Patrulla de temerarios

While making a movie that has the Soviets as the bad guys, this time subbing in Imperial Russians since it was set in the 1800s, is not bad in itself. The Communists were as awful as their worst critics said they were. But propaganda themed flicks tend to suck in general, even if the foe was a worthy one.

Robert Egan really irritated me. His permanent sneer was a real turn off. He played the typical brash American masquerading as the brash Canadian colonial officer in the stuffy British army. His foolish behavior was supposed to be endearing but it was so poorly done that it reminded me of the archetype 50s rebellious teenager more than an army officer.

The action scenes were simply cowboy and Indians subbed in with lancers and Afghan guerrillas exchanging lever action for bolt action rifles. The outdoor sets looked like the same ones they used in many westerns. It was a tired flick that lacked any charisma or hook. I saw it on Netflix and it took four sessions to get it all in.

It wasn't all terrible. It had a part where he got "disgraced" in order to go "rebel" and deceive the native officer he thought was a friend, Raymond Burr as an Indian Muslim and infiltrate their underground. The conclusion could be figured out from a scene in the middle where a "new" weapon was shown to the Brit officers.

It wasn't horrid but don't go out of your way to watch it

Substitute the Mexican border for the India-Afghani one and you've got the plot of several westerns I could think of. Of course we're still dealing with Indians.

Khyber Patrol is an eastern western with Richard Egan from Canada to explain his lack of British accent and he's joined their cavalry, the Indian army of the 1890s. Since the end of the Napoleonic Wars the great eastern question is to keep the Russians from infiltrating India through the Khyber Pass and kicking the British out. But we must not cross into Afghanistan and pursue the rebels into their sanctuary there.

Richard Egan is inpatient with that policy and his impatience doesn't win him too many friends. And he's got romantic problems as well as both he and Patric Knowles are courting the colonel's daughter Dawn Addams. I think you can see where this one is going.

Even in a setting before the Russian Revolution it was fashionable in the Fifties to make Russians the villains. Raymond Burr and Donald Randolph make a fine pair of Afghani villains secretly in league with the Russians to bring their brand of imperialism to their country as opposed to British.

Some things never do change.

Here captain Kyle is blamed for the death of a lieutenant in love with Diana ,a girl of his fancy and several good men ; anyway the love affair is totally devoid of interest, Dawn Adams has only a few scenes and only serves,as the bad guy says ,as an "insurance "

Looking sometimes like a poor man's "lives of a Bengal Lancer" : like Hathaway's classic ,it deals with cowardice, treason and redemption ;but whereas the 1935 classic made up for the glorification of English colonialism with his legendary acting (Gary Cooper ,Franchot Tone) ,its wry humor (Tone's boots and flute) and his absorbing action-packed screenplay "khyber patrol " is listless , although Raymond Burr saves something from the wreckage as Egan's "big brother" ;the latter is ill at ease, his forte is the social drama such as "voice in the mirror" or " a summer place",the thriller ("violent Saturday" ) and the "family movie" (the good doctor of "Pollyanna" of course)

Captain Kyle Cameron, a Canadian serving with the 11th Lancers at Peshawar on the North-West Frontier is reprimanded by his superiors for offending an Afghan leader Prince Ishak Khan and forced to apologize.

Cameron still suspects Khan of being in league with the Russians who are attempting to stir up trouble in the Khyber Pass region. Cameron is tricked into sending some men, including his rival for their general daughter Diana Melville, to their deaths. He deliberately gets himself dismissed from the service so that he can infiltrate the Khan's forces and seek revenge.

Khyber Patrol is basically a cavalry western in the guise of a Northwest frontier drama and it's quite a fun and breezy pulpesque Boys own adventure with Richard Egan playing a rebellious soldier- it's quite action-packed, has sufficient plot twists and high grade villainy from Donald Randolph who is oily as they come and Raymond Burr as duplicitous friend of Egan - I actually fell for his good guy act myself, thinking maybe Burr was a good guy sidekick! However, I think the running time is a bit too short, which cuts the ending too fast, depriving one from a lengthier shootout. It's like they ran out of film.

On the Afghan border, Captain Richard Egan is disliked by many for being a colonial -- a Canadian, if you will -- although Patric Knowles dislikes him for fancying his fiancee, Colonel's daughter Dawn Adams. But a shipment of Maxim guns sets off a chain of actions that has Egan caught in the coils of a series of deadly conspiracy that may get him shot for betraying the Raj.... or shot by would-be King of Afghanistan Donald Randolph's forces for betraying them.

It's a decent if not particularly distinguished Hollywood example of the sort of movie that couple rise to manic heights in GUNGA DIN. Here it is largely a matter of good guys and bad guys in fancy dress-up. So we have Raymond Burr as a dashing Afghani cavalryman, and lady spies in harem costumes; it's certainly good enough for a second feature, or a matinee, if not more. It's directed by the decent if not particularly distinguished Seymour Friedman, who directed about 25 similar programmers in seven years, and then went to his usual role of production manager. He died in 2003 at the age of 85.