North West Frontier

North West Frontier

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Editorial Reviews

Studio: Tcfhe/mgm Release Date: 05/12/2009 Run time: 129 minutes Rating: Nr

Customer Reviews

Memory Lane for me, but it brought back all the excitement and adventure ! Excellent movie.

Reviewed by Book N Movie Buff, 2009-10-24

I remember seeing this as a kid in the movie theatre. It kept me on the edge of my seat as I recall. In watching it again at home, it was almost as exciting as the first time I saw it. Strong cast, good story and the tension was terrific. Some of the things said in that film, could easily apply to that part of the world today (sad we haven't progressed much). An exciting and riveting movie!

Well Done

Reviewed by W.K.R., 2009-10-08



Grateful for quick delivery and fine packaging.

Great picture

Reviewed by James D. Crabtree, 2009-08-27

Set in 1905, this movie portrays the adventures of a group of westerners attempting to escape an Indian city under seige by Muslim insurgents. They have a young prince with them, who is the key to keeping one of the kingdoms aligned to the British Empire.

The movie is fun and reminds me of the British films I used to watch in Alaska when I was a kid (for some reason we always got English movies set in the jungle or the desert). The players in North West Frontier did an excellent job (led by Bacall), and this was as true for the leads as it was for the supporting cast. As far as the writing was concerned, there was quite a bit of plot twists and other devices (including a potential traitor!) and it made for great entertainment. Historically it seemed like a realistic portrayal of life in India at the beginning of the 20th C., although this is not an area of emphasis for me.

Excellent, Old-Fashioned Adventure

Reviewed by Dan Day, 2009-05-30

Northwest Frontier is a film not too many people are familar with. I had never seen the film myself before ordering it on DVD. As a fan of classic war & historical films, I can say that the film exceeded my expectations. The story is set in 1905. It involves an English captain (Kenneth More) who has to take a 5 year old Hindu prince to safety and away from the Muslim rebels who have killed the prince's father. More's only means of travel is a old locomotive through hostile territory. This movie is filled with great action sequences, capably helmed by director J. Lee Thompson (who also directed The Guns Of Navarone). What's great about films like this is that they were filmed on real locations, using actual props (such as a real train) and they have a texture and realism about them that modern films cannot match. There is no CGI, no dumb teenagers, and no smart-aleck one-liners in this film. This DVD is presented in anomorphic 2:35 widescreen and the print looks stunning for a fifty-year old film. Also stunning is Lauren Bacall, who plays the governess of the young prince.Her character was obviously added to the film to give it a romantic angle, but Bacall brings her typical independent attitude to the role to make it more than just a token female. Also deserving kudos is I. S Johar, who plays the Indian train engineer. Some veiwers may see the role as a stereotype, but Johar steals the film.
Anyone interested in old-fashioned adventure and in films "that they just don't make anymore", should check out this underrated and well-made picture.

A boy's own adventure, nicely done, with the confident, resourceful and brave Captain Scott (Kenneth More) in charge

Reviewed by C. O. DeRiemer, 2009-05-26

Rebellion is breaking out in India and all that stands in the way of religious and political chaos, not to mention British control, is a six-year-old Hindu prince and the unflagging confidence of Captain Scott (Kenneth More). Charged with bringing the boy safely from a small, fortified hill station to the British base at Kalapur 300 miles away, Captain Scott will need every bit of his resourcefulness, energy, ingenuity and pluck.

The year is 1905 and Muslim tribes in India's north west territories are rising up against the Hindu princes and their British masters. Young prince Kishan is seen as a symbol of order and justice. If the rebels can kill him, there will be uprisings against the British which they may not be able to control. But how to get the prince to Kalapur? The last refugee trains have left and attempting the journey by horseback through enemy territory would be madness. But then Captain Scott remembers there was an old, derelict steam locomotive, The Empress of India, in the train sheds. Could it be put back into service? He calls upon his friend, Gupta (I. S. Johar), who assures him in broken English that his locomotive will not fail Captain Scott and that Gupta, himself, will run it. In a trice Gupta brings needed maintenance to The Empress and Scott finds himself loading an assorted group of passengers onto the only passenger car. There is Lady Wyndham (Ursula Jeans), the governor's wife; Peters (Eugene Deckers), an arms dealer whose weapons now most likely arm the rebels; Mr. Bridie (Wilfred Hyde-White), a diplomat and old India hand; and Van Layden (Herbert Lom), a reporter who has no love for the British. Most importantly, there is the prince and his American governess, Catherine Wyatt (Lauren Bacall). On this desperate journey, Captain Scott and his group of passengers will encounter massacres, the old steam engine's urgent need for water, the hard work of replacing rails, the tense clamber over a blown bridge with only the rails remaining, then the careful driving of the engine across those shifting, sagging rails, and the mass attacks of Muslims on horseback racing to capture the train and the prince. More troubling, Scott discovers that his group harbors a traitor, someone determined to either kill the prince or see that the boy is killed. Only the best traditions of British military leadership, exemplified by the publicly confident but privately worried Captain Scott, plus the vital assistance he receives from a number of the passengers, enable North West Frontier to have a happy ending. For Captain Scott, the ending is even happier. Not only has he fulfilled his mission, it appears that he and Catherine Wyatt will have a future together.

This film is a throwback to the classic movies about the British Empire and the quality of the brave men who made the Empire possible. It's all fiction, of course, but it's greatly entertaining. Films like Drums and The Four Feathers reassured many that the British Empire would always be around and that the men who made it work were...well, gentlemen; that is, dedicated to bringing order, opportunity and justice to the natives as only British gentlemen could, and who always dressed for dinner. While this movie arrived in the theaters as the underside of empire was becoming known, it still tells a cracking good yarn. There is a bit too much exposition, in my opinion, offering justification for and against the Empire's rule in India (and the pro side wins the argument most of the time). It also seemed to me that the villain of the movie is far too easily identified. Still, the movie offers some grand adventures, great scenery, a journey on a steam train, brave derring-do, a typically forceful and optimistic performance by Kenneth More, and a nice reminder of why adventure stories are so much fun.