Trailer
Plot summary
In 1883, ten thousand Egyptian troops under Colonel William Hicks are lured into the desert and destroyed by tribesmen loyal to Muhammad Ahmed, a Nubian religious leader who has declared himself the Mahdi. Pressure at home pushes Prime Minister William Gladstone to act, and he selects General Charles Gordon, who once fought the slave trade in the Sudan, to arrange the evacuation of Khartoum. Gordon is told the mission carries no official backing and is given few resources and one aide, Colonel J.D.H. Stewart. After an attempt to recruit the former slaver Zobeir Pasha fails, Gordon reaches Khartoum, where the people greet him as their savior and he begins organizing the city's defenses, despite Stewart's protests.
Cast
Did you know?!Facts and trivia about Khartoum (1966)
Can contain spoilers, watch the movie first.
- Khartoum was the last film shot in Ultra Panavision 70 until Quentin Tarantino's The Hateful Eight, which he wrote and directed forty-nine years later.
- Burt Lancaster was slated to star as General Gordon, with Laurence Olivier as the Mahdi and Lewis Gilbert directing, but filming was delayed and all three pulled out; Charlton Heston agreed to play Gordon in April 1965.
- Christopher Plummer was considered for Colonel Stewart, Gordon's aide, but was too expensive; in July 1965 Ralph Richardson and Richard Johnson joined the cast as Gladstone and Stewart.
- After location shooting finished in October, the production went on hiatus and was shut down for several weeks so that Laurence Olivier could be available to film his interior scenes.
