Keep looking at me. It helps to keep my soul from flying off.
Hello to all of the classic people that are returning. I am glad you are back. I want to welcome any new visitors. Today on Classic Movie Review, we are taking on The Man Who Would Be King (1975).
I’m going to say it now. I love this movie and have loved it since I first viewed it in the mid-1970s mist. This movie has a disgustingly low 7.3 rating[1] on iMDB.com. The film has a much more accurate measure on Rottentomatoes.com with 97 percent on the Tomatometer and 90 Audience approval[2].
New York Times film critic Vincent Canby stated on December 18, 1975:
“In marvelous old movies like ‘Lives of the Bengal Lancers’ and ‘Gunga Din,’ this world is very far removed and terribly romantic, as it still is in John Huston’s highly entertaining new film, ‘The Man Who Would Be King,’ based on the short story by Rudyard Kipling.
It’s neither a silly update of an entertainment designed for pre-World War II Saturday-afternoon America, nor is it one of those films that are wise with hindsight about earlier eras, like John Milius’s ‘The Wind and the Lion.’
But this really isn’t what ‘The Man Who Would Be King’ is about. It’s a tall tale, a legend, of steadfastness, courage, camaraderie, gallantry and greed, though not necessarily in that order.
Not in a very long while has Mr. Huston, who wrote the screenplay with Gladys Hill and also directed the film, been so successfully lighthearted and so consistently in command of his subject.
Christopher Plummer also gives the film weight in the role of the young Rudyard Kipling who, as a newspaperman in India, participates in the beginning and the end of the story. Supporting the stars are Saeed Jaffrey, as a sort of glib Gunga Din character, who always begins a tale of woe by saying ‘oh me, by jove, alas,’ as if it were one word, and Shakira Caine (Mrs. Michael Caine), who plays an exotic heathen beauty. [3]
The great Roger Ebert said in a January 1, 1975, four-star review:
John Huston’s ‘The Man Who Would Be King’ is swashbuckling adventure, pure and simple, from the hand of a master. It’s unabashed and thrilling and fun. The movie invites comparison with the great action films like ‘Gunga Din’ and ‘Mutiny on the Bounty,’ and with Huston’s own classic ‘The Treasure of the Sierra Madre’: We get strong characterizations, we get excitement, we even get to laugh every once in a while.
The action epics of the last twenty years seem to have lost their sense of humor; it’s as if once the budget goes over five million dollars, directors think they have to be deadly serious. ‘Lawrence of Arabia’ was a great movie, but introspective and solemn, and efforts such as ‘Doctor Zhivago’ and ‘War and Peace’ never dared to smile. Huston’s movie isn’t like that. It reflects his personality and his own best films; it’s open, sweeping, and lusty — and we walk out feeling exhilarated.
The movie proceeds with impossible coincidences, untold riches, romances and betrayals, and heroic last words and — best of all — some genuinely witty scenes between Connery and Caine, and when it’s over we haven’t learned a single thing worth knowing and there’s not even a moral, to speak of, but we’ve had fun. It’s great that someone still has the gift of making movies like this; even Huston, after thirty years, must have wondered whether he still knew how.[4]
Actors – The Man Who Would Be King (1975)
Returning
Saeed Jaffrey was outstanding in the role of Gurkha fighter Billy Fish. Jaffrey was first covered in The Razor’s Edge (1984).
New
Sean Connery played Daniel Dravot, the man who would be a king. Connery was born in 1930 in Scotland. Connery’s parents were working-class, being a cleaning lady and factory worker. At 16, Connery joined the Royal Navy. However, he was medically discharged later due to an ulcer. During this period, he had numerous jobs, including bricklayer, coffin polisher, milkman, a nude model at Edinburgh College of Art, and as a bodybuilder, placing third in the Mr. Universe contest in the tall man division. At age 23, he had to choose between playing professional soccer or going into acting. He made the right choice.
