Khartoum

Large staging as General Gordon (Charlton Heston), with his nonplussed aide (Richard Johnson), arrives at the surrounded Sudanese city specified in the title, greeted as a hero due to exploits there years earlier, actually shot near the Egyptian city of Sohag, in the epic Khartoum, 1966.

A meeting that never happened, imagined by Robert Ardrey in his Academy Award-nominated screenplay, British General Charles "Chinese" Gordon (Charlton Heston) makes his case to the zealot warlord known as "The Mahdi" (Laurence Olivier), in 1883 Sudan, in Khartoum, 1966.

Producer Julian Blaustein and director Basil Dearden getting their money's worth, with African locations and narration by Leo Genn, adding gravity by identifying Laurence Olivier as the villain, opening Khartoum, 1966, starring Charlton Heston as General Charles "Chinese" Gordon.

One might almost suspect Prime Minister Gladstone (Ralph Richardson) and General Charles "Chinese" Gordon (Charlton Heston), meeting here for the first time, ca. 1883, knew their conversation would appear in mid-20th century Hollywood epic about British Africa, in Khartoum, 1966.

Charlton Heston stars as the British general Gordon sent to stop The Mahdi (Laurence Olivier) from taking Khartoum (1966).