“WE HAVE WAYS OF MAKING MEN TALK”

By Raymond Benson

Despite its grammatically incorrect title, The Lives of a Bengal Lancer is considered one of the great old-school Hollywood epic adventure movies, and it remains so to this day. It was released very early in 1935 after a long gestation period and became one of the most popular pictures of the decade. It was nominated for the Oscar Best Picture, Best Director (Henry Hathaway), Best Adapted Screenplay, and four other awards, but it won only one—Best Assistant Director? (Obviously a now defunct category.)

What are Bengal Lancers, you ask? They were British soldiers serving in India in those days of the British Raj between the two world wars. Apparently, one didn’t have to be British to serve. The protagonist, Lieutenant Alan McGregor (Gary Cooper), is Scottish-Canadian. Lieutenant John Forsythe (Franchot Tone) seems to be American, but maybe the actor just didn’t attempt to master an English accent.

The story is adapted from the memoir by Francis Yeats-Brown, although none of the book’s material made it into the movie. Colonel Tom Stone (Guy Standing) and his right-hand man, Hamilton (the always wonderful C. Aubrey Smith), run the 41st Bengal Lancers with strict discipline and by-the-book no-nonsense. It’s a rough life, especially for newcomer, Lieutenant Donald Stone (Richard Cromwell), a “cub” (a newly commissioned officer), who happens to be the colonel’s son. The younger Stone wants to impress his father, of course, but the colonel will have nothing of it. Instead, both McGregor and Forsythe take young Stone under their wings.

The soldiers are fighting Indian rebels led by Mohammed Khan (Douglass Dumbrille, a British white actor with dark makeup). The rebels want the British out of their country, just like Americans wanted the British out of theirs in 1776, but in this case, the Indian rebels are the “bad guys.” In the 1930s, the British Empire was generally looked at favorably by Western civilization, but that’s a historical/political discussion that needs not be had here.

At one point, Khan uses a beautiful Russian spy (played by Kathleen Burke) to seduce young Stone and capture him. Because the commander won’t rescue his own son, it’s up to McGregor and Forsythe to save the hapless prisoner before he is tortured and made to reveal military secrets. “We have ways of making men talk,” Khan famously says before sticking bamboo slivers under fingernails and lighting them.

There’s plenty of action and depictions of the “exotic” lifestyle of a Bengal Lancer. The battle scenes are remarkably well done for the time. The second unit material, filmed in India, went through some growing pains. The movie was supposed to have been made in 1931, and Ernest B. Schoedsack and Rex Wimpy were sent by the studio to shoot stuff. Unfortunately, their footage was destroyed by the elements… but some of it still exists in the picture.

Kino Lorber’s new 4K master of the film is impressive, and it comes with an audio commentary by film history Eddy Von Mueller. There are English subtitles for the hearing impaired, and theatrical trailers for this and other Kino titles.

The Lives of a Bengal Lancer, like other movies of its ilk—The Charge of the Light Brigade, Beau Geste, and Gunga Din—is part of a Hollywood legacy of delivering an audience to a far-away place and time, and entertaining them, too. Great stuff.

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