bkoganbing Coming out a year after 20th Century Fox's King Of The Khyber Rifles, Bengal Brigade from Universal covered a whole lot of the same ground, but not as well. Bengal Brigade is a story of the Sepoy Rebellion in India during the 19th Century or at least a small portion of it seen from Rock Hudson's corner of India.When we meet Hudson he disobeys orders and leads a troop of men to rescue his own former company that was trapped and being cut to pieces by rebels. For that he gets a court martial and he resigns. That also has the effect of breaking his engagement to Arlene Dahl the daughter of his commander Torin Thatcher. Another officer Dan O'Herlihy who lied about some key points at Hudson's court martial is looking to catch Dahl on the rebound.After leaving the army Hudson starts hearing bits and pieces about a mutiny among the native Sepoy troops. But it comes fast and furious and Hudson along with the rest of the British are soon fighting for their lives.I don't think Bengal Brigade would do too well if it were shown in India today. The Sepoy Rebellion in their history goes down as the first strike for independence from the British Raj. The troops led by Michael Ansara who stay loyal to Hudson because of his identification with them would be regarded in American terms as Uncle Toms today.Ursula Thiess plays a strange role as a Hindu dancer who's got a big old crush on Hudson. It's her reason for betraying her own people and aiding him and the British.King Of The Khyber Rifles was a far better film than Bengal Brigade.

dbdumonteil This "Bengal brigade" is a far cry from Henry Hathaway's classic in the thirties starring Gary Cooper and Franchot Tone ,both more exciting than Rock Hudson -who nevertheless was about to find some of his best parts in Douglas Sirk's great works- Almost twenty years later ,it's the same old song: the British are here to help the Indians ,some of the natives are cruel (like Mohammed Khan in "lives of a Bengal lancer" ) but the moral remains:both her majesty's soldiers and the Indians have got to walk hand in hand and to become brothers.Rock Hudson portrays an officer forced to resign after an unfair trial.Will he betray his queen and country?He is helped by beautiful Latah (Ursula Thiess);actually ,without her,he would be defeated.Arlene Dahl is only decorative ,as the colonel's daughter. It lacks humor,panache ,excitement,magic ,poetry ,all that made Hathaway's movie a classic of the adventures movie,in spite of its reactionary side.

lorenellroy The most surprising thing about this movie is that it was directed by Laslo Benedek ,a man associated with the more serious end of the movie market -as per Death of a Salesman and the Brando vehicle The Wild One .It is set in the year 1856 in British India ,more specifically on the North West Frontier .Rock Hudson is improbably cast as a British army Captain who is tried ,convicted and forced to resign his commission for disobeying the orders of a senior officer even though by doing so he was responsible for the capture of a key rebel stronghold .He becomes a big game hunter but continues to be devoted to the British cause and infiltrates a group of rebels plotting to overthrow the Raj .In between all these distractions he manages to make time to woo Vivian Morrow(Arlene Dahl)the daughter of the regimental commander Colonel Morrow (Tobin Thatcher) Hudson is miscast but battles valiantly with the role ,Dahl is merely decorative as is Ursula Thiess . The best performances -mostly because they are better cast-are given by Thatcher and Dan O'Herlihy as British soldiersThis is a good co-feature movie and will be enjoyed by lovers of the old style "ripping yarn

TrevorLupus A thoroughly enjoyable story. Rock Hudson is cashiered from the Regiment for disobeying a direct order, in order to save his men from slaughter. He is still loyal to the Raj and ultimately his loyalty to his men is returned to him in the last exciting action scene when India is in the throws of the Mutiny. Excellent action scenes and characterisations make this a movie well worth watching.