NORTH WEST FRONTIER (1959) **1/2 I know that guns and trains and bridges weren't invented in America, but it feels like a cowboys and indians flick anyway. All the whooping and hooting Indian Muslims are totally set up to be the simplistic and heathen, and so bad guy, indians. The British aren't entirely convincing as cowboys, either, but they compensate with better manners. It's not the most complex plot in the history of mankind, in fact it's as linear as the train track, with fewer diversions, but J. Lee Thompson manages to generate incredible suspense all the same. Unfortunately there's the typical glued-in romance, but as those things go at least it involves Lauren Bacall. Herbert Lom is always good as the slightly off-centered individual, but the best, and funniest, moments belong to I. S. Sohar. Politically correct or not, there is something very amusing about someone trying to speak a second language with much difficulty, and the mangling of the Queen's English by Indian Hindus is no exception. So it's more well made than fascinating, and more well acted than realistic or historic, and like the train depicted it takes awhile to get going, but there's a certain grittiness to it all that feels authentic. Except when Lauren's looking at Kenneth More with goo-goo eyes or, even worse, they're talking to each other.
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