North West Frontier (1960)

Sadly Over-hyped

Let's be realistic.

Pretty good movie overall. First half was nothing special but it got better as it went along.

It is an exhilarating, distressing, funny and profound film, with one of the more memorable film scores in years,

Very nice looking movie; the restored DVD from VCI fixed up a lot of grain on other DVD releases. Good use of an actual old locomotive; and the Spanish locations do a good job of looking like India. One nice point (a mild spoiler): the two Indian soldiers on the train survive the film, and are useful during the entire journey. Go Team Redshirt! The child actor is much more agreeable than most.

It's been said before, but this is one of those 'Boys Own' rollicking adventure yarns that they did so well in the 1950's. And I, for one, love 'em.The natives are revolting. It's left to a British Army Captain and a mixed group of other bravehearts to rescue and escape with a young princeling who is the sole survivor of a massacre that includes his family. Their means is an old steam engine and a short train of wagons and carriage. With this, they run a blockade and must escape from the 'Northwest Frontier'.Set at the turn of the (20th) century, Kenneth More is, as usual, perfectly cast as the thoroughly decent and honourable Brit. He's Second-Officer Lightoller but on rails instead of the sea. The cast in a shrewd mix of popular characters. Lauren Bacall provides an unlikely American love interest for More as the boy-prince's governess (it'd never work out!). Wilfred Hyde-white does a great dithery bachelor inclining to old-age. Herbert Lom is a scathing mixed-race reporter, and something else besides. Eugene Deckers does well as an arms dealer. Ursula Jeans is the modestly authoritative MemSab with a bottomless Dorothy bag. She's everyone's ideal grannie, full of matronly wisdom with an answer to everything in her handbag. I S Johar plays 'Gupta' the Indian engine driver, with humorous and sympathetic panache.Along the way, there are adventures. But no less entertaining is the spirited dialogue between the passengers, each of which has a conflicting or complementary viewpoint as the conversation waxes.Although a tongue-in-cheek adventure movie, it doesn't shy away from the darker elements of human nature. These are explored in the intelligent dialogue, but exposed in the circumstances too. At one point, they encounter an earlier train which has been intercepted by bandits. Everyone aboard has been slaughtered. It is very simply but grimly presented. No needless gore; just a sad pensive silence broken by the buzzing flies and caw of vultures. Lom's character isn't the impartial observer he pretends. As a Muslim, he sympathises with the insurgents, and means to murder the boy himself if he can.As high adventure movies go, this is a class act. Easily a match for 'Journey To The Centre Of The Earth' or 'The Pride & The Passion'. We get to spend a lot of time with the small ensemble; their weaknesses and strengths and now-outdated foibles, as well as their good manners and consideration become very endearing. These are characters we can really care about. And THAT is STORY.The movie is beautifully filmed, with great vistas of wilderness and excellent colour. Train-spotters will enjoy the railway details.This is highly recommended family viewing that - like so many of those 50's adventure tales - can stand muster with most anything being produced today.Great actors, good script, fine views, bags of excitement, a villain in the party and moral messages. What more do we need from a movie?

We are in British India, Moslem rebels want to kill a young Hindu prince and thus killing his family blood line. The British army are charged with the task of ensuring the prince is safely escorted from the troubled provinces. The duty falls to one intrepid Captain Scott, the only chance to achieve the aim is by train, with his allies on board being a rather unique group of individuals, can Scott achieve the mission against the mounting odds?North West Frontier has everything a great action adventure should have, action, tension, drama and an array of wonderfully colourful characters. The opening to the film is pulsating, as Scott has to fight off the rebels whilst smuggling the prince and his governess out to safety. From then on we are on a train journey that is rich with enjoyment, the tension mounts among the passengers, not least because of the class differences, and perhaps motives are not in alignment? But they must club together if they are to survive this journey.Kenneth Moore, Lauren Bacall, Herbert Lom and Wilfrid Hyde-White (comedy gold when under attack) are all pulling together to make a cracking yarn. Directing duties falls to J. Lee Thompson, whose CV boasts Ice Cold In Alex, The Guns Of Navarone and Cape Fear, so this material was thankfully in very safe hands. The photography from Geoffrey Unsworth is top notch, barren and desolate landscapes beautifully realising the peril of the passengers' journey, whilst the music from Mischa Spoliansky leaves a lasting impression.This train may well be crammed full of genre stereotypes, and sure enough the patronising nature of the piece is dated at the edges, but this remains a gloriously enjoyable film that the whole family can readily digest. 9/10

