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THE MACOMBER AFFAIR has to be rated a success for the mere fact that it finally brings a Hemingway story to the screen pretty much intact and the way he wrote it. GREGORY PECK may not be the perfect choice to play the guide escorting a quarrelsome JOAN BENNETT and ROBERT PRESTON on a safari, but he acquits himself well enough in the role.

I found it a lot more satisfying than the later SNOWS OF KILIMINJARO in which Peck again was cast in the lead as a Hemingway white hunter in Africa. Although that film had the advantage of Technicolor and more expensive trappings, THE MACOMBER AFFAIR achieves more of an edge by being photographed in somber B&W, even though some of the stock footage and backgrounds are obviously studio shots.

Bennett is fascinating as the woman full of scorn for her husband and gradually showing her interest in Peck while Preston's resentment begins to turn paranoid. Miklos Rozsa's score gives it a film noir feeling despite the jungle setting--and it becomes a war of nerves before the satisfying conclusion.

Well worth watching for some interesting performances.

According to the Michael Freedland biography of Gregory Peck, The Macomber Affair was the second of two films he owed Casey Robinson the screenwriter who occasionally produced and directed. The first was Peck's debut film Days Of Glory and for the second since Robinson did not know what he wanted to use Peck for, he let Greg pick the property. As he had just got around to reading the story which had been published a decade earlier in Cosmopolitan Magazine, Peck chose the Ernest Hemingway short story, The Short Unhappy Life Of Francis Macomber, the title shortened to The Macomber Affair for marquee purposes.

Producing this film with Robinson was Benedict Bogeaus who usually did B films with real limited production. A second unit crew did go to Africa and got some real nice black and white jungle footage, but the cast did this one strictly on the back lot. I have to give Bogeaus and Robinson good marks for editing the film shot with the cast in with the background.

In fact this film is a notch or so above Gregory Peck's second film with a Hemingway subject, The Snows Of Kilimanjaro which was shot in Africa. This one is no frills Hemingway with the exception of a changed and cop out ending to please the Code.

Gregory Peck plays the white hunter who escorts Mr.&Mrs. Francis Macomber on a safari where they are trying to recapture the magic that has gone from their relationship. Peck warns them up front that women and safaris don't mix and what follows seems to confirm his point of view.

The Macombers are played by Robert Preston and Joan Bennett and they have the much showier parts than Peck does and they make the most of it. Especially Bennett who essays one of the great bitch roles of all time, successfully poaching on a part that Bette Davis or Barbara Stanwyck would have gone to town with. How that woman just demeans Preston especially after he shows some understandable fear as a newbie in the jungle during a hunt for a wounded lion is really just sad.

Under Peck's tutelage who is the ultimate machismo Hemingway hero, Preston starts losing his inhibitions which Bennett cannot stand. The result is tragedy.

Hemingway's timeless writing and subject matter hold up well for today's viewer. We get a realistic portrayal of Africa that you normally don't see from American studios. The Macomber Affair is a film that fans of all the principal players and Papa Hemingway will appreciate centuries from now.

Taking into account the shortcomings of the period: rear projection and non location filming this is a solid adventure film. Really a three person chamber piece the success or failure of the film rests on the performances of its leads and there it's on solid ground. Both Peck and Preston do good work but the standout is the under-appreciated Joan Bennett. Always at her best as a conflicted character here as a woman turned into a hard article by a bad marriage though subtle gestures and sly looks she gives the film a tough grounded center and she has rarely looked so beautiful. Not having read the book I'm not sure how closely it follows but the film does have a Hemingway feel.

