Guns at Batasi (1964)

Director:

John Guillermin

Writers:

Robert Holles (screenplay)
Robert Holles (novel)

Release Date:

30 October 1964 (West Germany)

Genre:

Drama

Tagline:

Outnumbered A Hundred to One - Yet Fighting Like a Thousand Heroes in a Hell Spot Called Batasi!

Plot:

An anachronistic martinet RSM on a remote Colonial African army caught in a local coup d'etat must use his experience to defend those in his care.

Plot Keywords:

Bofors Gun | Sergeant | Captain | Mutiny | Lieutenant

Awards:

Won BAFTA Film Award. Another 2 nominations

Cast

Richard Attenborough	...	Regimental Sgt. Major Lauderdale
Jack Hawkins	...	Colonel Deal
Flora Robson	...	Miss Barker-Wise
John Leyton	...	Private Wilkes
Mia Farrow	...	Karen Eriksson
Cecil Parker	...	Fletcher
Errol John	...	Lieut. Boniface
Graham Stark	...	Sgt. 'Dodger' Brown
Earl Cameron	...	Captain Abraham
Percy Herbert	...	Colour Sgt. Ben Parkin
David Lodge	...	Sgt. 'Muscles' Dunn
Bernard Horsfall	...	Sgt. 'Schoolie' Prideaux
John Meillon	...	Sgt. 'Aussie' Drake
Horace James	...	Corporal Abou
Patrick Holt	...	Captain

Runtime:

103 min

Country:

UK

Language:

English

Color:

Black and White

Aspect Ratio:

2.35 : 1

Sound Mix:

Mono (Westrex Recording System)

Certification:

West Germany:12 (f) | Netherlands:12 | USA:Approved (MPAA rating: certificate #26767) | UK:PG | Finland:S | Sweden:15

Filming Locations:

Pinewood Studios, Iver Heath, Buckinghamshire, England, UK

Company:

George H. Brown Productions

Trivia:

Mia Farrow replaced Britt Ekland at the last minute.

Quotes:

[first lines]
Sgt. Dodger Brown: [singing as he drives a truck] She'll be comin' round the mountain when she comes. She'll be comin'
Colour Sgt. Ben Parkin: Can't you sing in tune?
Sgt. Dodger Brown: round the mountain when she comes!
[pause as truck bumps over rough road]
Sgt. Dodger Brown: Hey, Ben, you know I was just thinkin'. Back home they wouldn't let me drive a scooter without taking a test.
[chuckles]
Sgt. Dodger Brown: Marvelous, isn't it?
[thud as truck jolts]
Colour Sgt. Ben Parkin: Marvelous

Minor Classic Shines Timelessly

I first saw 'Guns At Batasi' several times in its butchered for television version shown mostly on late-night TV, a pan-&-scan version which also deprived the film of its Cinemascope format. But I just saw the DVD which reproduces the original Cinemascope (and which includes an entertaining commentary track by John Leyton who plays Pte. Wilkes in the film) which let's us see 'Guns At Batasi' to its deserved advantage.

It's a splendid character study of a British Army Regimental Sergeant Major set in an absorbing - and rather accurately prophetic - plot of a post-colonial African revolution.

After Richard Attenborough, properly dominant as the thoroughly professional, no-nonsense Regimental Sergeant Major, the almost uniformly solid casting gives us nice turns by the four sergeants, Leyton as Pte. Wilkes, Flora Robson as the gullible MP keen to believe her ilk's pie-in-the-sky Marxisant p.c. propaganda, Errol John as the African rebel officer, and the always splendid Jack Hawkins as Lt. Col. Deal (an apt name considering the part his character fulfils in the story). Teenaged Mia Farrow has a small role (her first in cinema, I think) as a events-stranded UN secretary who shares a mutual lust interest with Leyton's Pte. Wilkes (Farrow's scenes were re-shoots owing to the originally-cast Britt Ekland's desertion from the filming to fly to her then-paramour Peter Sellers' side while he was working in the U.S.). The writing is very good and, as I said, prescient in view of the continuing undeserved credibility placed in chiefly venal Third World leaders by Western politicians, media, and p.c. types; Guillermin's direction is sure-handed; and production design and cinematography - some very good B&W work here aided by capable lighting - are a cut or two above workmanlike.

Though shot entirely at England's Pinewood Studios on a rather low budget, the strong script and fine acting raise 'Guns At Batasi' to the level of a minor classic well worth appreciating.