Storm Over Bengal (1938)

Director: Sidney Salkow

Starring: Patric Knowles, Richard Cromwell, Rochelle Hudson

More Info: IMDB

Tagline: The "Bengal Lancers" ride again...fight again...love again...and die!

Plot: In British India a local rajah, a British ally, is dying and his subordinates plan to drive out the British once he's gone. A newly married British officer is dispatched to ensure that doesn't happen.

My Rating: 5.5/10

Would I watch it again? Nope.


Imagine watching a severely condensed version of a cliffhanger serial but with most of the excitement left on the cutting room floor. You have no idea how much it pains me to say that as I really enjoy these adventure pictures from this era.



I came to this film from a website I discovered a couple of years ago with a list of films that were the (possible) inspiration for Indiana Jones. This was on the list. It had no right to be. It's a standard one-hour adventure film that was so prevalent back in the 30s and 40s. I couldn't find anything "Indy" about it other than it was set in India in the 1930s. It really does feel like a serial but a typical one at that. After two years of searching the globe, I found it. IMDB lists the running time at 65 minutes and a 53 minuted edited version. I have the latter. Perhaps all the real fun was trimmed.


OK so I'm probably a bit harsh but I generally like these kind of pictures. I LOVE serials as they're mostly action packed to the gills with some really ingenious methods of torture, death, and action set pieces. SOB feels rushed and trite.

Take the love triangle. You've got the hero, Capt. Jeffrey Allison (Knowles), who everyone loves and looks up to. He's about to be married to Joan (Hudson) who's traveled to India just for the occasion. Then there's Jeffrey's little brother, Lt. Neil Allison (Cromwell), who's heads-over-heels in love with Joan but resents his brother because he's never there for her. Neil's clearly driven by emotion until his COMPLETELY unnecessary death. By the way, it's worth noting that Neil has only known Joan for THREE FUCKING DAYS!


The Maharajah is dying and is friendly toward the British. Ramin Khan is the leader of the rebel resistance and is planning evil things to incite the British. Meanwhile, Jeffrey is undercover among Ramin Khan's group as an Indian holy man in an effort to discover what he's up to. Jeffrey's cover is soon blown and he escapes to warn the Maharajah of the war that Khan is about to start. It's a race to see who gets to the Maharajah first. Will Jeffrey make it? Will Khan intercede and stop him?


Jeffrey beats Khan to the punch and obtains a signed document from the Maharajah allowing the British to defend his homeland against Khan. Now the Army needs to be warned of the ambush Khan has set for them. But wait! Khan's men have secretly been embedded in the castle and the jig is up! One of Jeffrey's men takes the treaty and makes a B-line to the plane, getting shot along the way. He makes his way back to camp to warn them but it's too late. They've already marched on and they're headed for an ambush. Neil volunteers to fly the plane and drop flares to warn them.


Say, what about them flares, huh? Neil makes a deliberate nose dive into the mountain path in front of the Army. Neil, of course, is dead. They find a note on him about Khan's trap. Countless deaths averted. I suppose you could say he succeeded in stopping the ambush but surely there had to be another way other than suicide. I mean, REALLY? He puts a note in his pocket thinking they'll find it? REALLY? With a plane in flames, this piece of paper is probably going to survive AND they will find it in time? Whatever.

Big fight between Khan's rebels and the Brits while Jeffrey overtakes Kahn in his hidden cave-base and blows it up. This in all of six minutes. The picture ends with Jeffrey and Joan contemplating Neil's death ending with Jeffrey putting his hand on hers and then Neil's ghost hand on top of his. The end.


So there you have it. It's really not that bad of a picture but it's not that great either. I guess if it weren't for the fact that I've been searching long and hard for this thing for the past couple of years I wouldn't have taken it so hard. But then sometimes it's not the destination but the journey that counts. I'd just like to have my cake and eat it, too.