African Film Archive

Allan Quatermain

1919 — H. Lisle Lucoque — South Africa

feature · adventure, silent · pre-history

A silent adventure feature produced by African Film Productions and shot on location in KwaZulu-Natal, adapted from H. Rider Haggard's 1887 novel Allan Quatermain. It followed director H. Lisle Lucoque's earlier African Film Productions adaptation of King Solomon's Mines (1918/1919); it is an independent Haggard adaptation, not a sequel to the King Solomon's Mines film. The film opened in Johannesburg on 1 August 1919, Durban on 13 August, and Cape Town on 22 September.

Fun fact: African Film Productions made over forty fiction films between 1916 and 1924 before shifting mainly to documentary and newsreel work; both this film and Lucoque's King Solomon's Mines are now considered lost.

Notes: Non-African-directed colonial-era production, included per methodology as clearly labeled pre-history era work. Corrected 2026-07-29 per independent fact-check: year corrected from 1920 to 1919 (South African release date; some international databases list a 1920 release), and the incorrect 'sequel to King Solomon's Mines' claim removed. Both films are lost.

Verification: verified · Sources: [1] [2] [3]