A recent traveller with Gane and Marshall, Richard Parker, has very kindly donated a collection of black and white stills from the 1946 film Men of Two Worlds, a British production set in colonial-era Tanzania. We’ve in turn donated the photos, which depict Moshi, Arusha, and the Maasai lands of the 1940s, to the Britain Tanzania Society (BTS), but before doing so we took the time to digitise them.
Directed by Thorold Dickinson, Men of Two Worlds was begun as a wartime film intended to present the colonial experience in a positive light. It was very much a propaganda project, though perhaps somewhat more credible than other films of the genre by virtue of the fact that it was directed by Dickinson, who only ten years earlier had directed the High Command, a film that dealt more critically with the British colonial administration in Africa. Nevertheless, Men of Two Worlds had a mixed reception, and was considered a costly failure. You can read more about the film at the BFI and Colonial Film websites.
Richard Parker receives our thanks for his kindness in giving us these exciting photos.
