Bengali (film)
| Movie | |
|---|---|
| German title | Bengali |
| Original title | The Lives of a Bengal Lancer |
| Country of production | United States |
| original language | English |
| Publishing year | 1935 |
| length | 108 minutes |
| Age rating | FSK 12 |
| Rod | |
| Director | Henry Hathaway |
| script |
Achmed Abdullah William Slavens McNutt , Grover Jones , Waldemar Young , John L. Balderston |
| production | Louis D. Lighton |
| music | Milan Roder |
| camera |
Ernest B. Schoedsack , Charles B. Lang |
| cut | Ellsworth Hoagland |
| occupation | |
| |
Bengali (in the original The Lives of a Bengal Lancer ) is an American adventure film directed by Henry Hathaway from 1935. The screenplay is based on the novel of the same name by Francis Yeats-Brown .
action
The 41st company of the Bengal Lancers , a cavalry unit of the British colonial troops in India, is located on the north-west border of India. The commanding officer is the Scottish-Canadian Lieutenant Alan McGregor. He is expecting two new people to replace. The lieutenants Forsythe and Stone are sent to him. Donald Stone is the son of Colonel Tom Stone, who wants to prove his impartiality by sending his son to the front. Donald sees this as annoyance towards him.
Lieutenant Barrett spies on Mohammed Khan and brings the news that he is planning an uprising against the British. Lieutenant Stone is captured by the insurgents. Mohammed Khan wants to receive information from him about a British ammunition shipment. The Colonel refuses to give his son a rescue permit. McGregor and Forsythe decide to act without orders. But they too are captured by the men of Mohammed Khan. The men are tortured. Stone breaks down and tells what he knows about the ammunition shipment, which is then intercepted by the insurgents.
When the Bengal Lancers attack Khan's fortified hiding place, the three men manage to flee. They destroy the captured ammunition. Stone rehabilitates himself by killing Khan.
background
This Paramount production was shot in California. Filming lasted from August to November 1934, with some takes in December 1934. In order to imitate the real Indian flair, olives and exotic fruits were brought from the Napa Valley . The extras who represented Indians were mostly Indians from a nearby Piute reservation. The Indian main characters were played by Americans (Blue, Naish and Noble Johnson in a minor role), a Canadian (Dumbrille), a Georgian (Tamiroff) and a Russian ( Mischa Auer in a minor role not mentioned). The military advice for the film took over Captain Rochfort John and Lieutenant Colonel WE Wynn.
Bengali is considered one of Adolf Hitler's favorite films , if not his favorite. He was particularly enthusiastic about how a "handful of British" as a "superior race" kept an entire country under control, and recommended the film for SS men to view.
The credits for this film were pretty short. The following people were not mentioned: composer Milan Roder, who was supported by the later Oscar winners Heinz Roemheld and John Leipold , the Oscar-nominated film editor Ellsworth Hoagland and sound designer Franklin Hansen, the production designers Hans Dreier and Roland Anderson, who were responsible for this film Film with Oscar-winning assistant director Clem Beauchamp (his first job in this capacity) and Paul Wing, as well as background cameraman Ernest B. Schoedsack , who created the 1933 horror classic King Kong and the White Woman .
The film is one of over 700 Paramount films that were made between 1929 and 1949 and sold to Universal for television marketing . Universal acquired the marketing rights to this film in 1958.
Reviews
"Comradeship, love, corps spirit and heroism in an action melodrama that - far removed from historical realities - offers perfect entertainment."
In the German Empire at that time , films were given the ratings "artistically valuable" and "popular education".
Awards
- Won the Oscars in the former category
- Best Assistant Director - Two Oscars to Clem Beauchamp and Paul Wing
- Nomination in the categories
- Best movie
- Best Director - Henry Hathaway
- Best Adapted Screenplay - Achmed Abdullah, John L. Balderston, Grover Jones, William Slavens McNutt, Waldemar Young
- Best cut - Ellsworth Hoagland
- Best tone - Franklin Hansen
DVD publications
Universal released the film twice on DVD. The film was released on May 31, 2005 as part of the Gary Cooper Collection (ABN: B0007RTB9M), and on September 25, 2007, Les trois lanciers du bengale - Lives of a Bengal Lancer (ABN: B000R7G86G) was released.
literature
- Francis Yeats-Brown. The Lives of a Bengal Lancer - English edition - Long Riders Guild Press, 2001 - ISBN 1-59048-099-6
Web links
- Bengali in the Internet Movie Database (English)
- Critique of Variety
- Classic Film Guide review
- Channel 4 review
- Review by Andre Sennwald for the New York Times (English)
Individual evidence
- ↑ At that time the Khaiber Pass ; the opponents of the British belonged to the Mohmands and Afridis (see the article Englands Macht am Khaiberpass in the November issue of 1935 ( page no longer available , search in web archives ) Info: The link was automatically marked as defective. Please check the link accordingly Instructions and then remove this note. (PDF; 1.9 MB) of the white sheets on p. 351–352)
- ↑ "The Tramp and the Dictator" , approx. 22 minutes
- ^ David Faber: Munich, 1938: Appeasement and World War II . Simon and Schuster, 2009, ISBN 978-1-4391-4992-8 ( google.de [accessed on May 18, 2020]).
- ↑ cf. Lexicon of International Films 2000/2001 (CD-ROM)
- ↑ Ursula Saekel: The US film in the Weimar Republic - a medium of "Americanization" ?: German film industry, cultural policy and media globalization in the focus of transatlantic interests. Verlag Schoeningh Ferdinand, 2011, ISBN 3506771744 , p. 169
