King of the Khyber Rifles is a
1953The year 1953 in film involved some significant events.-Events:*September 16 — The Robe debuts as the first anamorphic, widescreen CinemaScope film.-Top grossing films : After theatrical re-issue- Awards :Academy Awards:A...
adventure filmAdventure films are a genre of film.Unlike pure, low-budget action films they often use their action scenes preferably to display and explore exotic locations in an energetic way....
directed by
Henry KingHenry King was an American film director.Before coming to film, King worked as an actor in various repertoire theatres, and first started to take small film roles in 1912. He directed for the first time in 1915, and grew to become one of the most commercially successful Hollywood directors of the...
and starring
Tyrone PowerTyrone Edmund Power, Jr. , usually credited as Tyrone Power and known sometimes as Ty Power, was an American film and stage actor who appeared in dozens of films from the 1930s to the 1950s, often in swashbuckler roles or romantic leads such as in The Mark of Zorro, Blood and Sand, The Black Swan,...
and
Terry MooreHelen Luella Koford , better known as Terry Moore, is an American actress. Terry Moore made her film debut at age 11 and grew up with all the icons of the Hollywood era that made Hollywood what it is today, also known as "The Golden Age of Hollywood". Moore is an Academy Award nominated actress...
. The film is based on the novel
King of the Khyber RiflesKing of the Khyber Rifles is a novel by British writer Talbot Mundy. Captain Athelstan King is a secret agent for the British Raj at the beginning of the First World War...
by
Talbot MundyTalbot Mundy was an English writer. He also wrote under the pseudonym Walter Galt.-Life and work:...
. It is a remake of
John FordJohn Ford was an American film director. He was famous for both his westerns such as Stagecoach, The Searchers, and The Man Who Shot Liberty Valance, and adaptations of such classic 20th-century American novels as The Grapes of Wrath...
's
The Black WatchThe Black Watch is a 1929 American early epic adventure drama film directed by John Ford and written by James Kevin McGuinness based on the novel King of the Khyber Rifles by Talbot Mundy. The film starred Victor McLaglen...
(1929). The Khyber Pass scenes were shot in
Alabama HillsAlabama Hills are a "range of hills" and rock formations near the eastern slope of the Sierra Nevada Mountains in the Owens Valley, west of Lone Pine in Inyo County, California....
,
Lone PineLone Pine is a census-designated place in Inyo County, California, United States. Lone Pine is located south-southeast of Independence, at an elevation of 3727 feet . The population was 2,035 at the 2010 census, up from 1,655 at the 2000 census. The town is located in the Owens Valley, near the...
,
CaliforniaCalifornia is a state located on the West Coast of the United States. It is by far the most populous U.S. state, and the third-largest by land area...
. Released by
20th Century FoxTwentieth Century Fox Film Corporation — also known as 20th Century Fox, or simply 20th or Fox — is one of the six major American film studios...
, the film was one of the first shot in
TechnicolorTechnicolor is a color motion picture process invented in 1916 and improved over several decades.It was the second major process, after Britain's Kinemacolor, and the most widely used color process in Hollywood from 1922 to 1952...
CinemaScopeCinemaScope was an anamorphic lens series used for shooting wide screen movies from 1953 to 1967. Its creation in 1953, by the president of 20th Century-Fox, marked the beginning of the modern anamorphic format in both principal photography and movie projection.The anamorphic lenses theoretically...
.
Plot synopsis
Freshly arrived
SandhurstThe Royal Military Academy Sandhurst , commonly known simply as Sandhurst, is a British Army officer initial training centre located in Sandhurst, Berkshire, England...
-trained Captain Alan King (
Tyrone PowerTyrone Edmund Power, Jr. , usually credited as Tyrone Power and known sometimes as Ty Power, was an American film and stage actor who appeared in dozens of films from the 1930s to the 1950s, often in swashbuckler roles or romantic leads such as in The Mark of Zorro, Blood and Sand, The Black Swan,...
), survives an attack on his escort to his
North-West Frontier ProvinceKhyber Pakhtunkhwa , formerly known as the North-West Frontier Province and various other names, is one of the four provinces of Pakistan, located in the north-west of the country...
garrison near the
Khyber PassThe Khyber Pass, is a mountain pass linking Pakistan and Afghanistan.The Pass was an integral part of the ancient Silk Road. It is mentioned in the Bible as the "Pesh Habor," and it is one of the oldest known passes in the world....
because of Ahmed, a native Afridi deserter from the Muslim fanatic rebel Karram Khan's (
Guy RolfeGuy Rolfe was an English actor born in London.He made his screen debut in 1937 with an uncredited appearance in Knight Without Armour. Notable roles include: Prince John in Ivanhoe , Ned Seymour in Young Bess , Caiaphas in King of Kings , and Prince Grigory in Taras Bulba...
