The Bengal Lancers!
| The Bengal Lancers! | |
|---|---|
| Directed by | Stephen Weeks |
| Written by | Lorenzo Semple Jr Stephen Weeks |
| Starring | Michael York |
| Cinematography | Walter Lassally |
| Country | UK |
| Language | English |
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The Bengal Lancers! is a 1984 British film. It was abandoned during filming due to insufficient finance.[1]
Cast[edit]
- Michael York as Captain Walberton
- Emma Burdon-Sutton as Ennis Moore
- Miles O'Keefe as Flynn
- Christopher Lee as Sir James Hunter
- Trevor Howard as Uncle George
- Ronald Lacey as Monsieur Yves
- Mahmud Sipra as Prince Khalil
Production[edit]
In 1980 it was reported that the Rank Film Organisation were going to finance to movie but pulled out.[2] Part of the finance came from businessman Mahmud Sipra who had invested in The Jigsaw Man and was later arrested for fraud.[3]
Michael York said he was cast in the film because he was spending Christmas in India, went to visit director Stephen Weeks, who was an old friend, just as Week's lead actor had become unavailable. York got the job.[4] Miles O'Keefe had previously appeared in Sword of the Valiant directed by Weeks.
Filming began in Jodphur, India. Rushes were processed in London at a Technicolor laboratory. According to Weeks, the first few weeks proceeded smoothly but then he received a report that the rushes from the film were "all out of focus and unusable".[1] Filming was halted in order to enable new cameras to be sent from Britain. However James Swann, one of the financiers, fired Stephen Weeks.[1]
Weeks later alleged that a duplicate crew was assembled for a second film, The Khyber Horse, which was to be made by James Swann and starring Sipra; Weeks says the film was clearly inspired by The Bengal Lancers and that when he later saw the rushes in London they were not out of focus. The film collapsed when Sipra had financial difficulties. Swann claimed $2 million from an insurance company. Weeks sued Swann.[1]
The film's production was later the subject of a documentary on Radio 4 in 1997 in which Weeks said he was the victim of insurance fraud during the making of the movie.[5]
In a 2014 interview Weeks again said "an enormous insurance fraud" was committed during the making of the film and "it took me until 1995 to recover from Technicolor trying to steal the film that was shot, bankrupt my company, steal my house – all to cover up the fact that the Technical Director of the lab had been bribed to sent false rushes reports to us in India!"[6]
References[edit]
- ↑ 1.0 1.1 1.2 1.3 Blackhurst, Chris (10 January 1993). "Legal lancers ride into battle over epic film". Independent.
- ↑ FINANCE FOR LOCAL TALENT Perry, Simon. Sight and Sound; London Vol. 49, Iss. 3, (Summer 1980): 144.
- ↑ Arrest in Johnson Matthey case Blackhurst, Chris. The Independent 16 Nov 1997: 1.
- ↑ Jones, Matt (29 January 1984). "York is swashbuckling again". Star Tribune Minnesota. p. 202.
- ↑ "Radio". The Guardian. 13 November 1997. p. 53.
- ↑ "STEPHEN WEEKS: GAWAIN CONNERY CANNON AND AVALON: INTERVIEW PART TWO". Peter Cushing Appreciation Society. 17 July 2014.
External links[edit]
- The Bengal Lancers! at the British Film Institute
- The Bengal Lancers! on IMDb Search this movie on
- The Bengal Lancers at Letterbox DVD
- Scenes from the film at YouTube
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