King Solomon's Treasure

Ah, “King Solomon’s Treasure”! The found-in-a-kid’s-toybox monsters, the cheap cardboard sets (seriously, I think even the boat is made of cardboard), and the tacky 1970s dorm room decor of the queen's throne room mar what could have been, if not a great film, at least a not bad film. Perhaps the production company blew the budget on the three “name” actors and had no money left over for... much of anything.David McCallum, formerly famous as Ilya Kuryakin in “The Man from U.N.C.L.E.” and today better known as “Ducky Mallard” on “NCIS,” for the most part handles his role capably. In his case the issues are more a matter of direction and production choices. Why do they dress him in an English schoolboy uniform for one sequence? Why does he trade in his khaki uniform and pith helmet for a white shirt and effete straw boater hat? C’mon, this is Ilya Kuryakin, the number one teen heart-throb of television in the mid-1960s! Why are his flirtatious scenes with the gorgeous Phoenician queen so painfully awkward?Patrick MacNee, who will forever be John Steed of “The Avengers,” plays it a little bit over the top in this quirky role, as per his usual style, but it works within the parameters of his slightly eccentric character. MacNee cuts a dashing figure in safari togs topped with an Aussie-style campaign hat.The women in the movie, including Britt Ekland (Mary Goodnight from the Bond films) and Veronique (Canadian pop-music phenom from the late ‘70s), are difficult to take seriously with their we’re-not-even-trying-to-look-like-ancient-Phoenicians Stevie Nicks / Farrah-wannabe hairstyles. Ekland's former "Bond Girl" hotness (her Bond role was only a couple of years prior to this production) is not… errr… displayed effectively in this film, draped as she is in, I dunno, curtains or something. I kept asking myself, “why didn’t she heed the fashion advice from “Gone With the Wind”?John Colicos, who is today remembered, if he is remembered at all, as the Klingon Kor from “Star Trek” (original series and DS9) and as the nefarious Baltar from the original “Battlestar Galactica,” is superb as Quatermain. He plays the role the way I have always wanted to see Quatermain portrayed, capturing the essence of the character as described in H. Rider Haggard's novels. He's understated. He's jaded, world-weary, but ultimately kind. He has a sardonic, but not sarcastic or cruel, wit. He is respectful of the native cultures and of individuals of any race. And with that hat, the gear, the boots, the way he handles a rifle, and the way he slouches into a chair on the veranda, he's got the look and the mannerisms of Allan Quatermain down. "Baltar" is certainly not the first actor I would have expected to portray one of the best Quatermains on film, but I think, were this movie not hampered by a substandard budget and a tacky late-1970s directing style, this could have been Colicos' defining role, and his portrayal might be considered almost on par with that of the iconic Stewart Granger.The sets and the effects are weak links in the film. Sarcastic critical reviews I've seen comparing the Phoenician ship to a high school homecoming parade float are spot-on accurate. There’s a sequence involving a dragon-like creature that looks like a hand puppet of a newt. There's a "sauropod dinosaur" that looks like a lump of clay. And then there are the giant man-eating crabs. The look on John Colicos' (Allan Quatermain) face when the crabs appear says it all: "what the heck happened to this movie!"While on the whole the movie is pretty bad, the performances are pretty good. I was pleasantly surprised, particularly by Colicos/Baltar as Quatermain. The rapport among MacNee, McCallum, and Colicos is entertaining. Ultimately, I enjoyed the film! Colicos, McCallum, and MacNee took their parts seriously and brought true professionalism and talent to the material they had to work with. Yes, the film could have been so much more, it should have been so much more, and these actors deserved a much better film, but... yeah. It's an entertaining B-movie.The packaging for the DVD carries a copyright date of 1977. The end credits show 1978. IMBD indicates a release date of 1979. The film was re-released several times on VHS with a number of versions of the sleeve art to cash in on the popularity of “Raiders of the Lost Ark.” The image and audio quality of the 2007 Alpha Home Entertainment DVD release is extremely poor. It looks and sounds as though it was hastily transferred from a degraded tape copy. The streaming version currently available on YouTube is equal or better.

