During the 1930s, tons of movies were made in which handsome British officers lightheartedly slaughtered whatever group of extras was thrown at them, with the enemy sporting decidedly darker skin tones than the nominal heroes. Still, if you're able to accept these films as escapist yarns that were made in very different times, you're bound to enjoy Henry Hathaway's action-packed The Lives of a Bengal Lancer (1935), which, along with George Stevens' Gunga Din (1939), is widely considered the best of the Imperialist lot. (John Huston's wonderful The Man Who Would Be King (1975) doesn't really count, because it's about the folly of such a mindset.)
Gary Cooper stars as Lt. Alan McGregor, a veteran Canadian soldier fighting for the British in Northwest India. When two new officers are assigned to his unit, he teaches them the ropes and how to prepare for war. Lt. John Forsythe (Franchot Tone) is a sarcastic, rough-and-tumble sort who's simply looking for excitement among the dunes. Lt. Donald Stone (Richard Cromwell), on the other hand, has a lot more at stake. His father (Guy Standing) is the unit's commanding officer, who is anything but paternal toward his son. Together, the men locate a British spy (Colin Tapley) who's been keeping an eye on a war-minded local Chieftain (Douglas Dumbrille.) Then they receive their ultimate test when Lt. Stone is kidnapped and must be rescued. As expected, wall-to-wall action ensues, with a little bit of torture thrown in for good measure.
Paramount dropped a nice chunk of change on bringing Bengal Lancer to the screen. Hathaway neatly incorporated impressive documentary footage of India that was shot specifically for the picture, then journeyed overseas himself to gather even more shots. Nevertheless, most of the film takes place on expensive sets that were constructed on Paramount's California ranch, with the actors wearing highly detailed costumes. In fact, the sets were so impressive that Cecil B. DeMille resurrected them in 1935 for his gaudy epic, The Crusades.
The attention to detail paid off. George MacDonald Fraser, a former British soldier, notes in his book, The Hollywood History of the World, that "(Bengal Lancer's) domestic atmosphere is more evocative for me than any other film of India. It has none of the magnificent panoramas of the real India and its people to be seen in Gandhi [1982] or The Drum [1938]; but it does have bungalows and tents just like the ones I lived in, and dusty maidens, and long-tailed puggarees and glittering lance heads like those of the lancers where we drilled."
Cooper had been around a while by the time The Lives of a Bengal Lancer was made, but Hathaway saw something in the handsome young actor that he knew could be transformed into first-class star material. He always wanted him for the lead role, and stood his ground whenever other actors were suggested. Sure enough, the movie went through the roof at the box office, and Cooper quickly became GARY COOPER, in extra-large letters above the title for the rest of his career.
This, by the way, is one of only two pictures in which Cooper wears a mustache, with the other being Peter Ibbetson (1935.) Hathaway also forces him to don a turban, but there's no denying his megawatt charisma. Cooper couldn't pull off a British accent for the role, so his character was turned into a Canadian. He doesn't seem particularly Canadian either, but why quibble?
Producer: Louis D. Lighton
Director: Henry Hathaway
Screenplay: Waldemar Young, John L. Balderston, Achmed Abdullah, Grover Jones, William Slavens McNutt (based on a novel by Maj. Francis Yeats-Brown)
Cinematographer: Charles Lang, Ernest B. Schoedsack
Editor: Ellsworth Hoagland
Music: Milan Roder
Art Designer: Hans Dreier, Roland Anderson
Costume Designer: Travis Banton
Choreography: LeRoy Prinz
Principal Cast: Gary Cooper (Lt. Alan McGregor), Franchot Tone (Lt. John Forsythe), Richard Cromwell (Lt. Donald Stone), Guy Standing (Col. Stone), C. Aubrey Smith (Maj. Hamilton), Monte Blue (Hamzulia Khan), Kathleen Burke (Tania Volkanskaya), Colin Tapley (Lt. Barrett), Douglas Dumbrille (Mohammed Khan), Akim Tamiroff (Emir).
BW-109m.
by Paul Tatara
