North West Frontier [1959] [DVD]

entertainment vintage classic British adventure film

Kenneth More is in seriously stiff-upper-lip form as Captain Scott in this classic high adventure set in the days of British Indian rule.The natives are revolting. He is tasked to secure an Indian prince and his governess from the marauding hordes. The plan is to take a train from the nearest British garrison, but they are late and it leaves without them, crammed with people in a way that only Indians seem to know how. The garrison is laid seige, but Scott breaks out in a tiny locomotive with one carriage and a motley band of escaping civilians.Lauren Bacall holds her own as governess, despite being ludicrously out of place both in the country and the role. She was the essential American A-lister that was always thought necessary to secure transatlantic approval. Bacall provides More's love interest - in between cups of tea. Also on fine form is Wilfrid Hyde White as a dithery but kindly bachelor, a part he plays with unique charm and fidelity. There is Herbert Lom, a cynical journalist with a dark secret. They and others create a wonderful character ensemble that make fine work of an intelligent script, allowing for some insightful if antagonistic exchanges. There is also I S Johar, who is almost the voice of India, kindly, caring, hopeful and a little confused as an engine driver apt to turn the English language into exotic curry.That lot itself would make for a fine movie, but add in plenty of rollicking adventures with wonderful sweeping photography, and you have the stuff of something great. Although often a little toungue-in-cheek and coming with a `U' certificate, it still doesn't shy away from human wickedness. In time, they catch up to the earlier train that More intended to take. However, the rebels have got there first. It's a surprisingly grim spectacle and leaves the viewer in no doubt what capture must mean for our motley band.They just don't make movies like this any more. Indeed; they can't. All of the adults featured are middle-aged, mature, and level-headed; Hollywood's obsession with youth would turn a remake into little more than a brat-fight propped up by pyrotechnics and special-effects.Check it out. It's a great movie of real characters we can care about. As Wilfrid Hyde White says of the arch villain `You know I couldn't help liking him even if he did try to drill us full of holes'.The DVD supplied was, as usual, clear in sound and vision. I just thought the colours had faded a little with age, but not enough to impair viewing pleasure.

Old Classic Movie Dvd. Great Film To Watch.

British film in the old style full of intrigue & deceit starring Kennith More

Kenneth More is the stalwart British army Captain Scott; perfect casting. Lauren Bacall is the independent minded governess to the young prince; the object of the collective escape attempt from marauding tribesmen. Herbert Lom is excellent in a role that, if revealed, would give the plot away. Wilfred Hyde White bumbles along as he always seems to do but with disarming charm. The real stars though are the engine and its driver, Gupta, played by I.S. Johar. His picturesque (not quite perfect) English is both funny and genuine, in the scheme of things. The American governess professes to speak her mind because that's what she has a mind for! The wife of the governor, in response to jibes about the British Empire, states in one beautiful delivery;"half the world is civilised only because we have made it so!"; a sublime riposte. The opening battle scenes are captured well in the broad sweep of the excellent cinemascope photography. Frankly, it's a really good adventure yarn set in the North West Frontier of a corner of the globe where, at its imperial high point, `the sun never set'.

Director J. Lee Thompson has Kenneth More at his pukka best! Ably supported by Lauren Bacall, Herbert Lom and the obligatory Wilfred Hyde-White, Kenneth More plays a British Army officer in Northern India entrusted with delivering a young Indian prince, whose father has been murdered by the rampaging insurrectionists who object to British dominion of the sub-continent, to safety in a run-down old steam train. Bacall plays the prince's governess and romantic interest for More's no-nonsense British officer. Armed only with a Gatling gun and a few rifles, More and his handful of loyal Indian sepoys help the prince and a couple of other British subjects across miles of open country, fending off attacks from hordes of warriors, to safety in a train pulled by a locomotive strangely reminiscent of the Titfield Thunderbolt. A few stereotypical Indians accompany More's stiff upper-lip in this action-packed wheeze. Gloriously politically incorrect, this is another of those classics from the Fifties: tightly written, beautifully filmed with acting just a hair-breadth short of ham. This was released in the U.S. as 'Flame over India'.

A terrific action film set in colonial India. In my opinion Kenneth More heads a world renowned cast.

Enjoyed myself very much, and good actors