Click here to return to the main site.

DVD Review


DVD cover

The Brigand of Kandahar (1965)

 

Starring: Ronald Lewis, Oliver Reed, Duncan Lamont and Yvonne Romain
Studiocanal
RRP: £15.99
OPTD2427
Certificate: PG
Available 16 January 2012


In the wild lands of northern India, Lieutenant Case suffers the full institutional racism of the British army. He is court martialled, not for the official line, abandoning his commanding officer in an act of cowardice, but for the fact that as a half-cast he had the temerity to be the lover of the dead officer's wife. Escaping to the brigands, Case turns his back on the British Army to become the Brigand of Kandahar...

The Brigand of Kandahar (1965 - 1 hr, 18 min, 13 sec) is one of the lesser seen film from Hammer Film productions, written and directed by Hammer stalwart John Gilling. Unfortunately there is a reason why this is not seen very often.

Although, fuelled with boys-own daring-do, even the pilfered action sequences could not save this poorly scripted and even more poorly acted film. Not that director and writer Gilling wasn’t making strides in ensuring his narratives were more complex. The Scarlet Blade, although in many ways the superior film, had very one dimensional characters at its centre. Here, Case and his nemesis, Colonel Drewe (Duncan Lamont) are closer to each other than either would like to admit, with shifting loyalties and decisions made from anger and prejudice; Gilling brought richer layers to his characters.

That is not to say that some of the actors didn’t go completely over the top with their portrayal and oddly the worse contender in this film is Oliver Reed as the half-mad Ali Khan, leader of the rebels. Reeds idea is to strut around in garish rented clothing incongruously laughing in an uncharacteristic and unrealistic way, me thinks I smell ham.

Ronald Lewis is fairly good as Case, though he neither looks or sounds like a half-cast Indian, but then this was made in a time when it was thought okay to black up a little to portray other cultures. Working to the Gilling formula, there is of course a love interest in the form of Yvonne Romain as Ratina.

The remastered film has a 2.0 mono audio track and the picture is pretty good for a film of this age. There are no extras, but there are subtitles for the hard of hearing.

So, a great one for fans of Hammer films as this is rarely seen, unfortunately this is because it is, at best, an average romp.

5

Charles Packer

Buy this item online


We compare prices online so you get the cheapest deal
Click on the logo of the desired store below to purchase this item.


banner
£9.99 (Amazon.co.uk)
   
banner
£9.99 (Play.com)
   
banner
£9.99 (HMV.com)
   
banner
£12.97 (Tesco.com)

All prices correct at time of going to press.