‘THE LIVES OF A BENGAL LANCER’

Evening Star, Issue 22031, 17 May 1935, Page 12

‘THE LIVES OF A BENGAL LANCER ’

EXTENSION Of SEASON Achieving the same wonderful popularity that it has experienced* at Auckland and Wellington, where it is now in its fourth week, it has been found necessary to extend the present ’season another week. The story of the making of ‘ The Lives of a Bengal Lancer -is nearly as romantic as tbo story of the, film itself. As long ago. as 1931 Major Francis Yeats-Brown went to Hollywood to confer with Paramount on the adaptation of his best seller, ‘ Bengal Lancer,’ to the screen. Ernest Schoodsack, famous director, was chosen to direct the film, and a small army of authors and scenario experts were commissioned to evolve a suitable story from the somewhat unpromising material at their disposal—unpromising, that is, from a film point of view. Unexpected difficulties dnd disasters hindered production, and Scboedsack, so the tale'goes, renounced the direction. He was replaced by Henry Hathaway, who took a unit to India and returned with hundreds of feet of film. In the meantime the studio had chosen Gary Cooper, Sir Guy Standing, C Aubrey Smith, Franchot Tone, and the New Zealander,. Colin Tapley, for the principal roles in what was virtually a new story, bearing little or no relation to Yeats-Brown’s autobiography, They were despatched with the rest of the cast to a wild location* in California, where filming was once more held lip by various unforeseen catastrophies. Through these and other setbacks the film took four years to complete, and was then released in a hurry because another company contemplated making* a picture, about India. The result is, surprisingly perhaps, an admirable and stirring film which everyone will want to see. As'a tale of adventure and heroism nothing better has reached us from; Hollywood. It carries on the tradition of ‘ Beau Geste ’ and 'Cavalcade,' and surpasses both in spctapular magnificence. From a technical point of view the film has been cleverly knit together,.and it is-impossible to tell which sequences belong to India and which to California. The problem of the American accent has also been skilfully overcome, so that in this respect the story rings true. Incidentally Hollywood once more gives the world a film depicting the very essence of British patriotism, and accomplishes it with far more insight and understanding than Britain could herself produce. The box plans are at the D.1..C, and the theatre. ;