Moviecut—King of the Khyber Rifles

source: King of the Khyber Rifles

King of the Khyber Rifles

The "king" of the title is the name of Tyrone Powers character a half caste officer who gets mixed up with Indian revolts in 1857 India. A huge sprawling epic made in the way that only old Hollywood could do, this is a rousing, if very stiff and stilted action tale thats all about looking good and being spectacular. Tyrone Power is wonderfully miscast as the hero, a man of action and duty who manages to do what no one else can do. Power is for me at best an adequate actor who only rarely found a role that worked for him. Here he cuts a dashing figure, but he otherwise seems out of place a British officer. I kind of groaned for the first 20 minutes before I gave myself over to the film thanks to its constantly on the go plot which has things moving at a good clip through beautiful landscapes. Very much worth a look, especially on a big screen, its an old style epic of the popcorn munching variety. Between 6 and 7 out of 10

This film is an excellent adventure film. Tyrone Power was a good actor - always entertaining and full of charm. Sadly this film is NEVER shown on TV and is not available on video - this is nothing short of being a scandal!!! Although this is not Power at his best, it is worth seeing, and certainly worthy of a place in my video collection. Smarten up 20th Century Fox and find this film before it decays to dust - or has this happened already?

Previously filmed by John Ford in 1929 with Victor McLaglen as 'The Black Watch'. This handsome-looking Empire film set in 1857 is actually a far more sombre, character-driven film than the swashbuckler the title suggests - with an atmospheric score by Bernard Herrmann - in which Tyrone Power's swarthy complexion here sees him play a haste caste romancing a pert young Terry Moore playing the daughter of General Michael Rennie and caught between the Regiment and a very saturnine Guy Rolfe as his brother.