The first movie I remember seeing Connery in was Darby O’Gill and the Little People (1959), where he sung, then came his first Bond role, Dr. No (1962), he was required to be in The Longest Day (1962), then back to Bond with From Russia with Love (1963), Goldfinger (1964), then Marnie (1964), and military sadist drama The Hill (1965), back to Bond with Thunderball (1965), and You Only Live Twice (1967), then Irish political intrigue with The Molly Maguires (1970), back to Bond with Diamonds Are Forever (1971), who-done-it Murder on the Orient Express (1974), one of the worst movies ever, Zardoz (1974), followed by one of the greatest, The Man Who Would Be King (1975), a major leading role opposite Candice Bergen in The Wind and the Lion (1975), Robin and Marian (1976), with Audrey Hepburn, the great anti-war film A Bridge Too Far (1977), another stinker Meteor (1979), cult favorite Time Bandits (1981), an non-canonical Bond film, Never Say Never Again (1983), he was great as swordsman Ramirez in Highlander (1986), a medieval detective monk in The Name of the Rose (1986), one of my personal favorites The Untouchables (1987) where he won the Best Support Actor Oscar, heist film Family Business (1989), resurrected the Indiana Jones franchise in Indiana Jones and the Last Crusade (1989), made us fear the Russians again in The Hunt for Red October (1990), unfortunately he was in Highlander II: The Quickening (1991), had a small cameo in Robin Hood: Prince of Thieves (1991), performed well in Medicine Man (1992), romping around the jungle with Lorraine Bracco, solving a murder in Rising Sun (1993), playing a noble, but too old king in First Knight (1995), opposite Julie Ormond, adventure film The Rock (1996), playing a master thief in Entrapment (1999), with Katherine Zeta-Jones, and the not too good The League of Extraordinary Gentlemen (2003).
Connery is now retired. He has been knighted and voted the sexist man alive. So, I would say he has had a good run.
Michael Caine played the loveable rouge Peachy Carnehan. Caine was born in England in 1933. His mother was a wash lady, and his father handled fish. Caine left school when he was 15 years old. He eventually joined the British Army and saw combat during the Korean Conflict.
When Caine returned to civilian life, he became interested in theater. He was a prolific actor on English television. He worked in stock companies and eventually was very successful in the theater. Caine had a strong Cockney accent and often wore glasses. None the less he made it into movies. His first film was Hell in Korea (1956), followed by the really bad The Day the Earth Caught Fire (1961), the Zulu (1964) along with every other British actor, and the heartbreaking role of Alfie (1966), where he was nominated for a Best Actor Oscar. These last two films made him a star. In Great Britain, at this time, Caine, Connery, Hoskins, and others wrestled the acting professional from the upper classes.
Caine has been in a lot of movies, remember the Caine Hackman thesis from PCU (1994), some good and some bad. He like most UK actors was in Battle of Britain (1969), the crime drama The Italian Job (1969), Get Carter (1971), Sleuth (1973), where he was nominated for a Best Actor Oscar again, he was amazing as Peachy in The Man Who Would Be King (1975), The Eagle Has Landed (1976), a funny military commander in A Bridge Too Far (1977), one of the worst movies ever, The Swarm (1978), a movie that got panned, Dressed to Kill (1980), but I remember is as pretty good, it was also a Razzie winner, another that got panned, The Island (1980), and a second Razzie, but I liked it, a silly premises, Victory (1981), the very good Deathtrap (1982), where he had to mouth kiss Christopher Reeves, Educating Rita (1983), which is a fun, loving, and uplifting film, for which Caine was nominated for a best actor Oscar, Blame it on Rio (1984) where he played a leach having an affair with his friends daughter, Hannah and Her Sisters (1986) which landed him a Best Supporting actor Oscar, Sweet Liberty (1986), one of the funniest history based movies ever, the very funny Dirty Rotten Scoundrels (1988), On Deadly Ground (1994) where Caine was the bad guy and Steven Seagal was the good guy, The Cider House Rules (1999) where he landed a Best Supporting actor Oscar, he was outrageously funny in Miss Congeniality (2000), perfect as the father of Austin Powers in Goldmember (2002), The Quiet American (2003) which landed a Best Supporting actor Oscar nomination, Secondhand Lions (2003) which should leave you crying, Batman Begins (2005), The Dark Knight (2008), Gnomeo & Juliet (2011) voice work, The Dark Knight Rises (2012), the utterly terrible Now You See Me (2013), a unhappy space adventure, Interstellar (2014), a bit in Kingsman: The Secret Service (2014), Now You See Me 2 (2016) never saw it, and old age buddy tail Going in Style (2017). Still working, what a man, what a mighty-mighty man.
