Review of The Lives of a Bengal Lancer (1935) by Dennis B — 03 Mar 2014

The Lives of a Bengal Lancer (1935).

Along the same lines as Gunga Din (1939) in British Imperial India only with other actors, Captain McGregor (Gary Cooper), and the new recruits who just arrived, Lt. John Forsythe (Franchot Tone) and Lt. Donald Stone (Richard Cromwell) who is the young son of the Commanding Officer, Colonel Stone (Guy Standing).

There is humor, but this film lacks the comedy of Gunga Din. It deals more with serious maters of taming Northern India and interpersonal relations between the soldiers.

Although it shows exotic Tania Volkanskaya (Kathleen Burke) who is sort of a spy, we really don't see much of her and it's mostly our gallant soldiers getting into mischief and doing some serious soldiering against the evil Hamzulla Kahn (Monte Blue) and his puppet Emir (Akim Tamiroff).

And, I can't go without mentioning my favorite British stereotype, C. Aubrey Smith as Major Hamiiton. This film may have been doomed to the public domain but the DVD has been included in the Gary Cooper Collection box set.