East of Elephant Rock East of Elephant Rock East of Elephant Rock is a 1977 British independent drama film directed by Don Boyd and starring John Hurt, Jeremy Kemp and Judi Bowker. It was Boyd's second feature film following his little-noticed 1975 "Intimate Reflections". Like William Somerset Maugham's 1927 play "The Letter" and two subsequent film adaptations, its narrative content depended on the 1911 Ethel Proudlock murder in Kuala Lumpur, Malaysia, which became a "cause célèbre" scandalising British colonial society and which had been featured in a "Sunday Observer" article as recently as the year before. Boyd, drawing in part on his own experience
One Lucky Elephant Elephant" as, "simple enough to delight a child and complex enough to baffle a philosopher," then poignantly and perceptively notes, "A larger question coils beneath the surface of the film. What happens to an elephant that is "trained"? Are the chains, ropes, prods and other training tools kind to the creature? Should any wild animal be trained in such a way?" Sherri Linden of the Hollywood reporter said, "Bottom Line: A timely, emotionally engaging look at interspecies bonds;" while John Anderson of Variety call the film, "A parable of pachydermish proportions, ""One Lucky Elephant"" is a bittersweet story of man,