Christopher Plummer played the famous writer Rudyard Kipling. Plummer was born in Canada in 1929. While in school, Plummer began training to be a concert pianist. He began acting while still in high school. Plummer attended Montreal Repertory Theatre to learn his craft.
Plummer began acting professionally in 1948 and made his Broadway debut in 1953. Plummer became a renowned Shakespearean actor on the stage. In 1958, Plummer was a significant character in a strange film titled Wind Across the Everglades (1958). The movie had Burl Ives as the water moccasin-carrying bad guy. Plummer became well known as the anti-Nazi Captain Von Trapp in The Sound of Music (1965).
Although he was not initially a star, he arrived at the right time to work in war movies such as Triple Cross (1966), The Night of the Generals (1967), Battle of Britain (1969), Waterloo (1970), The Day That Shook the World (1975), Aces High (1976), and Hanover Street (1979).
The two films that bring Plummer to my mind are The Man Who Would Be King (1975), where he was in the role of writer and poet Rudyard Kipling, and Star Trek VI: The Undiscovered Country (1991), where he played Klingon warrior Chang.
In the interest of time, I will highlight a few more of Plummer’s movies. These films include Cleopatra (1963), The Silent Partner (1978), International Velvet (1978), Murder by Decree (1979), Dreamscape (1984), An American Tail (1986), The Insider (1999), Dracula 2000 (2000) as a Van Helsing, A Beautiful Mind (2001), Alexander (2004), National Treasure (2004), The Last Station (2009), Beginners (2010), The Tempest (2010), and The Girl with the Dragon Tattoo (2011). Plummer had numerous films between 2011 and 2021, but I am not familiar with any of them. He has a film that will come out in 2021, but he died earlier this year at 91.
Shakira Caine, the wife of Michael Caine, played the alluring Roxanne. Shakira was born in 1947 in British Guiana. In 1967, she won the Miss. Guyana pageant. Shakira placed third in the Miss. World contest. She began acting in film in 1969 and was confined to minor roles. Shakira married Michael Caine in 1973 and had her best-known role in The Man Who Would Be King (1975).
Story – The Man Who Would Be King (1975)
The movie begins in Lahore, British India, in 1885. Cobra charmers and all sorts of exotic activities are shown in the street.
In the office of The Northern Star Newspaper, reporter Rudyard Kipling (Christopher Plummer) is working late into the night on a poem he is composing. In the streets, a limping man, wearing rags, and a turban, shuffles towards the newspaper office. The man makes it inside and startles Kipling. The man asks Brother Kipling for a drink in the first of many Masonic references. He eventually reveals himself to be the broken shell of the Peachy Carnehan (Michael Caine).
Peachy begins telling about the contract that he and Daniel signed with Kipling as a witness. The story begins three years earlier. Peachy, who mustered out of the British Army in India, was making a living as a thief. In the ticket line for the train, Peachy pickpockets the pocket watch of another Englishman, who is, in fact, Kipling.
A Masonic symbol of the square, level, and the all-seeing eye is on the end of the stolen watch fob. Peachy rushes to return the watch to his fellow Mason. He boards into the same traveling compartment as Kipling. The train travels a great distance. Peachy tries to return the watch but can’t. They are joined in the compartment by a well-to-do Indian. Peachy is as rude as possible to the man. Finally, Peachy throws the man off the train and tells Kipling that the man tried to steal his watch.
