Pretty Good

Although I seem to have had higher expectations than I thought, the movie is super entertaining.

what a terribly boring film. I'm sorry but this is absolutely not deserving of best picture and will be forgotten quickly. Entertaining and engaging cinema? No. Nothing performances with flat faces and mistaking silence for subtlety.

One of the most extraordinary films you will see this year. Take that as you want.

This movie could be called a forerunner to "Gunga Din". British Colonial Army in India, 3 buddies, and two have to go to rescue one. 'Gunga Din' did it better, though, and there is an undercurrent of animosity and less chemistry among the three here.The action is uneven, coming at the beginning and at the end of the picture, and in between it is a character study. Luckily for director Hathaway he had some excellent acting talent on hand and you are not conscious of the lack of action. C.Aubrey Smith, Sir Guy Standing, Douglas Dumbrille and Akim Tamiroff are present, in addition to the 3 principals, Cooper, Franchot Tone And Richard Cromwell. Standing is especially good as the Company Commander. He gives a sensitive, nuanced performance worthy of a British stage actor, which he was before coming to Hollywood. I don't often insert spoilers in my reviews but I just had to make mention of one of my all-time villainous movie characters, the wimpy, feckless Lt. Stone, played by Richard Cromwell. It is he who gets Gary Cooper killed towards the end of the picture and which has earned him my everlasting animosity. Why couldn't they just leave him prisoner? Why couldn't they get a different actor? Truly, there never was such a weakling as Cromwell.As you can see, I take my action heroes seriously. Maybe that's what makes motion pictures so entertaining - if done well, they seem real. "Lives Of A Bengal Lancer" easily earns a 7.

I have a warm spot in my heart for three Hathaway movies.Although there are many films made by him I like,I can watch these three again and again and again.One of them is "Niagara" .The two others were made the same year ,and,most amazing thing,they are as different as they can be:"Peter Ibettson" is a romantic fantasy film the influence of which was huge on the French Realisme Poétique of the late thirties/early forties.And there's "lives of a Bengal lancer".I was about 13 when I saw it for the first time with two of my pals who,having already seen the film ,had warned me:" there's horrible "Chinese" torture in it".At the time ,we thought that Mohammed Khan and his men were the villains and the English were the heroes.It was the first time I had seen Gary Cooper.I should hate the colonialism,the military spirit now ,and however I don't: I love this film.I love the story,I love the three characters (particularly Franchot Tone),I love all the supporting characters ,I love everything .The screenplay is so absorbing,the characters are so endearing that the simple idea of blaming the writers for their chocolate box India and their praise of the British Empire does not even come to mind."It looks like the Arabian night's "says young Stone in full regalia in the emir's palace.Would you blame Alexandre Dumas for his "three musketeers" because his rendition of the French seventeenth century and his vision of the Cardinal de Richelieu are approximative and a bit naive.But after all it's true that Richelieu did use female spies;hence the Milady character...In "lives" our milady is Tania.Played by a gorgeous actress whose career was short-lived,Kathleen Burke ,this lady has only four or five lines to say in one of the most underwritten parts of the whole cinema.So underwritten we do not even know what becomes of her when the film ends .She leaves with "a terrible headache" and that's it.How could the thirties audience accept that?"Lives" is definitely a male movie whereas the contemporary "Peter Ibbetson " is a female one.Franchot Tone has replaced Cooper as my favorite.He is ,IMHO,the stand-out of a stellar cast .A really fabulous actor,who achieves the incredible feat to be funny even when he is on the verge of tears.His nod to Mac in the dungeon when they are in a real plight in unforgettable;and it's easy to understand why Mac's last words were "poetry".Forsythe is the most endearing character ,and even his gaffes are sublime.When he meets a babe on the train ,Mac tells him he should know better and that there are spies everywhere."Melodrama Melodrama" he answers;little did he know his pal was right and that would happen later.And the flute which sounds like "Scottish pipe" which turns him into a reluctant snake charmer is the most hilarious scene of the American thirties.Hathaway's genius is to have maintained a " delicate balance" between comedy and drama.There are at least as many funny scenes as dramatic ones (some are both).Dig this line :"I told you this mardi gras would be a washout!"The Stone jr/Stone sr relationship has often been described as "devoid of humanity ,of sentimentality,of heart" .It's completely untrue :the old man desperately tries to communicate with his only son ,but he is too shy and too proud to let his feelings flow.Two admirable scenes show this frustration: the "letter" which Mac gives to Donald to take to the colonel,and the night before they learn his rapt,when the old ramrod cannot open his heart to his son's two mates who act as his "military " fathers and more .If Mac sacrifices his life ,it's not only for defeating Khan.He mainly wants to hide Donald Stone's weakness "who has betrayed his country" as Khan points out in the dungeon.The last scene bears this out.To the accents of "God Save the King" Stone's tears begin to fall...and you feel like crying as they decorate the hero's horse.

THE LIVES OF A BENGAL LANCER can take its place among the best of the Hollywood version of Colonial India during the 1800s where the danger and excitement is derived from tales similar to the more famous GUNGA DIN, where the British Army has its share of conflict with the Indians who think their country is being occupied.And like GUNGA DIN, it revolves around a threesome of male buddies played by GARY COOPER, FRANCHOT TONE and RICHARD CROMWELL. Cooper is the strongest of the leads, a Lt. McGregor who has been sent to welcome two new soldiers to the military post. One of them (Cromwell) is the naively inexperienced son of the post's commander and prone to go astray without guidance from Cooper and Tone. The relationships are not without friction (usually with humorous episodes thrown in), and, of course, there's the requisite loyalty, courage and danger involved in all of their undertakings.Much of it feels similar to other stories of courage beyond endurance and scenes of torture where the captive soldiers exhibit the bravery instilled in them by the military. GARY COOPER is at his most Gary Cooper-like persona (stoic and brave) in the role of the heroic McGregor and FRANCHOT TONE does extremely well as his humorous buddy. RICHARD CROMWELL tends to overact in melodramatic '30s style, the only weakness in the cast.Good support from a cast including DOUGLAS DUMBRILLE, J. CARROL NAISH, NOBLE JOHNSON and AKIM TAMIROFF.Fans of GUNGA DIN should love this one.

Was there ever a better actor on film than Gary Cooper? In "Lives of a Bengal Lancer" he shows the natural talent, the effortless pretense, that few others could match..... well Sean Penn or Ingrid Bergman maybe. Franchot Tone plays the best friend part to a tee, both infuriating and endearing himself to Cooper's character.... always makes me laugh when he plays "Mother MacCree" on the pipe, needling Coop at first, but then begging for help when a cobra is attracted to the sound.This is where they got the material for flicks like "Butch Cassidy and the Sundance Kid." This film was made in Hollywood's golden era, when movies were fantastic adventures to be treasured, not necessarily believed. This is a very grim tale of war and sacrifice, but fun nonetheless. That the imperialists are the good guys is just a sign of the time when it was made. I wonder how bigoted the movies being made today will look to audiences 70 years from now? The sets were, of course, very well done and the photography was superb. During the mid to late thirties the art of the film reached it's zenith.Before then such spectacle was rare, but by 1939 it had become common. A very enjoyable combination of comedy and adventure makes this film one of the true classics.