Rebellion is breaking out in India and all that stands in the way of religious and political chaos, not to mention British control, is a six-year-old Hindu prince and the unflagging confidence of Captain Scott (Kenneth More). Charged with bringing the boy safely from a small, fortified hill station to the British base at Kalapur 300 miles away, Captain Scott will need every bit of his resourcefulness, energy, ingenuity and pluck. The year is 1905 and Muslim tribes in India's north west territories are rising up against the Hindu princes and their British masters. Young prince Kishan is seen as a symbol of order and justice. If the rebels can kill him, there will be uprisings against the British which they may not be able to control. But how to get the prince to Kalapur? The last refugee trains have left and attempting the journey by horseback through enemy territory would be madness. But then Captain Scott remembers there was an old, derelict steam locomotive, The Empress of India, in the train sheds. Could it be put back into service? He calls upon his friend, Gupta (I. S. Johar), who assures him in broken English that his locomotive will not fail Captain Scott and that Gupta, himself, will run it. In a trice Gupta brings needed maintenance to The Empress and Scott finds himself loading an assorted group of passengers onto the one passenger car. There is Lady Wyndham (Ursula Jeans), the governor's wife; Peters (Eugene Deckers), an arms dealer whose weapons now most likely arm the rebels; Mr. Bridie (Wilfred Hyde-White), a diplomat and old India hand; and Van Layden (Herbert Lom), a reporter who has no love for the British. Most importantly, there is the prince and his American governess, Catherine Wyatt (Lauren Bacall). On this desperate journey, Captain Scott and this group of passengers will encounter massacres, the old steam engine's urgent need for water, the hard work of replacing rails, the tense clamber over a blown bridge with only the rails remaining, then the careful driving of the engine across those shifting, sagging rails, and the mass attacks of Muslims on horseback racing to capture the train and the prince. More troubling, Scott discovers that his group harbors a traitor, someone determined to either kill the prince or see that the boy is killed. Only the best traditions of British military leadership, exemplified by the publicly confident but privately worried Captain Scott, plus the vital assistance he receives from a number of the passengers, enable North West Frontier to have a happy ending. For Captain Scott, the ending is even happier. Not only has he fulfilled his mission, it appears that he and Catherine Wyatt will have a future together. This film is a throwback to the classic movies about the British Empire and the quality of the brave men who made the Empire possible. It's all fiction, of course, but it's greatly entertaining. Films like Drums and The Four Feathers reassured many that the British Empire would always be around and that the men who made it work were...well, gentlemen; that is, dedicated to bringing order, opportunity and justice to the natives as only British gentlemen could, and who always dressed for dinner. While this movie arrived in the theaters as the underside of empire was becoming known, it still tells a cracking good yarn. There is a bit too much exposition, in my opinion, offering justification for and against the Empire's rule in India (and the pro side wins the argument most of the time). It also seemed to me that the villain of the movie is far too easily identified. One final weakness is that the pairing of More and Bacall doesn't really work; they have such different personalities that their attraction for each other and their eventually pairing just doesn't strike any sparks for me. Still, the movie offers some grand adventures, great scenery, a journey on a steam train, brave derring-do, a typically forceful and optimistic performance by Kenneth More, and a nice reminder of why adventure stories are so much fun.