Peachy introduces himself as a former British sergeant. As they share whiskey, Peachey asks Kipling to meet a man in eight days. Kipling refuses, but Peachy responds with, ‘if I ask you as a man going to the west to seek what is lost,’ what would be the answer. They continue to pass Masonic messages back and forth until they established their credentials. Kipling agrees to meet Daniel Dravot (Sean Connery) as requested. Before Peachy jumps from the train, Kipling says he noticed that his watch was missing in the station.
In eight days, Kipling combs the train until he finds Daniel. Kipling delivers the message that Peachy has gone south for the week. Daniel identifies Kipling as a fellow Mason. Daniel explains that they plan to extort money from a Rajah. Daniel says they plan on tells that they are correspondents for the Northern Star. Kipling yells that he is that correspondent as the train pulls away.
Kipling goes to the British District Commissioner (Jack May), hoping to protect Peachy and Daniel. The DC doesn’t understand why the Masonic bond is so strong. Peachy and Daniel are brought in, and their records are reviewed. They bring up that the DC is having an affair with the newspaper editor’s sister. They are very bitter about having fought for the empire and being cast away when they were no longer needed. They leave as bold as ever.
One evening, Peachy and Daniel show up at Kipling’s newspaper office. Having decided that India is too small for them, they plan on heading to Kafiristan. Kafiristan was a historical region in what is now Afghanistan. Their plan is simple. They will help a local ruler by training his army. Eventually, they will take the army and knock off the next king, having a larger army each time. They plan to be kings and gods. Kipling tells all the problems with hostile tribes and mountains. He even mentions that a mapping party disappeared in the area and that Alexander the Great was the last European to conquer the area.
The agreement says Peachy and Daniel will refrain from liquor or women of any color until they become kings in Kafiristan. They sign the document and have Kipling sign as a witness. Peachy and Daniel do a little research and find that Alexander married a woman named Roxane after conquering the area.
Kipling is in the market when he sees Peachy dressed like a local. They find Daniel dancing for a crowd dressed as a local madman. They are not in black face, but they are darker. The adventurers have blackmailed the Rajah and purchased a cache of rifles to take on their trip. Kipling tries to dissuade them, but they part as fellow Masons. Finally, Kipling gives Daniel the Masonic symbol from his watch fob.
They made the journey through the Khyber Pass. The last time they came through, they had to fight their way through. The two adventurers ventured on alone, traveling by night. At the first large river, they have to sell the camel and buy goats. They used the stomach bladder of the goats to cross the raging water.
They camp by the river, where five Afghans approach them on mules. Peachy puts a bullet in his mouth and pretends to be eating. The five men approach and are examining what they can steal. Peachy spits a bullet into the fire. The criminals pull guns on Peachy and Daniel. When the bullet explodes, they kill the men.
They take the mules and rifles into the snowcapped mountains. Daniel became snow blind and held onto the last surviving mules’ tail while Peachy led the way. Suddenly, their path was blocked by two giants. Peachy shoots each of the giants. He moves forward and finds them to be boundary warnings. The ice bridge that they just came across breaks and falls as they enter Kafiristan. They soon find a crevasse block their way and accept that they will die in the cold.
As they laugh about the lives they have spent, a giant avalanche pours down the side of the mountain. When it is over, they have a path to go forward. At last, they come down out of the mountains into the foothills. They watch women and children from a village washing in the river. A group of riders wearing monster masks raid the women. Peachy and Daniel start shooting the attackers from their vantage on the hill.
Peachy and Daniel capture one of the attackers and take him to the village. The people inside of the walls are banging drums and making noise to force the strangers away. Peachy, Daniel, and their prisoner have to duck a hail of arrows. Suddenly, a voice calls out from the village, asking if they are Englishmen.
The speaker is a Gurkha soldier named Billy Fish (Saeed Jaffrey) that was part of the missing mapping party. Billy acts as a subordinate to the two Englishmen. He takes them to the head of the village, Ootah (Doghmi Larbi).
With Billy translating Ootah says he has enemies all around that piss in the streams where they get their water and stealing women. Ootah wants to pay a bounty on his enemies, but Peachy says he wants to train the village’s men and take the other town all at once. They tell Ootah they will make him king of a great area. He buys it. The prisoner is turned over to the village women for death.
