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A Major Disappointment

The performances transcend the film's tropes, grounding it in characters that feel more complete than this subgenre often produces.

This is a coming of age storyline that you've seen in one form or another for decades. It takes a truly unique voice to make yet another one worth watching.

The tone of this movie is interesting -- the stakes are both dramatic and high, but it's balanced with a lot of fun, tongue and cheek dialogue.

My dad was a RSM (Regimental Sgt. Major) of what we called then the Royal British Marines and are now called just Marines. He'd met and gotten to know some of the men in the 22nd Gurkha Rifle Regiment and remembered them to be; short,tough as nails, and as good a friend as you could ever hope to find. So when I heard the title of this movie I just HAD to see it. I hope this doesn't SPOIL it for anyone;but I'd seen this movie when quite young and I will always remember that scene where the one soldier says to Captain King while drawing his Kukri(Gurkha Knife) from it's sheath: "With these Blades of steel; We will follow you to the death". I can't help but wonder how long those people will stay asleep that should be putting this movie on DVD?

King of the Khyber Rifles is getting its second film adaption in this 1953 remake of Black Watch. Our version stars 20th Century Fox mainstay Tyrone Power who was coming to an end of his long term studio contract. This was also the ninth of eleven films Power did with director Henry King and they rate right up there with John Wayne-John Ford and Martin Scorsese-Robert DeNiro as a successful director/actor team. King directed Power's breakthrough film role in Lloyds of London and his collaborations with Power is some of the best work for either men.I wouldn't rate King of the Khyber Rifles as one of the best for either man. Yet it's entertaining enough and full of enough action to satisfy those who crave it in their films.Power plays a British Army captain of mixed racial parentage and religious background as his mother was Moslem. He encounters a lot of hostility from both sides, similar to what Ava Gardner faced in Bhowani Junction. It turns out that the leader of the local rebels is his former childhood play mate and son of the Moslem cleric who took young Power in when he was orphaned. Guy Rolfe is the rebel chief and he's a cunning and vicious foe of the British occupation. Rolfe also did a superb job in Ivanhoe as King John and these two roles are probably his career parts. Rolfe's the best one in the film.It might have been a bit better had someone other than Terry Moore played the daughter of the English colonel. Another reviewer says she comes off like a débutante and she really does. Michael Rennie as her father is a stalwart defender of the Empire.King of the Khyber Rifles is decent enough entertainment, but it wasn't in any contention for any awards in 1953.

The idea for a story about boyhood friends who find themselves on opposite sides of the Indian Mutiny is a promising one; make one of them a half-caste officer on whom the commandant's wilful daughter has set her sudden fancy, much to the agonies of her father's would-be liberal conscience, and you ought to have a powerful picture.Sadly, "King of the Khyber Rifles" isn't that film.The potentially interesting theme of the conflicts of loyalty between the warlord Karram Khan, his father who has turned to pacifism, and his foster-brother Charles King is barely touched upon, and then only in a cursory manner as a plot mechanism. When, returning to camp, Captain King is arrested under suspicion of being in league with the rebels, an accusation circumstances have conspired to render all too probable... the whole careful set-up is disregarded the moment said rebels actually attack. In fact, King is instantly released and entrusted with leading an undercover attack against these same rebels! The film is much more interested in its racially-conscious romantic subplot than in any conflicts of loyalty, but the romance unfortunately falls pretty flat for me. As mentioned by other reviewers, Terry Moore -- so charming opposite an SFX gorilla in "Mighty Joe Young" -- here plays the role of Susan as a Valley Girl airhead with anachronistic attitudes, while I found it hard to see why she instantly hurls herself at the head of Tyrone Power, who appears to participate in the entire film with polite but wooden reluctance. There is so little screen chemistry on view between them that when she comes bursting into King's bedroom at night to confess her passion -- an act, for a lady of 1857, that would have compromised her honour as effectively as actually sleeping with him -- I rather expected the embarrassed Captain to repulse her gently on the grounds that he simply did not return her feelings.Nor do the racial politics seem particularly well thought-out. British India, even the Northwest Frontier, was not the American Deep South, where the higher the admixture of white blood the better; the 'chi-chi' was looked down upon by the Indian as by the Englishman, a fact correctly acknowledged in the film by King's mother's ostracism, but not in the plot assumption that his own half-blood status gives him an edge with "them". And the argument he uses on his rebellious men, that if he can honourably bite the cartridges so can they, makes little sense unless he also shares their religion and hence the taboo -- which, to all appearances, he does not.But all this could be ignored; my real problem with this film was that it failed to engage or excite me, save for that one justly famous moment when the captured soldiers are dispatched one by one, transfixed by the horsemen's spears. Watching approaching death, Tyrone Power's face conveys emotion at last -- but the moment passes, and film and star alike go through the motions until the end.Given its material, this could have been a great picture. As it turns out, it's just another genre entry, and a somewhat cursory one at that. The star's heart doesn't seem to be in it, and neither script nor action hold any great sparkle to compensate.

Sweeping, exciting spectacle, though on a bit lesser scale than usual. Power is a mixed-race (half British/half Indian) British officer in India battling the British class system on one side, the Indian caste system on the other side, racism from both sides, and rampaging, rebellious natives on all sides. Although he lacked the dynamism and ebullient personality of fellow swashbuckler Errol Flynn, Power nevertheless handled these kinds of action roles well, and was a good enough actor to pull them off believably. Terry Moore is, as always, miscast--she has the sunny demeanor of a USC cheerleader rather than the demure, dignified charm one would expect of the daughter of a senior, upper-class British officer. Michael Rennie's lip is properly stiff as the British commander, and Guy Rolfe is thoroughly effective as Power's megalomaniacal, menacing half-brother who is the leader of the rebels. Several extremely well staged action scenes--particularly at the climax--some very tense moments, crisp and beautiful Technicolor photography and Power's not-inconsiderable presence and charm make this a must-see for adventure fans--if they can ever find the damn thing. As mentioned previously, it hardly ever shows up on television and it's not out--legitimately, at least--on video or DVD yet.