Stanley and Livingstone (1939) on Netflix
Reporter Henry M. Stanley is sent by publisher James Gordon Bennett Jr. into Africa to find David Livingstone, the missionary a rival paper has reported dead. Jeff Slocum goes as guide.
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- Netflix3.5/5
- IMDb7.0/101,675 votes
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Plot summary
Henry M. Stanley comes back from the Wyoming Territory with his guide, Jeff Slocum. His employer, New York Herald publisher James Gordon Bennett Jr., hands him an assignment: the London Globe has announced that an expedition led by Gareth Tyce, son of the paper's publisher Lord Tyce, confirmed the missionary David Livingstone is dead. Bennett doubts the report and wants to embarrass his rival, so Stanley accepts the search. Sailing to Zanzibar, he makes a poor impression on Lord Tyce and meets Eve Kingsley, whose father John Kingsley temporarily heads the British authorities. Eve warns him of Africa's dangers.
Cast
Did you know?!Facts and trivia about Stanley and Livingstone (1939)
Can contain spoilers, watch the movie first.
- While filming, Spencer Tracy could not get through the line "Dr. Livingstone, I presume" without laughing hysterically and rolling around the studio floor, and Cedric Hardwicke, as the missionary Livingstone, laughed until tears rolled down his cheeks. Screenwriter Philip Dunne said they shot it as an aside.
- According to screenwriter Philip Dunne, the film was originally envisioned as a vehicle for Tyrone Power as the reporter Henry Stanley, and the script was prepared for him accordingly.
- 20th Century Fox production head Darryl F. Zanuck agreed to a memo proposing that Stanley be rewritten as a cynic who hunts Livingstone as a publicity stunt and turns idealistic after meeting him, and had Philip Dunne and Julien Josephson rewrite the script.
