In the 1930's and 1940's
Hollywood mined
much material from popular pulp authors of the
day, not unlike the way studios have been purchasing
the works of comic book and graphic novel authors
today. Pulp writer Talbot Mundy was one such author
who proved a great source for interpretation and
inspiration. Gunga Din
may have been born out of a Rudyard Kipling poem,
nevertheless it contains a large degree of Mundy-inspired
material. And a year before Din,
another film, Storm Over
Bengal, was made in the same setting (shot
at the same Lone Pine, California location) and
told a similarly heroic story of brave soldiers
fighting off a rebellion in British-occupied India.
Storm
Over Bengal packs a two-hour story into
a one-hour film. A British Officer infiltrates
the rebel's lair disguised as an Indian
Holy Man. Their evil scheme discovered, he then
flies to a dying Majarajah, warning him of the
Hillmen's plans. After successfully obtaining
the Rajah's signed permission to allow the
Brits to defend the territory he now must find
a way to alert his fellow officers they are marching
into a trap at the Caves of Kali. Further complicating
the complications is the arrival of his bride-to-be
and his newly enlisted younger brother. Their
characters are not drawn with depth but serve
as emotional backdrop to reinforce the overall
theme of sacrifice for country.
It is a lot of story and a display
of expert craftsmanship to keep the running time
at a single hour while still delivering an exciting
and fun movie. From scene to scene it cracks like
a whip, moving along at an astonishing pace. The
acting is top-notch all around, led by an urgent
Patric Knowles, the sweet-faced Richard Cromwell
as the younger brother and a luminous Rochelle
Hudson. They are all in perfect pitch with the
lightning pace of the piece. There is no room
for indulgence and nothing of the sort attempted.
Whittled down to its bare bones, the story is
tough, with a durable structure capable of having
been molded into any variety of cinematic styles.
For whatever reason, the studio decided to turn
it into a slam-bam action picture and it works
very well. So well, in fact, that it's potential
to have been executed on a more grand scale seems
a missed opportunity.
(Stephen Jared) |