Search a film or person :
FacebookConnectionRegistration
The Flame Trees of Thika is a British film of genre Drama directed by Roy Ward Baker with Hayley Mills

The Flame Trees of Thika (1981)

The Flame Trees of Thika
If you like this film, let us know!
  • Infos
  • Casting
  • Technical infos
  • Photos
  • Videos
  • Film quotes
  • Characters
  • Music
  • Awards
Directed by
Genres Drama
Rating77% 3.8810553.8810553.8810553.8810553.881055

The Flame Trees of Thika is a British television serial of seven 50-minute episodes made by Euston Films for Thames Television in 1981. It was adapted by John Hawkesworth from the 1959 book of the same title by Elspeth Huxley, and is set in and around the town of Thika in Kenya's Central Province. The story deals with the lives of British settlers in this part of East Africa in 1913, when the country was a British colony, up to the start of World War One.

The series stars Hayley Mills (in her first starring role after a six-year performing hiatus), Holly Aird, David Robb and Ben Cross.

Synopsis

Robin Grant(David Robb), his wife Tilly (Hayley Mills) and daughter Elspeth (Holly Aird) move to British East Africa (now called Kenya) to set up a coffee plantation. The meet Piet Roos, a Boer big game hunter and Njombo, a native who goes to work from them. The Grants face many travails in getting established, but these improve after they hire Sammy as the headman of the plantation. Hereward (Nicholas Jones) and Lettice {Sharon Maughan Palmer move to the area. There is a fight between Roos and Sammy. Then Njombo kills Kimon, who was the Palmer’s headman. As a result his chief strips him of his property and Sammy marries the girl Njombo wanted. Elspeth has a very interesting New Year’s Eve party with Mrs. Nimmo and a newcomer to the area Alec Wilson while her parents and the Palmers go to Nairobi. A big game hunter, Ian Crawford (Ben Cross) arrives in the area and becomes infatuated with Lettice Palmer, who gives a pony to Elspeth. We learn Lettice left her first husband to elope with Hereward and Elspeth develops an intense dislike for Hereward Palmer after he shoots a baby antelope on a hunt. Sammy arranges for a curse to be put on Njombo, and it literally takes an “Act of God” to get it lifted. After the railroad reaches Thika, Lettice gets a piano, but during a party held to celebrate its arrival, a leopard kills one of her dogs. During the hunt to get it, Hereward kills the leopard, but is almost killed by its mate, but saved by Roos. The Palmers, Tilly and Crawford go on a safari, during which Lettice and Crawford have an affair. Hereward and Crawford are about to have a brawl when Crawford’s servant stabs Hereward. As a result Crawford leaves and Lettice stays with Hereward. Then on August 4, 1914 the Grants learn war has been declared on Germany. Robin joins the army, while Tilly becomes a nurse and Elspeth goes to school, where she is bullied for being a know-it-all. She runs away back to Thika. Ian Crawford is killed. Then Robin is transferred to France so all the Grants leave Africa and return to Europe for the duration.

Actors

Trailer of The Flame Trees of Thika

Bluray, DVD

Streaming / VOD

Source : Wikidata

Comments


Leave comment :

Suggestions of similar film to The Flame Trees of Thika

There are 76 films with the same actors, 36 films with the same director, 61731 with the same cinematographic genres, 1383 films with the same themes, to have finally 70 suggestions of similar films.

