Where No Vultures Fly

Where No Vultures Fly
Movie poster
Directed by	Harry Watt
Produced by	Michael Balcon
Written by	W. P. Lipscomb Leslie Norman Ralph Smart
Based on	story by Harry Watt
Starring	Anthony Steel Dinah Sheridan
Music by	Alan Rawsthorne
Cinematography	Paul Beeson Geoffrey Unsworth
Edited by	Jack Harris Gordon Stone
Production company	Ealing Films African Film Productions
Distributed by	General Film Distributors (UK) Universal-International (US)
Release date	5 November 1951 (Royal Command Film Performance) 6 November 1951 (UK)
Running time	107 mins.
Country	United Kingdom South Africa
Language	English

5 November 1951 (Royal Command Film Performance)

Where No Vultures Fly is a 1951 British film. It was released under the title Ivory Hunter in the United States. It was directed by Harry Watt and starred Anthony Steel and Dinah Sheridan. The film was inspired by the work of the conservationist Mervyn Cowie. The film's opening credits state that "the characters in this film are imaginary, but the story is based on the recent struggle of Mervyn Cowie to form the National Parks of Kenya." The title Where No Vultures Fly denotes areas where there are no dead animals.

The film had a sequel West of Zanzibar.

The film is set in East Africa. It is about a game warden called Bob Payton (Anthony Steel). He is horrified by the destruction of wild animals by ivory hunters. He establishes a wildlife sanctuary. He is attacked by wild animals and must contend with a villainous ivory poacher (Harold Warrender).

The movie was one of a series of "expeditionary films" Harry Watt made, like The Overlanders, where he would find the story from visiting a location. "These expeditionary films are really journalistic jobs", he wrote later. "You get sent out to a country by the studio, stay as long as you can without being fired and a story generally crops up."

Watt got the idea of the film after a chance remark from a game warden in Tanganyika. He was shooting zebras and when Watt wondered if it was necessary, the warden remarked that Watt "talk like Mervyn Cowie". This prompted the director to track down Cowie in Nairobi, who inspired the story.

W.P. Lipscomb wrote the script based on Harry Watt's original idea. Ralph Smart worked on it. According to Leslie Norman "the script was turned down generally, so I went in and added a bit which made them accept it."

The movie was a co=production between Ealing and South Africa's African Films, with half the financing coming from South Africa. (Africa Films was a South African theatre chain.)