Tempête sur le Bengale

I must admit that I am a fan of all those old movies that were set in India during the days of the British Raj, and this movie, while certainly made as a B programmer, has stayed with me for over 50 years!! I still recall Patric Knowles as the Soldier, with the then lovely Rochelle Hudson as the usual damsel in distress, while the evil Khan played by perennial heavy Douglass Dumbrille - it was a lot of fun, with a cast of well-known faces, with unknown names in supporting roles. One thing that really stuck in my memory was the musical score which I have now discovered was nominated for an Academy Award - very hard to believe for a B film. If you can find this in a DVD or Video store , rent it as you will really enjoy it.

I should point out that the copy of this film I found on archive.org is an abbreviated version...cut down by several minutes, presumably, to make it fit into a TV time slot. Perhaps the full film is a bit better, though I doubt it.

"Storm Over Bengal" is a B-movie which glorifies British colonialism...something which seems rather inexplicable when you see it today. After all, why would Americans want to see a film whose message is 'hurrah for subjugation'? All I know is that these sorts of films were incredibly popular, with films of the era like "Gunga Din", "Lives of a Bengal Lancer" and "Wee Willie Winkle"...and MANY more....all glorifying British control of a third of the planet. And, there were also many similar films extolling the glories of French colonialism, though they tended to be slightly less positive, such as "Beau Geste".

Unfortunately, while the message is strange from these films, "Storm Over Bengal" is inferior to most of these pictures I mentioned above...much of it due to its cast of mostly unknowns as well as its lower budget and lack of the epic quality of the other pictures. However, like most of these other films, its cast of 'natives' are all white folks who look about as Indian as a walking taco! Now don't get me wrong...I am not the most politically correct person out there. But seeing Douglass Dumbrille playing 'Khan', a native chieftan, is ludicrous...and his gorgeous prep school style of talking is nothing like you'd expect in real life.

Overall, this film IS entertaining....and is a decent time-passer. It's just not particularly special nor engaging and is one that you could easily skip and be none the worse for it. Patric Knowles is good in the lead and Dumbrille is a fine actor...just not playing an Indian.