La révolte des cipayes

"Bengal Brigade" is a strange movie for two reasons in particular-- the casting as well as its championing British colonialism. As far as the casting goes, several Americans without even a hint of a British accent were cast (such as Rock Hudson and Arlene Dahl)...and Hudson seemed completely out of place here. By the 1950s, the British Empire was being split apart and colonialism was on its way out and India had already gained its independence...yet this American film is another 'Hizzuh and three cheers for the Empire' sort of picture they made in the 1930s. We are supposed to be rooting for the Brits in this one...though the Indians were fighting for self-determination, an admirable thing!

The film begins with Captain Claybourne (Hudson) being court martialed unfairly. The problem was that the man in charge during battle was indecisive and suffering from anxiety...and Claybourne took command. Later, the C.O. lied to save his reputation and Claybourne was charged with disobeying and striking his C.O....and soon he's out of the British army. There's some stuff after this...but it's all unimportant until the great Sepoy Rebellion which breaks out soon thereafter (in 1857)...and the film actually did a very good job of explaining it...most other films set during this time don't bother explaining why many Indians revolted against British rule.

Overall, a rather dull film that covers a lot of familiar material but which seems hopelessly out of date with changing times and attitudes.

The most surprising thing about this movie is that it was directed by Laslo Benedek ,a man associated with the more serious end of the movie market -as per Death of a Salesman and the Brando vehicle The Wild One .It is set in the year 1856 in British India ,more specifically on the North West Frontier .Rock Hudson is improbably cast as a British army Captain who is tried ,convicted and forced to resign his commission for disobeying the orders of a senior officer even though by doing so he was responsible for the capture of a key rebel stronghold .He becomes a big game hunter but continues to be devoted to the British cause and infiltrates a group of rebels plotting to overthrow the Raj .In between all these distractions he manages to make time to woo Vivian Morrow(Arlene Dahl)the daughter of the regimental commander Colonel Morrow (Tobin Thatcher) Hudson is miscast but battles valiantly with the role ,Dahl is merely decorative as is Ursula Thiess . The best performances -mostly because they are better cast-are given by Thatcher and Dan O'Herlihy as British soldiers

This is a good co-feature movie and will be enjoyed by lovers of the old style "ripping yarn

I can't imagine that a director such as Laslo Benedek made this adventure studio movie, a film that could be done by a Budd Boetticher, Joseph Pevney, Douglas Sirk - why not...All Universal home directors of this period, among many others: Nathan Juran, Jack Arnold...But Laslo Benedek;..I can't believe it. What happened to him? I can understand THE WILD ONE, but this adventure flick.... Ths director seemed to have greatest difficulties to find his own trademark. He worked for US movie and TV industry, European productions too. NIGHT VISITOR is a terrific story, but I still don't understand why Benedek made this however excellent adventure war yarn about the fall of the British colonialism. I recommend it.

This "Bengal brigade" is a far cry from Henry Hathaway's classic in the thirties starring Gary Cooper and Franchot Tone ,both more exciting than Rock Hudson -who nevertheless was about to find some of his best parts in Douglas Sirk's great works- Almost twenty years later ,it's the same old song: the British are here to help the Indians ,some of the natives are cruel (like Mohammed Khan in "lives of a Bengal lancer" ) but the moral remains:both her majesty's soldiers and the Indians have got to walk hand in hand and to become brothers.Rock Hudson portrays an officer forced to resign after an unfair trial.Will he betray his queen and country?He is helped by beautiful Latah (Ursula Thiess);actually ,without her,he would be defeated.Arlene Dahl is only decorative ,as the colonel's daughter. It lacks humor,panache ,excitement,magic ,poetry ,all that made Hathaway's movie a classic of the adventures movie,in spite of its reactionary side.

The first couple of years of the decade, Rock Hudson was just breaking into the business, playing bit parts or Indian chiefs. Within a couple more years, he was headlining movies, but not all of them were great. If you doubt that, you obviously haven't rented The Golden Blade, Sea Devils, or Captain Lightfoot yet. I wasn't able to get through any of those, but I did manage to sit through Bengal Brigade, solely because it was Rock Hudson's time as Star of the Week and I thought I owed it to him to review at least one terrible movie.

The story of this one is intriguing, but it's executed so poorly, it's just not worth watching unless Rock Hudson is your favorite actor or celebrity boyfriend and you want to watch all of his movies. Rock is a soldier in the British army in occupied India during the 1800s. He disobeys an order during a battle and gets court-martialed. After a harsh reprimand, he resigns from the army and makes it his personal mission to redeem himself and prove that he's not a disgrace to his country. Along the way, he tries to infiltrate among Indian rebels and reassure his fiancé Arlene Dahl that his feelings haven't changed, even though he can't marry her just yet. Seriously, folks, this is not another Four Feathers. This is a B-picture from the '50s, and if you've ever sat through one of those, you know that you don't want to make a habit of it.