Zarak

Zarak
Original film poster
Directed by	Terence Young
Produced by	Irving Allen Albert R. Broccoli
Written by	Richard Maibaum
Starring	Victor Mature Michael Wilding Anita Ekberg
Music by	William Alwyn
Cinematography	Ted Moore
Distributed by	Columbia Pictures
Release date(s)	1956
Running time	99 min.
Country	U.K.
Language	English

For other meanings, see Zarak (disambiguation).

Zarak is a 1956 British Warwick Films CinemaScope action 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 and Afghanistan (though filmed in Morocco), the film starred Victor Mature, Michael Wilding, Anita Ekberg, and featured Patrick McGoohan in a supporting role.

Plot

Zarak Khan (Mature) is the son of a chief who is caught embracing one his father's wives Salma (Ekberg). Zarak's father sentenced both to torture and death but they are saved by an Imam (Finlay Currie). The exiled Zarak becomes a bandit chief and an enemy of the British Empire.

Production

Often classified as a minor piece of "escapism", this 99-minute film nevertheless boasted a surprising amount of emerging film talent. 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. Similarly, the Director, Terence Young and the Producer, Albert R. Broccoli went on to create the Bond movies.

Patrick McGoohan portrays Moor Larkin, an Adjutant to Michael Wilding's character who has a penchant for billiards, as well as offering sensible, albeit ignored, advice. This role created a considerable stir in the British cinema magazine, Picturegoer. Margaret Hinxman, the doyen of film critics, made Patrick McGoohan her "Talent Spot". She assured her readers that this new face would be "really something", given a "half-decent" part. Her admiration was remarkable, in that she completely slated the film, Zarak, itself, describing it as "absurd".

The original film poster was criticised by the House of Lords for "bordering on the obscene" and banned in the United Kingdom.^[1]

The action sequences reappeared in John Gilling's The Bandit of Zhobe (1958) and The Brigand of Kandahar (1965).

The real Zarak Khan

A.J. Bevan's book contained a foreword by Field Marshal William Slim. In Bevan's account during World War II Zarak joined the British forces and was executed by the Japanese in Burma. Producer Irving Allen decided to make a fictional account set in the 19th Century.^[2]

Notes

1. ^ p.129 Harper, Sue & Porter, Vincent British Cinéma of the 1950s: The Decline of Deference 2002 Oxford University Press
2. ^ http://www.tcm.com/tcmdb/title.jsp?stid=27995&category=Notes

External links

• Zarak at the Internet Movie Database