King Solomon's Mines (1985 film)

Lore & Background

The film follows Jesse Huston, who hires Allan Quatermain to find her father, Professor Jediah Huston, lost on an expedition to King Solomon's Mines. Quatermain and his companion Umbopo follow a map into unknown country, discovering that the professor has been captured by a German military expedition led by Colonel Bockner and the Turkish adventurer Dogati. After rescuing Huston, the group enters the lands of the Kukuana tribe, where Umbopo reveals himself as the exiled rightful ruler. Amid attacks by Bockner and Dogati, the priestess Gagoola captures Jesse and flees into caves beneath the Breasts of Sheba, where the mines are located.

Reader's Guide

King Solomon's Mines was Richard Chamberlain's first feature film since The Last Wave (1977). Kathleen Turner reportedly turned down the female lead because the role was too similar to her character in Romancing the Stone. The film was shot over ten months in northeastern Zimbabwe, with a crew including many Israelis and South Africans, which drew objections from the local Arab population; the Arab League protested the depiction of Arab characters as slavers. The film's score was composed by Jerry Goldsmith and performed by the Hungarian State Opera Orchestra. Though panned by critics, the film made a profit and performed well with general audiences, who were more forgiving of its intentionally cheesy tone. It was nominated for two Golden Raspberry Awards: Worst Supporting Actor for Herbert Lom and Worst Musical Score for Goldsmith.

Did You Know?

• The film was shot simultaneously with its sequel, Allan Quatermain and the Lost City of Gold (1986).
• Kathleen Turner was offered $1.5 million to play Jesse Huston but turned it down.
• The Arab League protested the film's depiction of all Arab characters as slavers.
• The film was originally planned to be the first in a trilogy, but two attempts to make a third movie failed.

A Tongue-in-Cheek Homage to '80s Adventure

The 1985 King Solomon's Mines was conceived not as a reverent adaptation of H. Rider Haggard's 1885 novel but as a deliberately playful, comedic adventure that openly winked at the Indiana Jones phenomenon. Director J. Lee Thompson and screenwriters Gene Quintano and James R. Silke crafted a script that leaned into spectacle and humor rather than gravitas. Richard Chamberlain, speaking before production, described it as very much a Raiders of the Lost Ark type of movie, very tongue-in-cheek and full of adventures and stunts, listing bullets, lions devouring people, and witches perched in trees as the kind of set pieces the film embraced. Cannon Films backed the project, and the result is a film that treats its own pulp heritage as something to be enjoyed and poked at rather than taken seriously. The comedic register runs through the entire narrative, from the absurd villainy of Colonel Bockner to the lighthearted romance between Quatermain and Jesse Huston, making it a product of its mid-eighties moment when adventure cinema was at its most irreverent.

Ten Months in the Mashonaland Heat

Production stretched across a grueling ten-month shoot in the Mashonaland region of northeastern Zimbabwe, outside Harare, with the crew capturing the film simultaneously alongside its sequel, Allan Quatermain and the Lost City of Gold. The ensemble included a notable mix of Israeli and South African crew members, a staffing choice that drew sharp criticism from the local Arab community and prompted a formal protest from the Arab League over the portrayal of Arab characters as slave-traders. Chamberlain, who had not appeared in a feature film since The Last Wave in 1977, defended the approach by arguing that comedy was the best antidote to outdated stereotypes, insisting that poking fun at them exposed their absurdity. The casting process also had its drama: Kathleen Turner was reportedly offered a staggering $1.5 million for the role of Jesse Huston but declined, feeling the part overlapped too closely with Joan Wilder from Romancing the Stone. Despite these complications, the location work delivered a vivid, sun-scorched backdrop that anchored the film's larger-than-life adventure sequences.

The Mines and Their Perils

The narrative engine of the film is the descent into the legendary King Solomon's Mines, nestled beneath the Breasts of Sheba, twin peaks in the Kukuana tribal lands. Quatermain, the enigmatic Umbopo, and Jesse Huston plunge into a labyrinth of deadly traps: a moat of quicksand where Bockner coldly shoots his own men to use as stepping stones, a treasure chamber whose ceiling grinds downward and whose floor floods with water, and a booby-trapped lake that ultimately claims the villain in the jaws of a Mokele-mbembe. The mines also hold a haunting centerpiece—the crystalline sarcophagus of the Queen of Sheba, resting among the tombs of all former tribal queens. The priestess Gagoola, desperate to maintain her rule, attempts to sacrifice Jesse, who bears a striking resemblance to the ancient queen. The climax sees the volcano erupt, molten lava incinerating Gagoola and sealing the entrance forever, while Dogati meets his end falling into a lava pit. The final image of the trio fleeing through collapsing caverns, past fire and falling rock, crystallizes the film's commitment to relentless, escalating spectacle.

The Trilogy That Never Was

King Solomon's Mines was originally envisioned as the opening chapter of a three-film saga, and its sequel, Allan Quatermain and the Lost City of Gold, was filmed back-to-back in 1986. However, the ambitious trilogy never materialized. Two separate attempts to greenlight a third installment both collapsed. The first would have drawn on another Haggard novel, She and Allan, while the second, tentatively titled Allan Quatermain and the Jewel of the East, was to be helmed by producer Menahem Golan. Neither project survived, and the financial disappointment of Lost City of Gold at the box office is widely cited as a key factor in killing both. The result left the Cannon Films franchise incomplete, with the Quatermain character's story arc unresolved. For fans of the 1985 original, this unfinished trilogy represents one of the more notable lost opportunities of mid-eighties adventure cinema—a world of tribal kingdoms, crystal queens, and volcanic mines that was never allowed to reach its full narrative potential.