THE BRIGAND OF KANDAHAR - 1965 **

Directed by John Gilling. Starring Ronald Lewis, Oliver Reed, Duncan Lamont, Yvonne Romain, Katherine Woodville. Action/adventure, UK, 78 mins, cert PG.

Released in the UK on DVD by Studiocanal on January 16th, RRP £15.99.

Another Hammer Classics release from Studiocanal, THE BRIGAND OF KANDAHAR is an adventure film set in Afghanistan. Half Indian British officer Lt. Case (Lewis) is arrested for cowardice on trumped up charges. Broken out of jail by a local warlord Eli Khan (a manic Oliver Reed having a ball), Case joins his rebels to gain revenge. Of course being a Hammer film there are a few women involved, Case’s disgrace is tied into racist attitudes to his affair with an english woman (Woodville), and Khan has a scheming sister nursing a grudge and a heaving bosom (Romain).

An interesting film from a historical perspective, the film portrays the British Officers as villainous, but can’t quite get behind the rebels. This means it is pretty hard to work out where audience sympathies should lie. Perhaps aware of this John Gilling introduces one morally upstanding journalist character, something else that would be unlikely now.

There are some large scale battle scenes, if the absence of any characters from the drama seems strange it shouldn’t as they are actually outtakes from 1956 Terrence Young film called ZARAK.

Stuart Barr.

GORE IN THE STORE
REVIEWS BY FANS FOR FANS
5 STAR FAB - 1 STAR RUBBISH