Evening star., 1935-01-21
BY E. de S. MELCHER.

II Il uC % 2NAAASAAA@ASs
W w ATS off to Paramount, to the
| Bengal Lancers, to Gary
Cooper, Franchot Tone and
4 i Sir Guy Standing! To the
four years that were sup
poSedly taken to make this picture, to
the SO days it actually took! Hats oil
to Rudyard Kipling, whose yarns OF
India supplied much of its back
ground, to Yeats-Brown, who wrote
the book, Lives of a Bengal Lancer"
to the cameraman who chose q spot
in California that really looks like
India. To that cobra which sits on
its haunches while Tone pipes away
in his face To the donkeyS and the
camels, and the muskets and the tur-
bans, the "feZS" and the dancing girls,
the tropics and the British lion. To
the train that brings Richard Crom-
we'll into all that trouble. FTo the pigs
that are stuck" and the LancerS' way
of sticking them. To the girl, Kath-
leen Burke, who plays spy, and to her
cause, which gets messed. To the nm
ger nails of Cooper and Tone, who re-
Sist being burned by fire-a cunning
little bit of torture devised in India.
To the spirit of England's officers
and Hollywood's way of not overriding
the flag waving. To Gary CooperS
expert performance. To Franchot
Tones superb performance. To Sir
Guy Standings swell performance. To
Richard Cromwell for those last few
minutes, which caused even stout
hearted Carter Barron to burst into
tears. To the loyalty of mankind and
the spirit of do-or-die. To every man
and woman of those 450 extras. Hats
off in other words to grand picture
Lives of a Bengal Lancer"
X X x
ONCE in every fifth or sixth blue
" moon comes film that needs no
"buts" and "hoWeVerS" and lin spite
of" and so forth. Once in every
blue-moon comes film like David
Copperfield," when a reviewer needs
only to reach for his book Of adjec-
tives to hasten his already-formed
opinion. When, therefore, picture
like Lives of a Bengal Lancer" trotS
close on its heels, it is time to sit
back and remind the public that the
motion-picture business is not such a
child after all-that even if it makes
only one David Coppertleld" and one
Lives of a Bengal Lancer" in a
single year, it will at least have done
its share in good entertainment.
Certainly "Copperfleld' and Lane
er" are the best two films Of the year.
YOU can take three young officers,
put them in a war on the ground,
in the air or on the water formula
number 10 used ever since Beau
GeSte" and Wings and you can
make one of those terrible things full
of heroiSm and sentiment that will
encourage audiences to improve on
their badminton instead of taking to
picture going. We've had hundreds of
them since the word chivalry was first
idealized in Hollywood. And 90 out
of every 100 have been howlingly
unsuccessful.
How, then, Paramount could come
out of such situation with flags
flying and not a trace Of overbaked
heroism. or drolling sentiment is more
than we can see. For Lives of a
Bengal Lancer" has those three
young officers. and they have dis
cipline at their backs, and devo-
ton to a cause before them-and at
the same time they have that con-
f1ict of character-the very young
who is willing but weak, the very old
who is strong but intolerant, the in
between happy-go-lucky sort of
person, who does what he does be-
cause an excellent If superior train
ing at home has taught him that
gentleman should attend to his busi-
ness, even if he is proud and super
cilious in so doing.
The study of these three officers,
plus the stern old warrior (Sir Guy
Standing), who would rather die than
succumb to any sort of emotion
brought about by the arrival of his
son, and who accordingly treats him
like so much dust under his feet (aS
he does the other mem forms the
nucleus for this absorbing, thrilling,
dramatic and super-excellent picture.
X X X X
MUCH has been written about war
fare in HOLLYWOOD. While Ian
Ger" isn't strictly war. the skirmishes