The Long Duel

The adventure yarn as it used to be a long long time ago.There's the proud rebel "Sultan" (Brynner) who's fighting against the English (represented by a loyal brave generous officer-Howard- and a villain one -Andrews-).And Andrews looks the part ! As the case often happens,to hear the scenarists ,if a father is wicked,then the daughter is adorable:she's played by a decorative Charlotte Rampling ,who tells Howard -whom she's in love with of course-:"one day ,Sultan and you ,you will meet".Main interest remains the splendor of the landscapes.

The film portrays a group people formed by Indian rebels tribes, banded together against the Brits and they're led by Sultan(Brynner). The rebels surrounded by British army which spent time in the chase. The tough leader Sultan is taken prisoner but his action led to getaway from a stronghold pursued by British military. As adversaries are Young(Trevor Howard), a honorable captain, while Stafford(Harry Andrews) is a cruel officer. The governor(Maurice Denham)assign them to capture the obstinate rebel. Meantime, Sultan is double-crossed by a beautiful dancer(Imogen Hassal). Then he takes action by aiding the tribes group in robbing, raiding and murdering British forces and the rich and higher castes. The Brits contra-attack displaying on a train a machine-gun , making a brutal slaughter.

This is a British attempt to match the US adventures spectacles of the mid-sixties, containing derring-do, spectacular battles, gorgeous outdoors and is quite entertaining, though a little overlong. It's a fiery early 20th-century adventure yarn that makes little sense but bulges with emotion that keeps coming at you, as action and adventures is maintained throughout. It's one of several adventures-action pictures made in Britain in the sixties that such Hollywood stars as Yul Brynner and previously in the fifties as Victor Mature and Robert Taylor. Brynner plays with some of sensitivity, he's habitual in exotic roles , such as Ramses, Taras Bulba, The Buccaneer, Karamazov and Salomon.There are strong performances from Trevor Howard and Harry Andrews, who have made few bad films, they're two contenders officers and Andrew Keir as rebel leader. Furthermore, three beauties, Charlottle Rampling, still successfully playing, as severe captain's daughter, and Virginia North and the early deceased, Imogen Hassal. Latterly, as very secondaries appear Edward Fox,Laurence Nashmaith, Patrick Newell, among others. Luminous cinematography by Jack Hildyard, David Lean's usual cameraman, though with abuse of transparency. The movie was glamorously shot in Spain outdoors and interior filmed in Rank studios.Emotive and atmospheric musical score by John Scott.

The motion picture is well directed by Kenn Annakin, he's a skill and successfully craftsman. He has directed numerous films ,British comedies, his most successful films are the fresh and diverting adventures( The sword and the rose, probably one of the best of his bigger films), dramas of the 1950s, for Walt Disney(Swiss family Robinson, Robin Hood and the Merry men), the Jack London adventures(Call of the wild, White Fang), warlike(Battle of Bulge, The longest day), about the long distance rally(Those magnificent men in their flying machines,The biggest bundle of them all, Montecarlo or bust) and a string of TV movies until his recent demise.

Brynner and his tribe are removed by the British (Andrews) for resettlement. He escapes and gathers other tribes together to take on the British.

A film of 2 halves. The first is baggy and messy with Brynner looking bored and uncomfortable and Howerd the only interesting character. It all picks up in the second half which is exciting and contains some strong battle scenes. A fair film but considering the cast and director, it should have been a lot better.

This has simply been unfairly misunderstood. It's a great romantic adventure story exposing conflicting mentalities in the last days of the Indian Raj, when some British already started to doubt their presence there. Harry Andrews is the hopeless imperialist who knows only one way to govern and that by force, while Trevor Howard tries the other way: dialogue and understanding. Yul Brynner is the freedom fighter with a just cause who knows he is right and struggles against opposition in his own camp to achieve it with tragic results, due to the hardcore inflexibility of the British military authorities (Harry Andrews). Charlotte Rampling plays an unusual part as a female diplomatic intermediary, and her character is the only one who is not quite convincing, which unfavourable impression is worsened by her horrible hair style - utterly impossible in India.

Additional merits of the film is the overwhelming sweeping landscape scenes catching the wilderness of the Himalayas, and the music, which underlines and augments the romantic character of the film. Yul Brynner is always interesting and makes memorable characters, and also Trevor Howard and Harry Andrews are well up to their ordinary excellent standard, while the story and its lesson of experience, wisdom and humanity is the main importance of this very underrated film.

I saw this as a boy on its first release. It was supported by Eric Sykes' much shorter, mainly silent comedy, THE PLANK, still recalled today while DUEL soon vanished into obscurity. I enjoyed it at the time, but then all the scenery and action in colour on the big screen seemed marvellous in those days of black and white TV.

This is similar to several films of a decade earlier, notably Terence Young's ZARAK (1956) which had stony-faced Victor Mature playing the titular rebel, though Yul Brynner and his gang of mostly 'browned-up' British character actors generally do a more efficient job than their counterparts in the former production. DUEL is also set in a later period, the 1920s, reflecting a time in which the futility of British rule was becoming more apparent, but there is little that is overtly political here. Instead we get the collision of attitudes between hard-line authoritarian Harry Andrews and the liberal Trevor Howard, a familiar theme in everything from prison dramas to westerns. Both actors give their usual authoritative performances, all the more impressive given some of the uninspired writing. I always like Charlotte Rampling, but her appearance seems too modern for the time. There are lots of fights, ambushes and shoot-ups and it works on the level of a run-of-the-mill western, but who on earth came up with the idea of the cheesy pop song for the closing credits?