Now Over 5500 Reviews and (near) Daily Updates!

WELCOME! Use the search engines on this site (or your own off-site engine of choice) to gain easy access to the complete MAKSQUIBS Archive; more than 5500 posts and counting. (New posts added every day or so.)

You can check on all our titles by typing the Title, Director, Actor or 'Keyword' you're looking for in the Search Engine of your choice (include the phrase MAKSQUIBS) or just use the BLOGSPOT.com Search Box at the top left corner of the page.

Feel free to place comments directly on any of the film posts and to test your film knowledge with the CONTESTS scattered here & there. (Hey! No Googling allowed. They're pretty easy.)

Send E-mails to MAKSQUIBS@yahoo.com . (Let us know if the TRANSLATE WIDGET works!) Or use the Profile Page or Comments link for contact.

Thanks for stopping by.

Saturday, September 7, 2019

KING OF THE KHYBER RIFLES (1953)

Ironically, Tyrone Power was more believable playing a full-blooded Indian doctor in 1939's THE RAINS CAME than as a ‘half-caste’ British officer in this early CinemaScope colonial epic. Put the disparity down to the pull of Golden Age studio æsthetic, the natural abstraction of b&w cinematography and Power’s youthful dazzle. Post WWII, shifting body mass & thickening features (along with Deluxe color prints) add an unwelcome realism, spoiling the illusion. Behind him, a strong production and a classic story line help (only this half-caste can possibly stop a local uprising), while lenser Leon Shamroy nails frame & horizon in the early ultra-WideScreen process and Bernard Herrmann’s score fills in missing emotions. Even sedate megger Henry King finds a stately swagger to his pace (look for a really nice bit of scary special effects weather in the desert), but is ultimately defeated by two badly miscast roles: Goy Rolfe’s swarthily painted Brit as the ‘mad’ Indian khan trying to grab power, and Terry Moore as Power’s love interest. Daughter to Michael Rennie’s sympathetic commanding officer, this reckless Lawrencian object of desire is too much the All-American teen. This one’s best around the edges.

SCREWY THOUGHT OF THE DAY: Why does Ty Power always look shorter than he actually was? Nearly 6', he looks about as tall as height-challenged Tom Cruise. (Here, he’s got to compete with Rennie & Rolfe, each of them standing 6'4".)

DOUBLE-BILL: As mentioned above, THE RAINS CAME. (see below)

No comments: