Henry King directed Tyrone Power in ll pictures (This one was number nine) beginning with "Lloyds of London," which first shot the young actor to stardom...
King directed many of Power's best pictures including "In Old Chicago," "Alexander's Ragtime Band," "Jesse James," "The Black Rose," "Captain From Castile" and "Prince of Foxes"...
Power was a great actor able to star in everything from Musicals and Westerns to historical epics and swashbucklers... He was originally meant to do the first CinemaScope film, "The Robe" in 1953, but ended up with "The King of the Khyber Rifles" instead.
Power gives adequate performance as Alan King, a half-caste British army captain charging around the hills of India with courage and pride...
He crushes a rebel uprising led by a boyhood friend, and engages in a fight-to-the-death... He struggles up and down rocky cliffs of the Himalayan Mountain Ranges and romances his commanding officer's daughter... all against the backdrop of a legendary Indian Mutiny (also called Sepoy Mutiny)
Michael Rennie is cast as the tall Brigadier General Maitland who judges King (Tyrone Power) by his special qualifications, appointing him commander of the Khyber Riflemen...
Rennie's pretty daughter Susan (Terry Moore) finds herself attracted to the handsome captain, causing a rivalry between King and Lieutenant Heath (John Justin), the officer who spread the news about King's mixed racial descent...
Guy Rolfe is the ruthless Karram Khan, a rebel who tries to end the British rule... He warns King: "Last night you spare my life, now I return the gesture. But we will meet again and when we do, there will be no hesitation."
The most dramatic moment of the motion picture is the spearing to death of four helpless British captives tied to a long wooden mast, waiting in fear to be executed by Khan's men... Power is also fastened, expecting the same fate, to be thrust in the chest by a deadly weapon...
The film, spectacularly directed by a sure-handed craftsman, is sufficiently picturesque with bright and shining landscapes, very entertaining with an alarming storm and a rousing climax in which Power leads a furious assault filling the giant CinemaScope screen with impressive action sequences...