If you liked The Flame Trees of Thika, you will probably like those similar films :
The Snows of Kilimanjaro, 1h54
Directed by Henry King, Roy Ward Baker
Origin USA
Genres Drama, War, Action, Adventure, Romance
Themes Films set in Africa, Films about writers, Political films, Children's films
Actors Gregory Peck, Ava Gardner, Susan Hayward, Hildegard Knef, Leo G. Carroll, Marcel Dalio
Rating60% 3.0486253.0486253.0486253.0486253.048625
The film begins with the opening words of Hemingway's story: "Kilimanjaro is a snow-covered mountain 19,710 feet high, and is said to be the highest mountain in Africa. Its western summit is called the Masai 'Ngje Ngi,' the House of God. Close to the western summit there is the dried and frozen carcass of a leopard. No one has explained what the leopard was seeking at that altitude."
White Witch Doctor, 1h36
Directed by Richard Rosson, Henry Hathaway, Roy Ward Baker, Gerd Oswald
Origin USA
Genres Adventure, Horror
Themes Films set in Africa, Children's films
Actors Susan Hayward, Robert Mitchum, Walter Slezak, Timothy Carey, Michael Ansara, Charles Gemora
Rating61% 3.0502153.0502153.0502153.0502153.050215
The arrival of nurse Ellen Burton to the Belgian Congo is unwelcome to hunter John "Lonni" Douglas, who captures animals for zoos. He warns her against traveling upriver to join a female doctor who is working with native tribesmen.
Black Girl
Black Girl (1966)
, 1h5
Directed by Ousmane Sembène
Genres Drama
Themes Films set in Africa
Actors Ousmane Sembène, Mbissine Thérèse Diop
Rating73% 3.697023.697023.697023.697023.69702
Diouana, a young Senegalese woman, moves from Dakar, Senegal to Antibes, France to work for a rich French couple. In France, Diouana hopes to continue her former nanny job and anticipates a cosmopolitan lifestyle. But from her arrival in Antibes, Diouana experiences harsh treatment from the couple, who force her to work as a full servant. She becomes increasingly aware of her constrained and alienated situation and starts to question her life in France.
Simba
Simba (1955)
, 1h39
Directed by Brian Desmond Hurst
Origin United-kingdom
Genres Drama, Romance
Themes Films set in Africa
Actors Dirk Bogarde, Virginia McKenna, Donald Sinden, Basil Sydney, Marie Ney, Joseph Tomelty
Rating61% 3.05223.05223.05223.05223.0522
Alan Howard (Dirk Bogarde) visits Kenya to see his brother, who he discovers has been murdered by Mau Mau.
Dazzling Mirage
Origin Nigeria
Genres Drama, Romance
Themes Films set in Africa, Medical-themed films
Actors Kunle Afolayan, Taiwo Ajai-Lycett, Khabirat Kafidipe, Carol King
Rating50% 2.523562.523562.523562.523562.52356
Une adaptation du roman de Yinka Egbokhare. L'histoire d'une jeune drépanocytaire et les différents défis sociaux et émotionnels auxquels elle est confrontée.
Storm Over the Nile, 1h47
Directed by Zoltan Korda, Terence Young
Origin United-kingdom
Genres Drama, War, Adventure
Themes Films set in Africa, Political films
Actors Anthony Steel, Laurence Harvey, James Robertson Justice, Mary Ure, Ronald Lewis, Ian Carmichael
Rating61% 3.098433.098433.098433.098433.09843
The film depicts Harry Faversham, a sensitive child who is terrified by his father and his Crimean War friends relating tales of cowardice that often ended in suicide. Young Harry follows his father's wishes of being commissioned in the Royal North Surrey Regiment. He also becomes engaged to marry the daughter of his father's friend General Burroughs.
Sometimes in April, 2h20
Directed by Raoul Peck
Origin USA
Genres Drama, War, Historical
Themes Films set in Africa
Actors Idris Elba, Oris Erhuero, Carole Karemera, Debra Winger, Eriq Ebouaney, Noah Emmerich
Rating77% 3.893753.893753.893753.893753.89375
Rwanda, 1994. Le film raconte, jour après jour, la vie d'une famille rwandaise. Le mari est hutu, la femme et les deux enfants tutsi. Lors de la mort du président, tous les hommes hutu sont réquisitionnés pour éradiquer la population tutsi. Parmi eux Augustin Muganza, un hutu modéré qui sert dans l'armée rwandaise, et son frère Honoré, animateur de la tristement célèbre Radio Télévision Libre des Mille Collines.
Tarzan's Hidden Jungle, 1h13
Directed by Harold D. Schuster
Origin USA
Genres Drama, Fantasy, Action, Adventure, Romance
Themes Films set in Africa, Films about children, Tarzan films
Actors Gordon Scott, Vera Miles, Jack Elam, Charles Fredericks, Peter van Eyck, Richard Reeves
Rating54% 2.705972.705972.705972.705972.70597
Two hunters come into the jungle intent on killing as many animals as they can in order to get barrels of animal fat, lion skins and elephant tusks. Tarzan tries to help a baby elephant, one of their first victims. He takes the elephant to an animal doctor and his female assistant, who have pitched their tents in the jungle to do business. The hunters turn up and pretend they are photographers and have the doctor escort them to where the animals are. They leave the doctor and start killing animals. His assistant finds out what they're really up to and goes after them but needs Tarzan's help when she stumbles into quicksand. He rescues her, and she says she needs a bath so Tarzan throws her into the river.