The Stranglers of Bombay

If the British did accomplish one good thing in India it was getting rid of the strangling cult Thugee. It took years to eradicate them and there are some who would say they've not been completely eradicated. But if India had been another planet and the British were operating under the Prime Directive it would have made for some interesting history.

As it was this particular film, The Stranglers Of Bombay takes place in the early part of the 18th century when India was ruled not by the crown directly, but through the British East India Company. The soldiers you see report to them in London and the idea of course is take care of whatever is slowing down company profits.

Guy Rolfe who has played some really nasty villains in such films as Ivanhoe, Taras Bulba, and King Of The Khyber Rifles is a time serving captain in their army who has spent twenty years in India and is rather steeped in their culture. He's the right man for finding out what's at the bottom of a lot of mysterious disappearances, but Colonel Andrew Cruickshank selects the arrogant and fatuous Allan Cuthbertson, newly arrived in India for the job. Kind of dumb, but if he had given Rolfe a free hand we wouldn't have had much of a film.

Classic movie fans recall Eduardo Ciannelli as the Guru of the Thugs in Gunga Din who had some really ambitious goals for followers. The head of the cult here is far more local and a man not quite of Ciannelli's vision of eradicating the British and sweeping the world for Kali.

There were some plot holes in the script or otherwise I would have given The Stranglers Of Bombay a higher rating. Still it was an unusual subject for Hammer films, no unworldly demons or monsters to deal with, just some very human villainy.