the leading man is my tpye

I am only giving this movie a 1 for the great cast, though I can't imagine what any of them were thinking. This movie was horrible

I think this is a new genre that they're all sort of working their way through it and haven't got all the kinks worked out yet but it's a genre that works for me.

Worth seeing just to witness how winsome it is.

The "king" of the title is the name of Tyrone Powers character a half caste officer who gets mixed up with Indian revolts in 1857 India. A huge sprawling epic made in the way that only old Hollywood could do, this is a rousing, if very stiff and stilted action tale thats all about looking good and being spectacular. Tyrone Power is wonderfully miscast as the hero, a man of action and duty who manages to do what no one else can do. Power is for me at best an adequate actor who only rarely found a role that worked for him. Here he cuts a dashing figure, but he otherwise seems out of place a British officer. I kind of groaned for the first 20 minutes before I gave myself over to the film thanks to its constantly on the go plot which has things moving at a good clip through beautiful landscapes. Very much worth a look, especially on a big screen, its an old style epic of the popcorn munching variety.Between 6 and 7 out of 10

Having been familiar with Talbot Mundy's original source novel via a "Classics Illustrated" comic-book version I had read in the early 1980s (my father still owns a very nice collection of these dating back to his own childhood), it had always seemed strange to me how scarce 20th Century Fox's film version – shot in the prestigious Cinemascope ratio and starring popular movie star Tyrone Power – really was. Over the years, I only recall 2 screenings in my neck of the woods (on Italian and Cable TV) but it was never released on VHS; I suppose that it does get shown on the "Fox Movie Channel" once in a while but there is still no legitimate DVD in sight – despite many lesser Power movies having already made it onto the digital format! Recently, I did come across a copy of that local Cable TV screening of the mid-1990s which, being typically pan-and-scanned, soft-looking and occasionally hazy, betrayed its origins as a VHS-to-DVD transfer! Although I am grateful for the opportunity to finally see it (since I generally lap these exotic adventures up), I have to say that I was surprisingly underwhelmed by the end results. Everybody involved seems to be working below-par somehow: at 39, Power is still handsome enough as the half-caste Captain hero but his romance with the annoying heroine Terry Moore (who was 15 years his junior!) comes off as decidedly unconvincing. The cast is rounded up by a stiff upper-lipped Michael Rennie (as Moore's father and Power's superior), John Justin (playing a foppish, racist Lieutenant and Power's romantic rival) and Guy Rolfe (whose zesty portrayal of villainous Karram Khan – Power's old childhood friend and subsequent mortal enemy – enlivens the film's latter stages). The crew members fare little better, alas: Henry King may have been nominated for a DGA but you would hardly guess it from watching the film; composer Bernard Herrmann does get to slip in a few worthwhile musical passages but the overall score is not up to his usual high standards; Leon Shamroy's Widescreen color cinematography was doubtless spectacular on the big screen but, hampered by the compromised video version I watched, it still was not enough to elevate the film for me. For the record, around the same time I acquired KING OF THE KHYBER RIFLES, John Ford's obscure, earlier film version of the story entitled THE BLACK WATCH (1929), with Victor McLaglen and Myrna Loy, also came my way but, having a ton of the director's movies in my vast collection still unwatched, I will leave that viewing for when I eventually tackle the lot!

