Capitaine King

Based on Talbot Mundy's best and most famous novel, which unfortunately I was an expert on, this film was a total disappointment, in spite of its great assets of mainly stupendous mountain scenery and Bernard Herrmann's music. But the mountain scenery was nothing at all about the famous Khyber pass but all shot in California, and above all, the splendid story of Talbot Mundy's secret agent thriller of jihadism and the cutting of heads even 160 years ago by taliban rebels and with a dancing queen of beauty at the centre of intrigue, also involving some archaeology and reminiscenses of Alexander the Great's famous visit to Afghanistan, was reduced to a cheap and petty pulp fiction of the commonest of Hollywood clichés. The acting is not very good either. The only one making a strong impression by his stage presence and acting is Guy Rolfe as the villain, the rebel king, while supporting parts, such as John Justin and Michael Rennie, also make a good job, while Terry Moore is a complete disaster. However could Tyrone Power fall in love with such a nuisance of a bobby-soxer? It's as far from credible as anything could be. Tyrone Power is himself, and that's enough for him - with such a face he never even needed to act.

A great pity for a great story to be so poorly handled and reduced to mere superficial entertainment. Talbot Mundy was a theosophist and mystic who wrote many books, and this one could have been made into as great a Kipling epic as "The Man who Wanted to be King".

While offering many racist undercurrents in portraying imperialism and eastern characters, adventure movies have long satisfied a desire for escape, becoming one of the principal avenues for presenting views of foreign cultures (however warped) and distant lands to curious and receptive audiences. The genre is sufficiently flexible to allow for only a lukewarm endorsement of colonialism or questioning of its political effects, a tradition going back at least to 1928 and the notable production of WHITE SHADOWS OVER THE SOUTH SEAS. However, this theme only became established after World War II, as films began to reflect the crumbling of western empires in Africa and Asia and recognition grew of the pernicious effects of imperialism and its attendant racism. The first major film signpost of these changes was KING OF THE KHYBER RIFLES (1953), set in the Sepoy Mutiny of 1857, a conflict that had rarely been treated in films up to that time. The story centers on a character of Eurasian ancestry, Captain Alan King (Tyrone Power), who falls in love with an English girl, Susan (Terry Moore), the daughter of the outpost's commander, General Maitland (Michael Rennie)--providing an opportunity for exploring racial attitudes in a colonial setting. Focusing on a relationship between a half-caste and a white girl was, in the early 1950s, an original cinematic theme, and KING OF THE KHYBER RIFLES was unique for presenting it in adventure.

KING OF THE KHYBER RIFLES explores King's personal difficulties as he tries to find his own social position, living in uneasy suspension between the world of the native and the foreign sahibs, torn between them; only the adventurous experience can resolve his status. Prejudice against King emerges because of his parentage; fellow officers refuse to be billeted in the same quarters, and he is conspicuously not invited to the queen's birthday ball. The stress is not simply on his courage but more on the numerous challenges he must face in daily living. A social outcast at the fort, King is most secure in the home of his adopted father, Hamid Bahra, a Moslem holy man; the picture was originally to end with King returning to Bahra before joining Susan. KING OF THE KHYBER RIFLES has a lone hero and none of the emphasis on military camaraderie, or the careless, Boys' Own tone to be found in such films as GUNGA DIN. Authentic details of Indian atmosphere convey a sense of accuracy, such as the rumors that the cartridges for the new Enfield rifles are greased with pig's fat, simultaneously offending Moslem and Hindu alike. King must use his unique appeal as a fellow native to lead the Khyber Rifles in an attack on Khan's encampment. At the last moment, King's men resolve not to use the rifles but offer to follow him using their knives. The imperial conflict is between men who are sons of India, whether Kurram Khan and his followers or King and the Khyber Rifles. Yet KING OF THE KHYBER RIFLES ultimately evades the question of the desire for Indian independence, through depicting Kurram Khan's leadership as far more ruthless and dictatorial than British rule. King is in a unique position; his half-caste status, negotiating between British and Indian with a knowledge of both, enables a British victory, establishing not just his equality within the fort but also his eligibility to marry Susan. The British outpost offers the hero the only world where his merits can win recognition, partaking of both sides of his ancestry by following in his father's military footsteps. King's birthplace and home are India, not England, and though he may serve the British, he does so for the distinction such duty may bring through association with a respected unit like the Khyber Rifles. King secures greater respect than is accorded to white officers like Maitland. While utilizing many of the incidents and motifs of THE LIVES OF A BENGAL LANCER, THE CHARGE OF THE LIGHT BRIGADE, GUNGA DIN, and other such movies, KING OF THE KHYBER RIFLES also sums them up, providing both a commentary and a decisive new turn. KING OF THE KHYBER RIFLES brings Indians to the forefront, honoring the native traditions while still treating heroes and villains according to standardized genre patterns. While clearly an adventure of colonial India in the classical mode, KING OF THE KHYBER RIFLES represents a fundamental shift to an awareness of its own conventions, allowing the film to be watched today more easily than many other adventures of a similar vintage. KING OF THE KHYBER RIFLES was the fourth picture shot in Twentieth Century-Fox's new widescreen process, CinemaScope, and it was widely acclaimed as the the first picture whose action fully justified use of the anamorphic lens. Fox's directing "King" was assigned to it: Henry King, a sixty-seven year old veteran whose career stretched back to the teens, and was a personal favorite of Zanuck as well as a close friend of leading star Tyrone Power. Power, tired of playing action roles, disliked KING OF THE KHYBER RIFLES, and by then was more interested in unusual, challenging character roles. Unfortunately, Zanuck wanted to use Terry Moore, who was already under contract, as the leading lady, a role she sought assiduously despite being completely miscast in the part. Zanuck was enthusiastic about shooting KING OF THE KHYBER RIFLES in Lone Pine, and Henry King agreed that a location trip to India was unnecessary, and the California locale substituted so well that many reviewers believed that at least portions of the picture had been shot in India. Producer Frank Rosenberg selected Bernard Herrmann to write the score, hoping for and receiving something more exotic and less intrusive than the type of martial music Alfred Newman had written for previous Henry King-Tyrone Power adventure films at Fox. KING OF THE KHYBER RIFLES was widely touted as Fox's Christmas release, becoming a box-office hit, and it is still popular on television.

