Timbuctoo is a 1933 British comedy film, co-directed by Walter Summers and Arthur B. Woods for British International Pictures, and starring Henry Kendall and Margot Grahame. Although BIP had a reputation for churning out films quickly and cheaply, in this case they allocated enough of a budget to finance location filming in Africa.
Plot
The film's slight storyline concerns a man (Kendall) who has a violent quarrel with his family over his fiancée (Grahame). Feeling totally upset, he wants to get away from all the conflict and decides to travel overland to Timbuktu with its legendary reputation as one of the most remote and mysterious places in the world. As soon as his fiancée learns of his departure, she vows to do the same thing and challenges herself to arrive in Timbuktu before him. Much of the film is essentially taken up with travelogue sequences of African natives and habitats.
Cast
Henry Kendall as Benedict
Margot Grahame as Elizabeth
Emily Fitzroy as Aunt Augusta
Hubert Harben as Uncle George
Jean Cadell as Wilhelmina
Victor Stanley as Henry
Una O'Connor as Myrtle
Edward Cooper as Steven
Availability
Timbuctoo does not appear ever to have been shown on television in the UK, nor has it been made available commercially; however, unlike many quota quickie productions of the 1930s, the film has survived and is available to view by appointment at any of the Mediatheques run by the British Film Institute. Although the film is billed as a comedy, it contains a sequence of a hippopotamus being hunted and killed which some modern viewers have found extremely unpleasant and distressing.