While offering many racist undercurrents in portraying imperialism and eastern characters, adventure movies have long satisfied a desire for escape, becoming one of the principal avenues for presenting views of foreign cultures (however warped) and distant lands to curious and receptive audiences. The genre is sufficiently flexible to allow for only a lukewarm endorsement of colonialism or questioning of its political effects, a tradition going back at least to 1928 and the notable production of WHITE SHADOWS OVER THE SOUTH SEAS. However, this theme only became established after World War II, as films began to reflect the crumbling of western empires in Africa and Asia and recognition grew of the pernicious effects of imperialism and its attendant racism. The first major film signpost of these changes was KING OF THE KHYBER RIFLES (1953), set in the Sepoy Mutiny of 1857, a conflict that had rarely been treated in films up to that time. The story centers on a character of Eurasian ancestry, Captain Alan King (Tyrone Power), who falls in love with an English girl, Susan (Terry Moore), the daughter of the outpost's commander, General Maitland (Michael Rennie)--providing an opportunity for exploring racial attitudes in a colonial setting. Focusing on a relationship between a half-caste and a white girl was, in the early 1950s, an original cinematic theme, and KING OF THE KHYBER RIFLES was unique for presenting it in adventure.KING OF THE KHYBER RIFLES explores King's personal difficulties as he tries to find his own social position, living in uneasy suspension between the world of the native and the foreign sahibs, torn between them; only the adventurous experience can resolve his status. Prejudice against King emerges because of his parentage; fellow officers refuse to be billeted in the same quarters, and he is conspicuously not invited to the queen's birthday ball. The stress is not simply on his courage but more on the numerous challenges he must face in daily living. A social outcast at the fort, King is most secure in the home of his adopted father, Hamid Bahra, a Moslem holy man; the picture was originally to end with King returning to Bahra before joining Susan. KING OF THE KHYBER RIFLES has a lone hero and none of the emphasis on military camaraderie, or the careless, Boys' Own tone to be found in such films as GUNGA DIN. Authentic details of Indian atmosphere convey a sense of accuracy, such as the rumors that the cartridges for the new Enfield rifles are greased with pig's fat, simultaneously offending Moslem and Hindu alike. King must use his unique appeal as a fellow native to lead the Khyber Rifles in an attack on Khan's encampment. At the last moment, King's men resolve not to use the rifles but offer to follow him using their knives. The imperial conflict is between men who are sons of India, whether Kurram Khan and his followers or King and the Khyber Rifles. Yet KING OF THE KHYBER RIFLES ultimately evades the question of the desire for Indian independence, through depicting Kurram Khan's leadership as far more ruthless and dictatorial than British rule. King is in a unique position; his half-caste status, negotiating between British and Indian with a knowledge of both, enables a British victory, establishing not just his equality within the fort but also his eligibility to marry Susan. The British outpost offers the hero the only world where his merits can win recognition, partaking of both sides of his ancestry by following in his father's military footsteps. King's birthplace and home are India, not England, and though he may serve the British, he does so for the distinction such duty may bring through association with a respected unit like the Khyber Rifles. King secures greater respect than is accorded to white officers like Maitland. While utilizing many of the incidents and motifs of THE LIVES OF A BENGAL LANCER, THE CHARGE OF THE LIGHT BRIGADE, GUNGA DIN, and other such movies, KING OF THE KHYBER RIFLES also sums them up, providing both a commentary and a decisive new turn. KING OF THE KHYBER RIFLES brings Indians to the forefront, honoring the native traditions while still treating heroes and villains according to standardized genre patterns. While clearly an adventure of colonial India in the classical mode, KING OF THE KHYBER RIFLES represents a fundamental shift to an awareness of its own conventions, allowing the film to be watched today more easily than many other adventures of a similar vintage. KING OF THE KHYBER RIFLES was the fourth picture shot in Twentieth Century-Fox's new widescreen process, CinemaScope, and it was widely acclaimed as the the first picture whose action fully justified use of the anamorphic lens. Fox's directing "King" was assigned to it: Henry King, a sixty-seven year old veteran whose career stretched back to the teens, and was a personal favorite of Zanuck as well as a close friend of leading star Tyrone Power. Power, tired of playing action roles, disliked KING OF THE KHYBER RIFLES, and by then was more interested in unusual, challenging character roles. Unfortunately, Zanuck wanted to use Terry Moore, who was already under contract, as the leading lady, a role she sought assiduously despite being completely miscast in the part. Zanuck was enthusiastic about shooting KING OF THE KHYBER RIFLES in Lone Pine, and Henry King agreed that a location trip to India was unnecessary, and the California locale substituted so well that many reviewers believed that at least portions of the picture had been shot in India. Producer Frank Rosenberg selected Bernard Herrmann to write the score, hoping for and receiving something more exotic and less intrusive than the type of martial music Alfred Newman had written for previous Henry King-Tyrone Power adventure films at Fox. KING OF THE KHYBER RIFLES was widely touted as Fox's Christmas release, becoming a box-office hit, and it is still popular on television.

Henry King directed Tyrone Power in ll pictures (This one was number nine) beginning with "Lloyds of London," which first shot the young actor to stardom... King directed many of Power's best pictures including "In Old Chicago," "Alexander's Ragtime Band," "Jesse James," "The Black Rose," "Captain From Castile" and "Prince of Foxes"...Power was a great actor able to star in everything from Musicals and Westerns to historical epics and swashbucklers... He was originally meant to do the first CinemaScope film, "The Robe" in 1953, but ended up with "The King of the Khyber Rifles" instead.Power gives adequate performance as Alan King, a half-caste British army captain charging around the hills of India with courage and pride... He crushes a rebel uprising led by a boyhood friend, and engages in a fight-to-the-death... He struggles up and down rocky cliffs of the Himalayan Mountain Ranges and romances his commanding officer's daughter... all against the backdrop of a legendary Indian Mutiny (also called Sepoy Mutiny)Michael Rennie is cast as the tall Brigadier General Maitland who judges King (Tyrone Power) by his special qualifications, appointing him commander of the Khyber Riflemen... Rennie's pretty daughter Susan (Terry Moore) finds herself attracted to the handsome captain, causing a rivalry between King and Lieutenant Heath (John Justin), the officer who spread the news about King's mixed racial descent...Guy Rolfe is the ruthless Karram Khan, a rebel who tries to end the British rule... He warns King: "Last night you spare my life, now I return the gesture. But we will meet again and when we do, there will be no hesitation."The most dramatic moment of the motion picture is the spearing to death of four helpless British captives tied to a long wooden mast, waiting in fear to be executed by Khan's men... Power is also fastened, expecting the same fate, to be thrust in the chest by a deadly weapon... The film, spectacularly directed by a sure-handed craftsman, is sufficiently picturesque with bright and shining landscapes, very entertaining with an alarming storm and a rousing climax in which Power leads a furious assault filling the giant CinemaScope screen with impressive action sequences...