The Ghost and the Darkness

[Speedbird]

I have some photos of me playing the 'field' in Chicago - including a rather natty one of me wearing a vintage linen jacket sipping a vodka martini in the Hancock Tower - 95 floors up - I get vertigo - I needed a lot of vodka just to look out the window! lol

Back to the Ghost and Patterson .... those russet boots he wears - there are similiar styles available and even originals but I have slender ankles and an excessively stepped calf muscle which jutts out like a slab of fillet steak plonked on my leg! lol I think it was from wearing hi-leg doc martens and then combat boots when I was younger - the muscle grew too high and abruptly ... or maybe I am just deformed! lol Anyway, finding riding boots to fit is a nightmare - when I rode horses I had to have a special insert made down the calf. I am thinking a pair of garrison boots with leather gaiters would achieve the same style, no?

 

[DanielJones]

Just watched this one the other day. Forgot how much I enjoyed this film. Especially Patterson's kit. I especially dig on the frock he was wearing in the beginning and was wondering what pattern of coat it was. I even like the duster the gentleman on the left has going on there. But I did notice that he seemed to be wearing his pith helmet backwards.

The look and feel of this film was stunning. I'm thinking once we get a new TV this film won't look as dark anymore and I'll pick up on more of the night details.

Cheers!

Dan

 

[Miss Stella]

We watch this everytime it comes on. I like history and thought the clothing was period appropriate...but I am not an authority by a long shot.
off topic...just read they are remaking, "The Great Gatsby"?

 

[Rathdown]

That Chicago also happens to have a Field Museum of Natural History is, I think, little more than coincidence.

The Field Museum is named for department store magnate Marshall Field who dontated $1,000,000 in 1894 and, following his death in 1906, left it an additional $8,000,000 in 1907.

 

[Benzadmiral]

Ghost and the Darkness was written by one of my favorite movie writers, William Goldman -- of Butch Cassidy and the Sundance Kid fame, as well as Marathon Man, Magic, and others. A novelist of renown as well. About the time this film came out I recall him being quoted in an article as saying that in all his life, he'd only run across two "real-life" stories (or events) which he felt would make good fiction or a good film. The story of Butch Cassidy was one. This was the other.

 

[1961MJS]

Hi

I just read an article

http://fieldmuseum.org/about/study-finds-field-museums-man-eating-lions-tsavo-did-not-consume-nearly-many-men-first

this article states that the two lions didn't eat as many people as previously thought. What they don't mention is that the 135 number came from people killed, not necessarily eaten. They used the amount of various minerals in the lion's hair, which only shows how many pounds of human each lion ate, not how many people the pounds came from.

O.K. that was gross, sorry about that. The Railway company said 28 people, Patterson said 135, but there were quite a few missing railway workers... Makes my job look SOOOOO much better.

 

[CH Sherr]

I liked the costuming myself. Patterson was dressed as the expert army man he was and I really liked the fit and hat of the gradual from the English Eastern African-american Organization, even though they created his personality a blowhard who was difficult to like.

 

[Dixon Cannon]

Here is the actual lion's lair, both then and more recently.

-dixon cannon

 

[Rick Blaine]

FWIW- The field Museum of Natural History and The Museum of Science & Industry are two separate places.
Both wonderful & worth a visit.

As an aside- according to the Museum the lions were used as rugs for a half century in the Great White Hunter's home prior to being donated.
As a result they were slowly worn away around the edges, between that & natural shrinkage, the lions on display are significantly smaller than they were in life.

 

[Dixon Cannon]

I always like to read Roger Ebert's movie reviews - he is just such a good writer and usually catches the subtleties of the film. In the case of 'The Ghost and the Darkness', he skewered it! But his criticism is just hilarious actually. Well worth a read: http://rogerebert.suntimes.com/apps/pbcs.dll/article?AID=/19961011/REVIEWS/610110303/1023

-dixon cannon