Zarak | |
---|---|
Directed by | Terence Young |
Written by | Richard Maibaum |
Based on | The Story of Zarak Khan 1949 novel by A. J. Bevan |
Produced by | Irving Allen Albert R. Broccoli |
Starring | Victor Mature Michael Wilding Anita Ekberg |
Cinematography | Ted Moore John Wilcox |
Edited by | Clarence Kolster |
Music by | William Alwyn |
Color process | Technicolor |
Production company | |
Distributed by | Columbia Pictures |
Release dates |
|
Running time | 96 minutes |
Countries | United Kingdom United States [1] |
Language | English |
Box office | $1.4 million (US rentals) [2] |
Zarak is a 1956 CinemaScope adventure film based on the 1949 book The Story of Zarak Khan by A.J. Bevan. It was directed by Terence Young with assistance from John Gilling and Yakima Canutt. Set in the Northwest Frontier (though filmed in Morocco), the film stars Victor Mature, Michael Wilding and Anita Ekberg and features Patrick McGoohan in a supporting role.
Zarak Khan is the son of a chief who is caught embracing one of his father's wives, Salma. Zarak's father sentences both to torture and death but they are saved by an imam. The exiled Zarak becomes a bandit chief and an enemy of the British Empire.
The film is based on a 1950 book written by A. J. Bevan that contained a foreword by field marshal William Slim. [3] According to Bevan, the real Zarak Khan was an Afghan who spent most of his life fighting the British in the northwest frontier in the 1920s and 1930s. Among his crimes was the murder of a holy man. He eventually surrendered and was sentenced to life imprisonment in the Andaman Islands. However, when the Japanese occupied the islands, he remained in his cell.
Khan was eventually dealt a suspended sentence and worked for the British in Burma. In 1943 he was leading a patrol when its British officer was killed in an ambush. He watched another British patrol attacked by the Japanese and sent messengers to summon a Gurkha force. To stop the Japanese from escaping with their prisoners before the Gurkhas arrived, he attacked them singlehandedly and killed or wounded six soldiers before being overpowered. He refused to be beheaded and insisted on being flayed alive to buy time to enable the Gurkhas to arrive. [4]
Warwick Films bought the film rights in 1953. Producer Irving Allen said he was more interested in the character of Zarak Khan than in the events described in the book. He was contemplating changing Khan's nationality in order to offer the role to Errol Flynn, [5] but he eventually decided to make the film a fictional account set in the 19th century. [6] Regular Warwick writer Richard Maibaum wrote the script. [7]
Filming begin Morocco on 1 November 1955 with Yakima Canutt in charge of the second unit. Victor Mature, under a two-picture deal with Warwick, [8] joined the production on 19 November. [9]
Ted Moore, who handled some of the Technicolor/CinemaScope photography, later performed similar work on the early James Bond films, and art director John Box and costume designer Phyllis Dalton later won Oscars for their work on Doctor Zhivago . Richard Maibaum, who adapted A. J. Bevan's novel, went on to adapt such Ian Fleming novels as Dr. No , From Russia, with Love and Goldfinger . Director Terence Young and coproducer Albert R. Broccoli went on to perform the same roles for the early Bond films.
Stuntman Bob Simmons, who performed and doubled several stars in the film, noted that Mature refused to ride a horse. When his stunt double Jack Keely was killed in a horse accident on the set, Mature insisted on personally paying for his funeral. [10]
The popular chanteuse Yana sang her hit song "Climb Up the Wall" in the film. [11]
Studio work took place at Elstree Studios. [12]
The original film poster was criticised by the House of Lords for "bordering on the obscene" and was banned in the United Kingdom. [13]
The action sequences reappeared in John Gilling's The Bandit of Zhobe (1958) and The Brigand of Kandahar (1965). The film was remade in India as Zarak Khan (1963), starring Paidi Jairaj and Chitra. [14]
Patrick Joseph McGoohan was an Irish-American actor of film, television, and theatre. Born in New York City to Irish parents, he was raised in Ireland and England. He began his career in England during the 1950s and became well known for the titular role of secret agent John Drake in the ITC espionage programme Danger Man (1960–1968). He then created, produced, and starred as former British intelligence agent Number Six in the surrealistic ITV series The Prisoner (1967–1968).
Victor John Mature was an American stage, film, and television actor who was a leading man in Hollywood during the 1940s and 1950s. His best known film roles include One Million B.C. (1940), My Darling Clementine (1946), Kiss of Death (1947), Samson and Delilah (1949), and The Robe (1953). He also appeared in many musicals opposite such stars as Rita Hayworth and Betty Grable.