Peachy and Daniel are treated as honored guests and offered Ootah’s sons and daughters. Daniel is already paying too much attention to the women. The men play buzkashi, a game much like polo but with the bagged head of the prisoner.
Peachy and Daniel teach the villagers to drill like soldiers. They teach riding, sword fighting, and the manual of arms. They have some trouble communicating. A beautiful woman tries to seduce Peachy, and he is only saved when Daniel busts him. They decide it is time to seek battle.
Peachy and Daniel lead the village out for the attack. They are both wearing British red jackets. Michael Caine’s jacket was the same one he used in the great movie Zulu (1964).[5] The men from the other village run out to attack. As they get ready to fight, a group of monks walks through, and the locals lay on the ground.
Daniel breaks ranks and leads a cavalry charge. To save him, Peachy leads a bayonet charge. During the battle, Daniel is hit in the chest by an arrow. He has a bandolier under his shirt and is unharmed. The locals believe Daniel to be a god. All of the men from the village being attacked bow down to Daniel. After the fighting is over Ootah comes to kill prisoners.
Daniel stops Ootah from killing the prisoners. Daniel beats Ootah down and tells the conquered men that they will be part of the army and their town will be spared. They take half of the town’s wealth.
Hearing cheers outside, Daniel goes outside with his arrow. They are cheering Sikander, a bastardization of Alexander. Peachy is interested in the town that Alexander the Great built and where the monks live. Peachy and Daniel tell Billy the truth but decide to let the people think Daniel is a god and the promised son of Alexander. They hear noise from outside, and the locals are playing buzkashi with the head of Ootah.
The now larger army continues to conquer town after town. The army continues to grow and perform military tasks excellently. Villages began to surrender without fighting. Finally, there were no towns in Kafiristan left to conquer.
Daniel, now acting as a god and carrying his arrow with him, sees the beautiful Roxanne (Shakira Caine). Daniel is smitten by her beauty. Daniel takes the name Roxanne as a sign. Roxanne believes that if a god makes love to a woman, the woman will be consumed by magical fire.
A party of monks comes from Sikandergul to invite Daniel to meet Kafu Selim (Karroom Ben Bouih). Billy says they must go. The monks only want the two British men to come without their army. Peachy makes the case that they have to go, so their army keeps thinking Daniel is a god. Billy goes along with the two British men to the high mountain city. The city has several Greek-style buildings in the plaza.
All three travelers are disarmed before they are allowed to enter the city. Kafu plans to test Daniel’s status as a god by having an arrow fired into his chest. When he sees that Daniel is about to be shot, Peachy runs forward and knocks the bowman.
The monks grab Daniel and expose his chest. Kafu prepares to stab Daniel with a blade. When Kafu sees the Masonic symbol around Daniel’s chest, he believes him to be the son of Alexander or Sikander as pronounce it. Kafu and his monks show a carved Masonic symbol left by Alexander.
The monks dress Daniel in robes of white and purple. He is even given a golden crown to wear. Later, Daniel, Peachy, and Billy are taken to a throne room that contains massive stores of gold, gems, and other treasures. Billy informs Daniel that all of the treasure is his. Peachy wants to fill his pockets and leave immediately. Billy translates that Daniel could take the treasure. They decide they will have to wait four months for winter to end so they can leave.
Daniel begins to hold court like he is King Solomon. In one case, a man has obtained 60 cows and all the village goats because of his wife’s infidelity. Daniel is becoming deluded by his own power. He even asks Peachy to bow when he passes by.
Peachy spent his time building a rope bridge across the chasm. One day, Peachy sees the birds going north and tells Daniel it is time for them to leave. Daniel announces that he plans on staying and continuing his role as a god. Daniel now believes he is a reincarnated god. Daniel says he will marry Roxanne. Daniel continues that he will make the country into a modern nation. Peachy reminds Daniel that he was the one holding the ass’s tail when they came through the mountain. The contract is definitely over.
