the protagonists. The location shooting in Mombasa is this film's biggest asset.