Safari

Safari is a 1956 British CinemaScope adventure film directed by Terence Young and set during the Mau Mau Uprising in Kenya. It stars Victor Mature, Janet Leigh, Roland Culver, John Justin, and Earl Cameron, and was intentionally cast to attract an American audience—both the hero and the lead female character are Americans, played by American actors. Plot While American white hunter Ken Duffield (Victor Mature) is off leading a safari, Mau Mau rebels attack his farm, slaughtering the labourers and his livestock. Duffield's young son Charlie and Aunt May (Estelle Brody) defend their home against the mass attack but they do not know that their houseboy Jeroge (a corruption of Njoroge) (Earl Cameron) is actually a Mau Mau general. Inside the farmhouse, Jeroge murders Aunt May with a machete and Charlie is killed with May's rifle. When Duffield returns to his destroyed homestead, the police have obtained information about Jeroge's role in the affair. Surmising that Duffield will use his hunting expertise to track down and revenge himself on the terrorists in general and Jeroge in particular, they escort him back to Nairobi and revoke his hunting licence until the situation and Duffield cools down. Duffield spends his exile in Nairobi drinking and gathering information about Jeroge from his African friends. He gets his chance for revenge when the rich Sir Vincent Brampton (Roland Culver), accompanied by his flunky Brian (John Justin) and his young American trophy fiancée Linda (Janet Leigh), arrive in Nairobi. They are keen to hire Duffield to lead a safari so that Sir Vincent can kill a legendary man-eating lion named "Hatari" (Swahili for "risky" or "dangerous"). Duffield knows that Hatari resides in an area which Jeroge is known to frequent, and that Sir Vincent can use his influence to get his hunting licence back.