The Man Who Would Be King (film)
| The Man Who Would Be King | |
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Theatrical release poster by Tom Jung
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| Directed by | John Huston |
| Produced by | John Foreman |
| Written by |
John Huston Gladys Hill |
| Based on |
The Man Who Would Be King 1888 novella by Rudyard Kipling |
| Starring | |
| Music by | Maurice Jarre |
| Cinematography | Oswald Morris |
| Edited by | Russell Lloyd |
| Distributed by |
Columbia Pictures (International) Allied Artists Pictures Corporation (North America) |
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Release date
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Running time
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129 min |
| Country | United States United Kingdom |
| Language | English |
| Budget | $8 million |
| Box office | $13.2 million |
The Man Who Would Be King is a 1975 Technicolor film adapted from the Rudyard Kipling novella of the same title. It was adapted and directed by John Huston and starred Sean Connery, Michael Caine, Saeed Jaffrey, and Christopher Plummer as Kipling (giving a name to the novella's anonymous narrator). The film follows two rogue ex-non-commissioned officers of the Indian Army who set off from late 19th-century British India in search of adventure and end up as kings of Kafiristan.
In 1885, while working as a correspondent at the offices of the Northern Star newspaper in India, Rudyard Kipling (Christopher Plummer) is approached by a ragged, seemingly crazed derelict, who reveals himself to be his old acquaintance Peachy Carnehan (Michael Caine). Peachy tells Kipling the story of how he and his comrade-in-arms Daniel "Danny" Dravot (Sean Connery) traveled to remote Kafiristan (in modern-day Afghanistan, the province is now known as Nuristan), became "gods", and ultimately lost everything.
Three years earlier. Dravot and Carnehan had met Kipling under less than auspicious circumstances; Carnehan, a former Colour sergeant of the Queen's Own Royal Loyal Light Infantry, pickpocketed Kiplings's pocketwatch but was forced to return it as he was a fellow Freemason. Carnehan claims to be an expert in "whiskey, women, waistcoats and bills of fare." Both Dravot and Carnehan are in the process of blackmailing a local Rajah by posing as newspaper correspondents of "The Northern Star" newspaper-which outrages the real correspondent (Kipling). In order to save their lives Kipling has the local district commissioner detain both Dravot and Carnehan - who obliquely blackmail the commissioner himself.
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Wikipedia