) forces. King was born locally and speaks
PashtunPashtuns or Pathans , also known as ethnic Afghans , are an Eastern Iranic ethnic group with populations primarily between the Hindu Kush mountains in Afghanistan and the Indus River in Pakistan...
. As soon as his fellow officers learn his mother was a native Muslim (which got his parents disowned even by their own families), he falls prey to stubborn prejudiced discrimination. Lieuenant Geoffrey Heath (
John JustinJohn Justin was a British stage and film actor.John Justinian de Ledesma was born in London, England, the son of a well-off Argentine rancher. Though he grew up on his father's ranch, he was educated at Bryanston School, Dorset...
) even moves out of their quarters. Brigadier General J. R. Maitland (
Michael RennieMichael Rennie was an English film, television, and stage actor, perhaps best known for his starring role as the space visitor Klaatu in the 1951 classic science fiction film The Day the Earth Stood Still. However, he appeared in over 50 other films since 1936, many with Jean Simmons and other...
), whose policy is full equality among whites, learns King knew Karrum Khan as a boy and charges him with training and commanding native cavalry. The general's daughter, Susan Maitland (
Terry MooreHelen Luella Koford , better known as Terry Moore, is an American actress. Terry Moore made her film debut at age 11 and grew up with all the icons of the Hollywood era that made Hollywood what it is today, also known as "The Golden Age of Hollywood". Moore is an Academy Award nominated actress...
), takes a fancy to King, even falls in love, but the general decides to send her home to England after a kidnap attempt which was foiled by King. King volunteers to engage Karram Khan, the only man who can bring the normally divided local tribes together in revolt, pretending to have deserted.
Cast
- Tyrone Power
Tyrone Edmund Power, Jr. , usually credited as Tyrone Power and known sometimes as Ty Power, was an American film and stage actor who appeared in dozens of films from the 1930s to the 1950s, often in swashbuckler roles or romantic leads such as in The Mark of Zorro, Blood and Sand, The Black Swan,...
as Captain Alan King
- Terry Moore
Helen Luella Koford , better known as Terry Moore, is an American actress. Terry Moore made her film debut at age 11 and grew up with all the icons of the Hollywood era that made Hollywood what it is today, also known as "The Golden Age of Hollywood". Moore is an Academy Award nominated actress...
as Susan Maitland
- Michael Rennie
Michael Rennie was an English film, television, and stage actor, perhaps best known for his starring role as the space visitor Klaatu in the 1951 classic science fiction film The Day the Earth Stood Still. However, he appeared in over 50 other films since 1936, many with Jean Simmons and other...
as Brigadier Gen. J. R. Maitland
- John Justin
John Justin was a British stage and film actor.John Justinian de Ledesma was born in London, England, the son of a well-off Argentine rancher. Though he grew up on his father's ranch, he was educated at Bryanston School, Dorset...
as Lieutenant Geoffrey Heath
- Guy Rolfe
Guy Rolfe was an English actor born in London.He made his screen debut in 1937 with an uncredited appearance in Knight Without Armour. Notable roles include: Prince John in Ivanhoe , Ned Seymour in Young Bess , Caiaphas in King of Kings , and Prince Grigory in Taras Bulba...
as Karram Khan
- Richard Wyler as Lieutenant Ben Baird
- Murray Matheson
Murray Matheson , born Sidney Murray Matheson was an actor who had appeared on stage and in films and television programs until 1983....
as Major Ian MacAllister
- Frank DeKova
Frank Dekova was an Italian-American character actor.-Biography:Dekova was born in New York City and taught at a school in New York before joining a Shakespeare repertory group...
as Ali Nur
- Argentina Brunetti
-Biography:Brunetti was born Argentina Ferrau in Buenos Aires, Argentina. She began her show business career at the age of three with a walk on role in the opera, Cavalleria Rusticana and followed Mimi Aguglia, her famous mother's footsteps in the theater performing supporting roles on stages...
as Lali
- Sujata as Native dancer
- Frank Lacteen as Ahmed
- John Farrow
John Villiers Farrow, CBE was an Australian, later American, film director, producer and screenwriter. In 1957 he won the Academy Award for Best Writing / Best Screenplay for Around the World in Eighty Days and in 1942 he was nominated as Best Director for Wake Island.-Life and career:Farrow was...
as Corporal Stuart