Zarak
| Zarak | |
|---|---|
.jpg)
Original film poster
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| Directed by | Terence Young |
| Produced by |
Irving Allen Albert R. Broccoli |
| Written by | Richard Maibaum |
| Based on |
The Story of Zarak Khan 1949 novel by A.J. Bevan |
| Starring |
Victor Mature Michael Wilding Anita Ekberg |
| Music by | William Alwyn |
| Cinematography | Ted Moore |
| Edited by | Clarence Kolster |
| Distributed by | Columbia Pictures |
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Release date
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10 January 1957 (World Premiere, London) |
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Running time
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99 min. |
| Country | UK |
| Language | English |
| Box office | $1.4 million (US rentals) |
Zarak is a 1957 British Warwick Films CinemaScope in Technicolor 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.
Zarak Khan (Victor Mature) is the son of a chief, who is caught embracing one of his father's wives Salma (Anita 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.
The film is based on a 1950 book, written by A.J. Bevan, which contained a foreword by Field Marshal William Slim. According to Bevan, the real Zarak Khan was an Afghan who spent most of his life fighting the British in the northwest frontier in the 1920s and 1930s. Among his crimes was the murder of a holy man. He eventually gave himself up and was sentenced to life imprisonment in the Andaman Islands. However when the Japanese occupied the islands he stayed in his cell.
Khan was eventually given a suspended sentence and decided to work for the British in Burma. In 1943 he was leading a patrol when its British officer was killed in an ambush. He watched another British patrol be attacked by the Japanese and sent messengers to summon a Gurkha force. To stop the Japanese from escaping with their prisoners before the Gurkhas arrived, he attacked them single-handed, and killed or wounded six soldiers before being overpowered. He refused to be beheaded and insisted on being flayed alive to buy time to enable the Gurkhas to arrive.
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Wikipedia