Terence Fisher has done better work than THE STRANGLERS OF BOMBAY for Hammer Company, where he directed a number of horror films with some distinction.
THE STRANGLERS does not quite fit the horror category, claiming historical accuracy about the British East India Company, which in 1829 carried so much governmental clout that it collected taxes and had its own British Armed Forces that suddenly had to fight a violent cult that worshippped the goddess Kali, seeking bloodless murder for infidels by strangling them with "sacred" silk cloths.
Sadly, Guy Rolfe is not a good enough actor to carry the lead. His facial expressions seldom rate above void. Allan Cuthbertson, who in 1959 also had a small part as Simone Signoret's husband in ROOM AT THE TOP, is a better actor but his role is so sketchy and minor as to verge on expendable.
George Pastell and Marne Maitland come up pick of the bunch as religious fanatics, the latter doubling up as a two-edged merchant who is supposedly helping the British deal with the problem of vanishing caravans but in fact assisting in the removal of business competition and non-believers by massacring entire caravans and burying their bodies.
These days, the screenplay by David Goodman would surely fail political correctness requirements. You just cannot portray non-caucasians in such evil light - but back in 1959 Hammer did it, lending the film an aura of some authenticity despite the indifferent acting. That said, I had to suspend my disbelief when tall, gangly Rolfe decides to fire shots into a crowd attending a Kali cult instead of spiriting away in the dark to get backup. That clearly stupid decision sees him bound to the ground, stabbed in the thigh for some bloodletting that will apparently attract a king cobra for the type of death no one wishes to contemplate... only to be saved by his pet mongoose, which snatches the cobra's head in some style. That ordeal over, Rolfe neither treats the wound nor changes his trousers but still walks about in long strides, twice more getting off the death hook in less than likely circumstances.
For the record, that mongoose-cobra clash is my favorite sequence. THE STRANGLERS boasts some excellent B&W cinematography that credibly turns the Hammer backlot into believable Indian settings in the year of our Lord 1829.
Despite the abovementioned shortcomings, I found the action compelling enough to watch non-stop and award it a deserved 7/10.
THE STRANGLERS does not quite fit the horror category, claiming historical accuracy about the British East India Company, which in 1829 carried so much governmental clout that it collected taxes and had its own British Armed Forces that suddenly had to fight a violent cult that worshippped the goddess Kali, seeking bloodless murder for infidels by strangling them with "sacred" silk cloths.
Sadly, Guy Rolfe is not a good enough actor to carry the lead. His facial expressions seldom rate above void. Allan Cuthbertson, who in 1959 also had a small part as Simone Signoret's husband in ROOM AT THE TOP, is a better actor but his role is so sketchy and minor as to verge on expendable.
George Pastell and Marne Maitland come up pick of the bunch as religious fanatics, the latter doubling up as a two-edged merchant who is supposedly helping the British deal with the problem of vanishing caravans but in fact assisting in the removal of business competition and non-believers by massacring entire caravans and burying their bodies.
These days, the screenplay by David Goodman would surely fail political correctness requirements. You just cannot portray non-caucasians in such evil light - but back in 1959 Hammer did it, lending the film an aura of some authenticity despite the indifferent acting. That said, I had to suspend my disbelief when tall, gangly Rolfe decides to fire shots into a crowd attending a Kali cult instead of spiriting away in the dark to get backup. That clearly stupid decision sees him bound to the ground, stabbed in the thigh for some bloodletting that will apparently attract a king cobra for the type of death no one wishes to contemplate... only to be saved by his pet mongoose, which snatches the cobra's head in some style. That ordeal over, Rolfe neither treats the wound nor changes his trousers but still walks about in long strides, twice more getting off the death hook in less than likely circumstances.
For the record, that mongoose-cobra clash is my favorite sequence. THE STRANGLERS boasts some excellent B&W cinematography that credibly turns the Hammer backlot into believable Indian settings in the year of our Lord 1829.
Despite the abovementioned shortcomings, I found the action compelling enough to watch non-stop and award it a deserved 7/10.