Daniel announces his plan to marry and have a son. The monks say that the marriage is not proper. They decide that their all-seeing god should decide. Daniel overrules the monks.
Peachy is busy packing his treasure to leave when Billy comes to see him. Billy tells of ominous signs and omens that are happening in the country. Billy says the all-seeing god is mad because of Daniel’s deception.
Roxanne and her entourage are brought to the city. She and her family are not happy because they believe she will be consumed with magical fire.
Peachy is prepared to leave with his riches and all of the riflemen. When Peachy hears the screaming of Roxanne and company, he begs Daniel to leave with him. Daniel refuses but asks his former friend to stay for the wedding ceremony. Peachy agrees to stay for the ceremony.
At mid-morning, Roxanne is brought forth for the wedding. She is heavily drugged to ensure her compliance. Daniel places a ring on the drugged girl’s finger as her relatives flop around and convulse. When Daniel kisses Roxanne, she bites him on the cheek, and blood flows.
Kafu touches the blood on Daniel’s face and denounces him as a false god. Peachy grabs Daniel and he and Billy take the fallen god out of the city. Finally, the crowd begins to chase the three soldiers.
Peachy says they can’t defeat the mob and have to fire in section while they retract. The mules are scattered, and the riflemen are slowly taken down as the soldiers’ fallback. Finally, all that are left are Peachy, Daniel, and Billy. Peachy tries to get Billy to escape on one of the mules, but Billy replies Gurkhas are foot soldiers. He takes his kukri knife and runs into the mob. The mob tears him apart.
Peachy and Daniel are surrounded and captured. Daniel apologizes to Peachy for messing up the plan. Peachy forgives him. The mob makes Daniel walk into the middle of the rope bridge. When he is there, they begin hacking the ropes until he tumbles into the valley.
The scene returns to the wide-eyed Kipling listening to Peachy’s tale. He says Daniel fell for half an hour. He then tells that he was crucified between two pine trees. The next day they took him down because he had survived. It took Peachy a year to get back. Peachy leaves a bag behind and says he has urgent business in the south.
Kipling opens the bag, and it is the dried head of Daniel still wearing the golden crown.
I’ll be back with the Conclusions and World-Famous Short Summary directly.
Conclusions – The Man Who Would Be King (1975)
I have to confess that there are dozens of Masonic references in this movie. I have only mentioned a few, or quite frankly, I would still be here rewinding.
In a video titled “Sean Connery about ‘The Man Who Would Be King,’”[6] Shaw Connery stated that Director John Huston gave him very minimal instruction on acting the part. Huston did say that Peachy and Daniel were one man who can accomplish anything as long as they are together. That really encapsulated this film better than any statement.
In the same video, Saeed Jaffrey, the actor who played Billy Fish, said that Huston tried to make this film for twenty years but managed to make it at the right time. If the film had been made in 1956, it was to star Clark Gable and Humphrey Bogart pretending to be British, and some Mexican actor would be pretending to be the Gurkha.
According to iMDB.com, other pairs considered for the roles include Burt Lancaster and Kirk Douglas, Richard Burton and Peter O’Toole, and Robert Redford and Paul Newman, Newman.[7] Oh god.
Karroom Ben Bouih (Priest Kafu) was a night watchman for an olive orchard near the set location[8]. Shakira Caine was also said to be a last-minute pick for Roxanne as she was present when the shooting began.
World-Famous Short Summary – Bros before beautiful ladies
Beware the moors.
[1] https://www.imdb.com/title/tt0073341/
[2] https://www.rottentomatoes.com/m/man_who_would_be_king
[3] https://www.nytimes.com/1975/12/18/archives/connery-and-caine-flee-kipling-india.html
[4] https://www.rogerebert.com/reviews/the-man-who-would-be-king-1975
[5] https://www.imdb.com/title/tt0073341/trivia/
[6] Sean Connery about ‘The Man Who Would Be King’
[7] https://www.imdb.com/title/tt0073341/trivia/
[8] https://www.imdb.com/title/tt0073341/trivia/
