We are giddy with the acquisition of The Man Who Would be King (1975) in hi-def. A magnificent entertainment from the twilight of director John Huston's mighty career.
Michael Caine and Sean Connery have made many enduring classics through more than six decades of working in cinema. The Man Who Would be King is equal to all of them and better than most.
Huston in the 1950s wanted Bogart and Clark Gable for the leads, though sadly, Bogart died of cancer before the project could get off the ground. A decade later, Huston dusted off his script, adapted from Kipling, and went after Paul Newman and Robert Redford for his stars. Newman told him, "John, much as I'd love to do this, you want Connery and Caine for this one." Newman was spot-on.
Here is a perfect union of casting and material in a glorious adventure film that explores recurring themes in Huston's work: greed, machismo, obsession. You can see this in The Maltese Falcon, Treasure of the Sierra Madre, and Moby Dick, but Huston took these themes to their logical, epic conclusion in this tale of two 19th century British soldiers, rogues really, who set out for the mythical land of Kafiristan in search of fortune and glory. Inevitably, dark clouds of fate follow arrogant kings with a god complex.
Makes a terrific double-feature with Gunga Din (1939), another Kipling tale that Hollywood got right. Trivia: the Kafiristani woman Connery falls in love with was played by Shakira Baksh, also known as Mrs. Michael Caine, who married her two years before this film was made after declaring Shakira the most beautiful woman he had ever seen. Their union endures to this day.
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