I agree with a few other reviewers here - why the hell does this never show up on TV, cable or even old video warehouses? I have seen it but once, in London the week of its initial release almost 50 years ago. I was 7. Thing is, I remember it perfectly, way better than SHOWTIME and I only saw THAT yesterday!

Top desert caper that was all audiences wanted to see in the 50's. No-one swashbuckled better than Tyrone Power during this period and KING OF THE KHYBER RIFLES was a handsome production, especially on the gigantic CINEMASCOPE screen. Directed by action-specialist Henry King, who worked with Power in almost a dozen movies, the story was that of half-caste British soldier Alan King (Power) who had to battle not only Army etiquette but a rampaging uprising around the Khyber Pass! The well remembered image from this flick was the spearing of the helpless British soldiers at the stake. Power of course, gaining a last minute reprieve so he could complete the movie, take down the villains and win the girl.

Good supporting cast, Michael Rennie in particular cutting an impressive figure as Brigadier Maitland whose stiff upper lip was stiffer than most!

Good companion piece to this was ZARAK (Also reviewed somewhere!)

Director Henry King and star Tyrone Power teamed up for their ninth film, almost 20 years after King helped Power shoot to stardom when he chose him as Jonathan in "Lloyds of London." Why do I think Power was somewhat less ebullient this time around. By 1953, he was surely in a mad rush to finish his contract with Fox, as he had already formed his own production company.

"King of the Khyber Rifles" gets the full major picture treatment, in CinemaScope, and it is a film filled with battles, adventure, panaromas, and a little romance thrown in. You can't have Tyrone Power in a movie without some of that! He plays a half-caste who is put in charge of the Khyber Rifles. Eventually, he is given the assignment of putting down a rebellion led by a childhood friend, Karram Khan, menacingly played by Guy Rolfe. Terry Moore plays the British daughter of the brigadier general (Michael Rennie) who falls in love with Power, and that's a forbidden love. In real life, when she first saw the actor, she was so staggered that she developed a facial tic. Power asked King if they could sit quietly and run lines before shooting the scene, which allowed her to calm down. She's fairly vapid in the role.

The last part of the movie is very exciting and beautifully photographed. The film definitely hold's one's interest.

Power looks great - handsome and tanned, as Lieutenant King, but it's really not much of a role. The romantic scenes are marvelous, and he does display a lot of physical prowess. He was unfortunately one of the huge stars of the golden era who did not do a lot of great pictures. Ironically, some of his films not highly thought of at the time have found appreciative audiences today, 47 years after his death. Too bad he's not here to see it.

Quite a few of those machine-tooled early CinemaScope productions from Twentieth Century Fox seem to be consigned to the dustbins of the memories of those of us who had the good fortune to see them in their full widescreen ratio with a magnetic stereophonic soundtrack during their initial release.

This one, directed with unusual energy by that Hollywood veteran, Henry King; lensed by that master of the color cameras, Leon Shamroy; and graced with a suitably sweeping score by Bernard Herrmann, looks like its lost in the archives where, let us hope, the master negative survives until the day that keepers of the Twentieth vaults come to their senses and favor us with a DVD release in the original (not reduced to anything less, please!) widescreen anamorphic format.

Terry Moore, who enjoyed a brief run as one of Fox's oft-used ingenues (and ladies of somewhat easier virtue, as in "Peyton Place") did seem a bit miscast, but Tyrone Power, Michael Rennie and well-chosen supporting players outshone her shortcomings. I recall that TIME magazine gave this quite a positive review and I remember that its use of mountainous California locations were quite convincing as a substitute for sending a company (or just a second unit) all the way to India's probably less hospitable subcontinent.