North West Frontier (titled Flame Over India in the US and Empress of India in Australia) is a 1959 British CinemaScope adventure film starring Kenneth More and Lauren Bacall. The film was directed by J. Lee Thompson from a screenplay by Robin Estridge and also features Wilfrid Hyde-White, Herbert Lom and I. S. Johar.
The film is set in the North West Frontier Province of British India, which now lies within modern Pakistan. The film explores tensions between Hindu and Muslim Indians as Muslim rebels attack a fortress to kill a young Hindu maharajah.
The success of the film led to J. Lee Thompson beginning his American career as a director. He went on to make the The Guns of Navarone in 1961 which was also noted for Geoffrey Unsworth's cinematography. Lauren Bacall called it a "good little movie... with a stupid title" (referring to the US title Flame Over India.Synopsis
North West Frontier, British India, 1905: a Hindu maharajah asks British Army Captain Scott (Kenneth More) to take his son, Prince Kishan, to the safety of the Governor's Residence in Haserabad because a Muslim uprising has begun in his province. Accompanying them is a widow, Mrs Wyatt (Lauren Bacall), the prince's American nanny/governess. Soon after they leave, the rebels storm the palace and kill the maharajah.
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