Product Details

• Actors: Rock Hudson, Dana Wynter, Sidney Poitier, Wendy Hiller
• Directors: Richard Brooks
• Writers: Robert C. Ruark
• Format: Black & White, Collector's Edition, Limited Edition, NTSC, Full Screen
• Language: English
• Rated: NR (Not Rated)
• Number of tapes: 1
• Studio: MGM/UA
• Run Time: 113.0 minutes
• Average Customer Review: 3.5 out of 5 stars  See all reviews (6 customer reviews)
• ASIN: B0009POUAC
• Amazon Best Sellers Rank: #230,341 in Movies & TV (See Top 100 in Movies & TV)

Editorial Reviews

Plot Summary for Something of Value (1957) Even though Peter and Kimani grow up together, Kimani soon finds that different races are treated differently. After the father of Kimani is jailed for following tribal customs, Kimani joins a band of rebels that wants all non-Kenyans out of their country. While Kimani believes in the cause, he does not agree with the indiscriminate killing of women, children and those who will not join or agree with them. Peter, even after the deaths of his little sister and brother by the Mau Mau, still believes that there is a chance for peaceful co-existence. He believes that he can stop most of the killing if he can only reason with Kimani. Summary written by Tony Fontana

Customer Reviews

Most Helpful Customer Reviews

22 of 23 people found the following review helpful:

3.0 out of 5 stars A Topical Richard Brooks Drama, December 16, 2001

By 

charles pope (connecticut) - See all my reviews

This review is from: Something of Value [VHS] (VHS Tape)

I have yet to see this film played on any Television cable channel. Brooks brings to the screen Robert Ruark's novel about the Mau Mau uprisings in the then British East Africa.

Its a powerful story that is well acted by Rock Hudson, Sidney Poitier, Dana Wynter and Wendy Hiller.

Here is a chance to see a terrific actor named Juano Hernandez( Young Man With a Horn, " The Pawnbroker") deliver the goods.
Time has changed attitudes on subjects like these situations portrayed here. However, parts of this drama are salient even today although framed differently. One can take the geography out of this part of Africa and transpose these types of conflicts to other continents. Directed with care by Mr. Brooks.

4 of 4 people found the following review helpful:

3.0 out of 5 stars An unusual story and good performances from Rock Hudson and Sidney Poitier, January 5, 2011

By 

D. K. Daniel (Washington DC) - See all my reviews
(REAL NAME)   

This review is from: Something of Value (DVD)

A sympathetic look at an armed, bloody rebellion of blacks would have been unheard of for a Hollywood film set in America in 1957. It seems that the few films that focused on race relations back then tended to present good-natured black characters being mistreated by whites who ultimately see the errors of their ways.

Perhaps that's why "Something of Value" could be filmed at all. It's set in Africa and looks at the issues of independence facing Kenya. Was that Hollywood's way of dealing with race relations in the U.S.? Imagine if MGM had released a film based on the Nat Turner slave rebellion in Virginia in colonial times.

The novel "Something of Value" had been a controversial best-seller and promised to be a controversial film. According to the new book "Tough as Nails: The Life and Films of Richard Brooks" (available from amazon.com) writer-director Brooks was a liberal who hated any kind of discrimination. He had done well with "Blackboard Jungle" a few years earlier and another controversial best-seller would be just his kind of project.

For this movie, Brooks worked again with Sidney Poitier, and Brooks also gave Rock Hudson one of the best roles of his career.

"Something of Value" doesn't make heroes of the Mau-Mau insurgents, but it explains why they were driven to violence and why Kenya ultimately would become independent.

Tough as Nails: The Life and Films of Richard Brooks (Wisconsin Film Studies)

6 of 7 people found the following review helpful:

4.0 out of 5 stars Another chapter in African history, May 16, 2010

By 

Fiona Lowther "book lover" (Detroit, Michigan USA) - See all my reviews

Amazon Verified Purchase

This review is from: Something of Value (DVD)

Not having read the book on which "Something of Value" was based, I don't know how faithful the film is to the book. However, it is an evocative and provocative film. A younger Hudson portrays a white South African whose best friend is a black South African (Sidney Poitier). Having grown up together, the boys become young men subjected to the racial pressures of the MauMau era.
Hudson's character remains sympathetic throughout, and viewers will also be able to understand the coercion placed on Poitier's character because of apartheid.
Hudson doesn't get much of an opportunity to prove his acting ability, nor is Poitier's character given wide range. If one has not read the book, the conclusion of the film is not telegraphed -- those following the story for the first time will not know whether the ending will be tragic or inspiring, or whether either of the two men will survive.
All in all, it is a worthwhile movie.