The writing team of Casey Robinson and Seymour Bennett adapted Ernest Hemingway's "the Short Happy Life of Francis Macomber" into a solid screenplay which enlarged upon the subtle themes of the original. A wealthy couple(Robert Preston,Joan Bennett) arrive in East Africa ostensibly for a safari vacation but it soon becomes apparent that they are ill-matched and resentful of each other's failings.Their safari guide,Gregory Peck,attempting to conduct things professionally,becomes an unwilling spectator to their petty arguments and vicious insults.But as the party trek through the jungle in search of game the true personalities of the warring couple emerge playing havoc with Peck's sympathies and his growing interest in beautiful Bennett.An ironic twist of events await these adventurers as they pursue game more dangerous than they bargained for. An enriching score by Miklos Rozsa,the superb direction by Hungarian director Zoltan Korda,and fine performances by the 3 principals(especially Preston's paranoid tycoon) all serve the viewer with a gripping drama.

From 1947, "The Macomber Affair" is based on a Hemingway short story about a safari. I watched it knowing full well I didn't want to see animals hunted down, so I admit a certain prejudice.

Joan Bennett and Robert Preston are Margaret and Francis Macomber, an unhappy husband and wife who go on a safari guided by hunter Robert Wilson, played by Gregory Peck. Margaret is openly derisive of her husband, whom she considers somewhat of a coward, and he apparently is on this safari to prove his masculinity. It isn't very successful at first, as Francis runs like a rabbit when he's charged by a lion. I don't know who wouldn't, frankly.

Margaret is attracted to Wilson -- again, who wouldn't be, it's Gregory Peck -- and he falls for her. I don't know why because she's a very unpleasant woman. When a tragedy occurs, Wilson has to decide what really happened - was it an accident or deliberate? This film is somewhat miscast, as it required a Peter Finch or Trevor Howard in the Peck role. Peck doesn't come off as much of a big game hunter. Joan Bennett's character is a little too harsh, which I blame on the director, Zoltan Korda. There doesn't seem to be any reason for his attraction to her; she comes off as emasculating.

The film has an ambiguous ending. I didn't care how it ended, which is a major problem -- you should be invested in the characters.

This is an old-fashioned macho Hemingway story that received better treatment than most of his work. Still -- Hemingway is very difficult to film due to his spare language and all that subtext.

If you like seeing animals shot and killed (though I realize they really weren't) so someone can prove his masculinity, this is the movie for you.

This film deserves a DVD release. Excellent script, direction, and editing carry the film into Hemingway's world. The results are excellent. The three leads do very well with their parts. I particularly liked Joan Bennett. Her cynicism and brazen effrontery towards husband Preston held my attention as she carried on an obvious affair with Peck. The dynamic between the three stars smolders across the screen as Preston attempts to "prove" his manhood by killing wild beasts. In true Hemingway style the "big game" adventure turns into one of more human proportions. Pretty bold stuff considering the Production Code was still in full swing. Reginald Denny plays with authority in a minor role.

Based on a Hemingway short story. And Hemingway knew how to craft stories that epitomized realms of male supremacy. His world was one of combat, African safaris, bull rings… all the places where "real men" constantly had to prove masculine courage. Women were an accessory… the old "Can't live with them, Can't live without them" philosophy.

In this movie, all that comes across in spades. Robert Preston is Francis Mocamber, led around by the nose on a chain by his wife Margaret, played by Joan Bennett. They hire great white hunter Robert Wilson, portrayed by Gregory Peck, to guide them on safari. In the Mocamber marriage it's the wife who wears both the pants and the skirt. The trip is no picnic in the jungle but a miserable, forced emotional trek where the two men just get worn out by Margaret's constant authoritarianism and general bitchiness. Tragedy ensues…who woulda guessed it?!

Not much more to be said. If you subscribe to the Hemingway universe, this movie is for you.