Enos Edward "Yakima" Canutt was an American champion rodeo rider, actor, stuntman, and action director. He developed many stunts for films and the techniques and technology to protect stuntmen in performing them.
Kerstin Anita Marianne Ekberg was a Swedish actress active in American and European films, known for her beauty and curvaceous figure. She became prominent in her iconic role as Sylvia in the Federico Fellini film La Dolce Vita (1960). Ekberg worked primarily in Italy, where she became a permanent resident in 1964.
Stewart Terence Herbert Young was a British film director and screenwriter who worked in the United Kingdom, Europe and Hollywood. He is best known for directing three James Bond films: the first two films in the series, Dr. No (1962) and From Russia with Love (1963), and Thunderball (1965). His other films include the Audrey Hepburn thrillers Wait Until Dark (1967) and Bloodline (1979), the historical drama Mayerling (1968), the infamous Korean War epic Inchon (1981), and the Charles Bronson films Cold Sweat (1970), Red Sun (1971), and The Valachi Papers (1972).
The Cockleshell Heroes is a 1955 British Technicolor war film with Trevor Howard, Anthony Newley, Christopher Lee, David Lodge and José Ferrer, who also directed. The film depicts a heavily fictionalised version of Operation Frankton, the December 1942 raid on German cargo shipping by British Royal Marines Commandos, who infiltrated Bordeaux Harbour using folding kayaks.
Richard Maibaum was an American film producer, playwright and screenwriter best known for his screenplay adaptations of Ian Fleming's James Bond novels.
Ted Moore, BSC was a South African-British cinematographer known for his work on seven of the James Bond films in the 1960s and early 1970s. He won the Academy Award for Best Cinematography for his work on Fred Zinnemann's A Man for All Seasons, and two BAFTA Awards for Best Cinematography for A Man for All Seasons and From Russia with Love.
Euan Lloyd was a British film producer.
The Red Beret is a 1953 British-American war film directed by Terence Young and starring Alan Ladd, Leo Genn and Susan Stephen.
Warwick Films was a film company founded by film producers Irving Allen and Albert R. Broccoli in London in 1951. The name was taken from the Warwick Hotel in New York City where Broccoli and his wife were staying at the time of the final negotiations for the company's creation. Their films were released by Columbia Pictures.
Interpol is a 1957 British-American CinemaScope crime film noir directed by John Gilling and starring Victor Mature, Anita Ekberg, Trevor Howard, Bonar Colleano and Sidney James. The screenplay was by John Paxton, based on the 1955 non-fiction book Interpol, about the agency, by A.J. Forrest. The film was produced by Irving Allen and Albert R. Broccoli for Warwick Films.
Chief Crazy Horse is a 1955 American CinemaScope Western film directed by George Sherman and starring Victor Mature, Suzan Ball and John Lund. The film is a fictionalized biography of the Lakota Sioux Chief Crazy Horse. It was also known as Valley of Fury.
Killers of Kilimanjaro is a 1959 British CinemaScope adventure film directed by Richard Thorpe and starring Robert Taylor, Anthony Newley, Anne Aubrey and Donald Pleasence for Warwick Films.
Safari is a 1956 British CinemaScope adventure film directed by Terence Young and set during the Mau Mau Uprising in Kenya. It stars Victor Mature, Janet Leigh, Roland Culver, John Justin, and Earl Cameron, and was intentionally cast to attract an American audience—both the hero and the lead female character are Americans, played by American actors.
The Long Haul is a 1957 British drama film directed and written by Ken Hughes and starring Victor Mature, Diana Dors and Patrick Allen. It is based on the novel The Long Haul by Mervyn Mills.
Istanbul is a 1957 American CinemaScope film noir crime film directed by Joseph Pevney, and starring Errol Flynn and Cornell Borchers. It is a remake of the film Singapore, with the location of the action moved to Turkey. The plot involves an American pilot who becomes mixed up with various criminal activities in Istanbul.
Timbuktu is a 1959 American black-and-white adventure film directed by Jacques Tourneur and starring Victor Mature and Yvonne De Carlo. It is set in Timbuktu (Africa), but was filmed in the Coral Pink Sand Dunes State Park in Kanab, Utah.
The Bandit of Zhobe is a 1959 British CinemaScope adventure film directed by John Gilling and starring Victor Mature, Anne Aubrey and Anthony Newley. In British India a bandit goes on a rampage in the mistaken belief that the British have killed his family, which later proves to not be the case. It was produced by Albert Broccoli for Warwick Films and features extensive use of footage from Gilling's previous Zarak.
No Time to Die is a 1958 British war film directed by Terence Young and starring Victor Mature, Leo Genn, Anthony Newley and Bonar Colleano. It is about an American sergeant in the British Army during the Second World War.
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