This movie would have been better off with a different title, being another Allan Quartermain adventure. It does suffer from having a limited budget, but I rate movies by how entertaining they are on there budget & this film has a lot to offer in the realms of fantasy adventure! If you are a H. Rider Haggard purest then steer clear, but if you can forgive some not so great special effects & enjoy a good action fun fest then you might want to give this a try. Some scoff at the dinosaurs in Africa scenes but with reports of living dinosaurs still coming out of Africa today I think its a blast. Its also fun seeing "Ducky" from N.C.I.S. as a young man as he co-stars in this fun film. It is definitely for the very young & young at heart & not to be taken seriously. So if your looking for a little escapist fantasy on a rainy afternoon that you can watch with your kids you might want to pick this up. If your a hard core H. Rider Haggard fan then you might want to pass this one by & get the older one starring Stewart Granger, that is the best out of the 6 "Allan Quartemain"/ "King Solomon's Mine's" movies I have seen! This one reminds me of H. Rider Haggard's prefix to his story " For the Boy who's half a Man, or the Man who's half a Boy." Its been many years since I read it so if I got that wrong forgive me, but it applies to this movie perfectly! May be that was at the beginning of "The Lost World", but it still works for this movie!

I watched this movie only because it featured Patrick Macnee as one of the three main characters. That said…what a weird adventure flick, the comic approach, as if they were going on a picnic―they even brought a stove! Along the way they encounter ginormous creatures: a really BIG snake, a GIANT crab, and rubberized dinosaurs!!! H. R. Pufnstuf was more realistic than these creatures!But I did enjoy it, to a point.

No, the title is not "King Solomon's Mines." The 1977 production "King Solomon's Treasure" is very loosely based on Henry Rider Haggard's books "King Solomon's Mines" and "She." It is an interesting combination - Allan Quatermain and "She-who-must-be-obeyed" - but the end result is just another B-movie with some (unintentionally) hilarious moments.The film follows the adventures of the expedition team led by Allan Quatermain (John Colicos), a young aristocrat Sir Henry Curtis (David McCallum) and his friend Captain John Good of the Royal Navy (Patrick Macnee). Wilfrid Hyde-White (Colonel Hugh Pickering of "My Fair Lady") also appears in the "frame" story as oldest club member.The story is a standard one. A team of explorers are looking for the lost city and the treasures hidden somewhere in the "mysterious depth" of Africa. Well, that's what the DVD cover says. The "mysterious depth" is actually a series of inept action sequences including attacks of cheesy-looking "prehistoric monsters" (in fact a dragon and giant crustaceans moving awkwardly).Britt Ekland ("The Man with the Golden Gun") appears as Queen Nyleptha (name borrowed from the original "Allan Quatermain"), the least impressive part of the film because of the cheap production designs. Strangely, our hero Allan Quatermain looks quite bored throughout the film. The adventurer does nothing memorable in the 87-minute film, except occasionally shooting or punching someone.One good thing about "King Solomon's Treasure" is its location. According to the end credit, they really shot the film in Africa (Swaziland). The background scenery looks more authentic than the film's adventures.

This movie is awful in every way, including the sound and picture quality of the Alpha Home Entertainment release.I can only infer that the Foley Artist was drunk because, although the lip synch is fine, the sound effects are inordinately out of time. But correcting this would merely have been stecoration of an already mammoth pile of fecal matter.

the follow up to king soloman's mines quite good but i don't kmow what rider haggard would make of the slaying of a prehistoric monster! well worth watching however.

Excellent

An old adventure B-movie in its original state. No restoration, so with blurred images and uninteligible audio. Anyway, a big cast, some interesting tricks about wondrous misteries in an improbable Africa. Something that can still appall the children of once. The pure simple adventure Jules Verne's style and actors doing their best to create a tale on nothing. For collectors only, probably.

Not as good as I remembered, when I was a kid it was great! Now though its rather slow and the story line doesn't really make sense. Oh well, I will still buy the movies that I watched as a kid