The Lives of a Bengal Lancer (1935) on Netflix
On India's northwest frontier, the 41st Bengal Lancers face the rebel leader Mohammed Khan. Lieutenants McGregor and Forsythe take charge of Donald Stone, the colonel's inexperienced son.
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Trailer
Plot summary
Lieutenant Alan McGregor, who breaks in newcomers to the 41st Bengal Lancers on India's northwest frontier, meets two officers arriving at the regiment: Lieutenant John Forsythe, a cavalryman trained at Sandhurst, and Lieutenant Donald Stone, the young son of the regiment's commander, Colonel Tom Stone. Donald had expected a posting arranged by his father and a chance to serve alongside him. The colonel instead treats him as he treats every other officer and makes plain that he did not ask for his son. The regiment's troubles center on Mohammed Khan, a prince of the region who is preparing an uprising against British rule and intends to seize a convoy carrying two million rounds of ammunition. Barrett, an officer working in disguise among Khan's followers, brings word of the plan.
Cast
Did you know?!Facts and trivia about The Lives of a Bengal Lancer (1935)
Can contain spoilers, watch the movie first.
- Adolf Hitler was a fan: Ivone Kirkpatrick, who met him at Berchtesgaden in 1937, said The Lives of a Bengal Lancer was one of Hitler's favorite films and that he had watched it three times, calling it compulsory viewing for the S.S.
- Mussolini's motion picture bureau banned the film in Fascist Italy, along with other British-themed American movies including Lloyd's of London and The Charge of the Light Brigade, on the grounds that they were "propaganda".
- Paramount sent cinematographers Ernest B. Schoedsack and Rex Wimpy to India in 1931 to shoot location footage such as a tiger hunt, but the film stock deteriorated in the hot sun, so the film was shot in the hills around Los Angeles with Northern Paiute people as extras.
- Two directors were fired before Henry Hathaway got the job: Stephen Roberts was let go for spending more than Paramount wanted, and Gary Cooper, who had director approval and admired Hathaway's Westerns, suggested him.
- The film's success kicked off a cycle of Imperial adventure tales, including The Charge of the Light Brigade (1936), Another Dawn (1937), Gunga Din (1939), The Four Feathers (1939) and The Real Glory (1939).
- For the half-hour climactic battle sequence, an elaborate set was built in the Iverson Gorge, part of the Iverson Movie Ranch in California, to stand in for Mogala, Mohammed Khan's mountain stronghold.
