Clive of India (1935)
Clive of India (1935)
DVD5 | VIDEO_TS | NTSC | 4:3 | 720x480 | 5500 kbps | 4.2Gb
Audio: English AC3 2.0 @ 192 Kbps
01:33:00 | USA | Action, Adventure, Biography, Drama, History, War
DVD5 | VIDEO_TS | NTSC | 4:3 | 720x480 | 5500 kbps | 4.2Gb
Audio: English AC3 2.0 @ 192 Kbps
01:33:00 | USA | Action, Adventure, Biography, Drama, History, War
In the mid-1700's the East India Company has power over commerce on the sub-continent, with the blessings of the British government. A clerk in the company, Robert Clive, is frustrated by his lack of advancement, and transfers to the military arm of the company, where he excels. Clive's leadership and gift for manipulation strengthen England's hold over India and lead to personal wealth, which is often threatened by the enemies he makes along the way.
Director: Richard Boleslawski
Cast: Ronald Colman, Loretta Young, Colin Clive, Francis Lister, C. Aubrey Smith, Cesar Romero, Montagu Love, Lumsden Hare, Ferdinand Munier, Gilbert Emery, Leo G. Carroll, Etienne Girardot, Robert Greig, Mischa Auer, Ferdinand Gottschalk, Doris Lloyd, Edward Cooper, Eily Malyon, Joseph R. Tozer, Phyllis Clare, Leonard Mudie, Phillip Dare, Coit Albertson, Don Ameche, Lionel Belmore, Florence Benson, George Beranger, Nadine Beresford, Ted Billings, Herbert Bunston
Clive of India (1935)
Clive of India (1935)
Ronald Colman plays Robert Clive, a true-life 18th century Britisher who works up the ranks to become leader of Britain's military forces in India. Though produced on a superficially lavish scale, the film inexpensively sidesteps several of Clive's more famous battles with Indian insurrectionists, relegating them to offscreen events described by subtitles. The notorious Sepoy Mutiny "Black Hole of Calcutta" incident, hardly a costly event to recreate, is faithfully presented. In real life, Clive was ruined by a trial in the House of Commons, after which he suffered a nervous breakdown and committed suicide. The film tactfully closes on the trial and Clive's reunion with his faithful wife (Loretta Young). Typically jingoistic in its "White Man's Burden" approach to East Indian affairs, Clive of India is best viewed in context of the time it was filmed (1935), when the sun still hadn't set on the British Empire. ~ ~ Hal Erickson, Rovi
The second of Hollywood's recent handsome tributes to the glory of Brtiish rule in India, a sprawling screen biography of England's great soldier-politician, arrived at the Rivoli last night. Concerning itself with the glamour of the man rather than with the ethics involved in the imperialism for which he stood. "Clive of India" is a dignified and impressive historical drama which misses genuine distinction by a comfortable margin. Perhaps it is the chief misfortune of the photoplay that it treads too closely on the heels of those distinguished films, "Lives of a Bengal Lancer" and "Chapaev," which taught us that the military drama attains its richest expression by dropping the time-honored sex motif and concentrating on the sheer excitement of physical action. "Clive of India" is at least equally concerned with the domestic phases of its hero's career. Consequently, in order to make room for its extended marital discussions, the drama has been forced to dismiss with ordinary subtitles such outstanding exploits of the conqueror's life as the siege of Arcot and the brilliant defense of the citadel.
Twentieth Century does rise splendidly to its opportunities, though, in its description of the great battle of Plassey. Readapting the historical facts for pictorial purposes, the cinema Clive floats his troops across the river during a blinding monsoon. Thereinafter Plassey comes boiling out of the history books in a picturesque hell of armored elephants and gory hand-to-hand combat. That other favorite of the schoolboy imagination, the Black Hole of Calcutta, likewise lives again, though briefly, the miserable English captives being revealed from above as they gasp for air in the poisonous atmosphere of the nawab's underground prison.
For clarity's sake, and to keep the film's length within reasonable bounds, the Lipscomb-Minney screen play merely suggests many of the great events in Clive's life, and it either simplifies or ignores the complex political intrigues by which he managed to found and solidify an empire for England against enormous odds. He appears first as the articled clerk with the East India Company, a rebellious and obnoxious lad with obscure ambitions. In a romantic moment he falls in love with a girl's picture on a locket and sends for her from England. By the time she arrives, so snail like were the ships of the day, the clerk has become a conqueror as a result of his ingenious success in raising the seige of Trichinopoly.
Thereafter the film divides its attentions—fatally, in the opinion of this reporter—between Clive's public triumphs and defeats and his intermittent quarrels with his wife, who wants him to settle down to the life of an English country gentleman. In one of the most successful individual sequences in the work, the broken and tired empire builder stands trial in the House of Commons as a crook and a betrayer of his country. The drama concludes, not with his physical collapse and suicide, but, more optimistically, in his wife's arms following their long separation.
Ronald Colman, suppressing the debonair manner which has made him one of our finest light comedians, enacts the title role with vigor and conviction, providing a touching portrait of a man with a consuming passion for power. Certainly this is one of his best screen achievements. Loretta Young, a competent and winning if slightly less than brilliant actress, provides a surprisingly effective performance as the great man's lady. There are numerous commendable performances in minor roles. Despite its serious flaws in emphasis and its unfortunate effort to tell too much, "Clive of India" is one of the pictures that ought to be seen.
~ ANDRE SENNWALD
IMDb
Clive of India (1935)
Clive of India (1935)