This Zoltan Korda adaptation of Hemingway's bitter tale of big game hunting and marital infidelity is the best movie adaptation of this author's work I have ever seen. Only Gregory Peck seems miscast in what is basically a Trevor Howard part, but this doesn't bring the movie down, it merely limits it. As the superficially charming, boyish, gregarious and basically not very nice Macomber, Robert Preston is brilliant, and he gives a daring, emotionally open performance. Joan Bennett is good as his wife, better than Peck but not perfect casting, either. What makes the movie work is its nasty story, and Casey Robinson's excellent and correct interpretation of it. The Hemingway mood, macho and misogynist, and misanthropic more than anything else, is caught to such perfection one might almost suspect that he was technical adviser (he wasn't). British East Africa is given the Tarzan treatment on screen, typical of the forties but for some difficult to take now. I find that it works, as Tarzan and Hemingway weren't a million miles apart in temperament and values, though I imagine that Tarzan was nicer fellow to get along with.

Considering that "The Macomber Affair" is based closely on a Hemingway story and it stars Gregory Peck, Robert Preston and Joan Bennet, you'd think it would be an amazing film. However, oddly, it left me a bit ambivalent...not a bad film but one I just didn't care for one way or another. Some of it might be the extensive and overly familiar use of stock footage but I think this is only a small part of the problem. Much of it is that the film just never seemed very real or interesting...and it should have been.

When the film begins, you learn that Mr. Macomber (Preston) was shot to death by his wife while they were on a safari. Was it an accident or murder? Well, it's not clear and the events leading up to it and the killing are shown through a long flashback. During this portion of the film, it's obvious the Macombers are not a happy couple. The husband is a bit of a coward and the wife seems contemptuous of him. Into this mess comes a great hunting guide, Robert Wilson (Peck). What's next? See the film.

As I mentioned above, the story was just okay and there's little I hated or loved about the film. And, unusually, I have a hard time putting down in words exactly why...but it just left me feeling curiously detached.

Ernest Hemingway penned his two short 'white hunter' tales in 1936 both of which have been adapted for the screen and starred Gregory Peck. He gives a strong performance as Harry in 'Snows of Kilimanjaro' but in this earlier film he simply cannot rise above his monumental miscasting. Physically he could not be further from the Robert Wilson of Hemingway's imagining who is an Englishman of middle height with sandy hair and a stubbly moustache. During the inner monologues of the original he reveals himself to be extremely cynical and always goes on safari with a double cot as he considers horizontal socialising with the wives of his wealthy clients to be 'a windfall'. In keeping with Mr. Peck's upright persona and dignified demeanour he sleeps in a single cot and is here motivated not by lust but by love which changes the whole complexion of the piece, makes the triangle less sordid and weakens the drama.

The object of his affections is Margot Macomber. As envisaged by the author she is not easy to love and is described as 'being enameled in that American female cruelty'. She represents the type of woman that has made Hemingway 'public enemy number one' in the eyes of feminists. The difficulty for an actress is to avoid making Margot too 'one-note' and Joan Bennett acquits herself pretty well.

The notion that a man only knows what it is to be a man when slaughtering various species of wildlife is of course anathema to the current generation but here it is what makes Francis Macomber such an interesting character. It is a means by which he conquers his fear and thereby liberates himelf, much to his wife's annoyance. His new-found freedom is alas short lived....... Robert Preston gives a beautifully understated performance and the film really belongs to him.

The final line in the book is Wilson's "Now I'll stop". If only the film itself could have stopped there but no! We are subjected to the customary Hollywood morality lesson imposed by the American Production Code in which Margot resolves to face the music and atone for her crime. It was to be another twenty years before this aggravating organisation bit the dust.

The film is capably directed by Zoltan Korda and is not without its moments.

Hemingway's terse dialogue which is eminently suitable for film remains largely intact.

I would strongly recommend reading the original. It won't take you long!

For all it's based on a hunting expedition in the wide open spaces of Africa, this is actually rather a squalid little movie, based on a 1930's Hemingway short-story. Basically a three-hander, it stars Gregory Peck, Robert Preston and Joan Bennett in a love-triangle played out on safari. However even putting to one side the adulterous moral issue at the heart of the drama, it's actually quite difficult from today's viewpoint to have any respect, far less sympathy for any of the three of them considering they get their kicks from shooting defenceless creatures in the wild.

