Lives of a Bengal Lancer

Another movie aired during Summer Under the Stars that I just got around to watching is The Lives of a Bengal Lancer, which is available on DVD courtesy of Universal's MOD scheme.

Gary Cooper plays Lt. McGregor, a Canadian servince with the British 41st Lancers on the Northwest Frontier in British India, an area which today would be the still-volatile border region between Pakistand and Afghanistan. McGregor goes out on a mission where he's expressly told not to shoot, except that two of his superior officers get shot to death right off their horses, leaving h im more or less in command and feeling he has to shoot back. Part of the reason for this introductory scene is to show McGregor's character and difficulties in dealing with the command structure, and the other part is to have a reason to bring in two greenhorn officers.

Those two are Lt. Forsythe (Franchot Tone), and, fresh out of Sandhurst, Lt. Stone (Richard Cromwell). Lt. Stone, in addition to having no clue about the way things work out in the real world on the frontier, is also the son of the base's commanding officer Col. Stone (Guy Standing). Col. Stone is insistent about doing everything by the book and making certain his son is shown no favoritism, but everybody else thinks that Lt. Stone is going to get different treatment. As you can imagine, young Lt. Stone has a difficult time having a father for a CO.

The three lieutenants get into some mild misadventures that serve as character development for the ultimate climax of the film; among these scenes are a particularly humorous one involving a cobra Lt. Forsythe is inadvertently charming, and a scene on a wild boar hunt. But eventually, more real life is going to intrude, in the form of Mohammed Khan (Douglass Dumbrille), who is trying to get his hands on a large stash of ammunition so that the various tribal groups can join together and take on the British.

This results in Lt. Stone being captured by the Khan's men and McGregor and Forsythe having to go rescue Stone, a mission which is going to put themselves in danger. Can the British cavalry rescue them in time?

A lot of the reviewers that I've read heap extremely high praise on Lives of a Bengal Lancer. I found it a good movie, but I was kind of surprised by the relative lack of action in the movie. Much of the movie before the climactic battle at the Khan's fortress was more of a character study than an adventure film. I suppose that had I known this coming in, I'd probably have an even higher opinion of the movie. Not that it's not good; I just thought it a bit understated. I'm sure most of the rest of you will like it even more than I did.