Peck is the experienced hunter-turned-guide charged with helping Preston's mega-rich Francis Macomber to bag a lion and / or a buffalo and in so doing convince his uncaring wife Bennett that inside he really is a big brave man and not the meek, shrinking violet he's been up till now. Personally I can think of dozens of other ways to do this without shooting a lion in the face but we're in Hemingway country and this is the test of masculinity in his world.

Anyway, when Preston then chickens out on an encounter with a charging lion, Bennett needs no more excuse to throw herself at the tall, handsome, fearless Peck's Wilson character. So can Macomber get his mojo back and win back his woman? Well, no he can't, because right at the start of the movie we know he's dead, apparently shot by his wife in an apparent "friendly fire" incident...or was it? In the extended flashback that follows the viewer is led to draw their own conclusions although the Production Code of the day naturally takes a hand in dictating just how we're meant to view the actions of a cheating wife.

There is as you'd expect, some good dialogue no doubt lifted from the original but like I said earlier, it's hard to care what happens to these people given their abominable hobby never mind the dismissive way they treat their native Kenyan helpers. The performances are good in the main but I wasn't convinced by the Peck / Bennett coupling, in fact it's a real surprise when he confesses his love for her to Macomber.

Not without some interest, this dated movie in the end gives out more reasons to dislike than like it and ultimately misses the target.

This is a very turpid Hemingway story, which he must have told out of his own experience as a qualified game hunter in Africa, here acting as a guide (Gregory Peck) for a married couple (Robert Preston and Joan Bennett), the man being very rich and bringing his wife to Africa in a vain effort to impress on her and save their marriage. Of course it turns the other way around. The film starts with his corpse being carried off an airplane and Gregory escorting a very depressed wife down from it, then concentrating on Gregory to deal with the aftermath of the matter in the shape of hangover thoughts, turning to a long flashback, which is the major part of the film. Was it an accident or was it murder? Neither Joan Bennett nor Gregory Peck can anser that question, which will follow you out.

Hunting wild animals, especially when they are of the noble kind like lions, must be perhaps the most despicable sport in the world, especially today, when so many of those finest animals are facing extinction, but this film shows clearly the rotten turpidity and destructive meaninglessness of it as a sport. There is some comfort in that nowadays safari tourists don't shoot animals except by cameras, but there are still abominable poachers around, that should be shot themselves, everyone of them.

I did not read the short story, so i can only go by what i saw and heard in the movie. It is possible I missed some dialogue along the way that would tell me how long this couple ( Bennett and Preston ) were on the safari, for Peck's character to fall in love with Bennett, who showed a side of contempt of her husband in front of him...now that really should turn a man on, right? The leads do well in their parts, but it was Bennett that surprised me...she was really a 'bitch' as they say. I couldn't see her in this role as her usual natural Blond, but since her transformation of the Hedy Lamarr look ( she dyed her hair black ) cause she was enamored of the Hedy face, as millions of others had at that time, her career got a boost. That said, and the ambiguous ending made an interesting hour and a half for me.

I've read his book, it is fantastic story of Hemingway.

Unfortunately the movie is just visual picture for it, never more. Even Gregory peck can't do more with the script and miserable movie. Still, literature base, it have some point, nothing more. The book is better!

This is taunt and good. It presents the way one expects a Hemingway story to present. It held my interest from beginning to end. Is this a love triangle? Is this a film noir set on an African safari?

I liked it because the cast was limited with only three principle characters: Wilson (Gregory Peck) as the guide on the African safari, and a husband and wife, Mr & Mrs. Macober (Robert Preston & Joan Bennett), with deep-set marital problems.

Perhaps, Wilson was right when he said, it is not good to take a woman on safari.

The back and forth emotions that occur on this safari mirror the stages of the safari and uncover the yin & yang of the husband and wife, and finally draw in Wilson too.

It was a good hunt and all was well.

The kills were clean---or where they?