Clever, believable, and super fun to watch. It totally has replay value.

It is both painfully honest and laugh-out-loud funny at the same time.

Each character in this movie — down to the smallest one — is an individual rather than a type, prone to spontaneous changes of mood and sometimes amusing outbursts of pettiness or ill humor.

There's a more than satisfactory amount of boom-boom in the movie's trim running time.

Very nice looking movie; the restored DVD from VCI fixed up a lot of grain on other DVD releases. Good use of an actual old locomotive; and the Spanish locations do a good job of looking like India. One nice point (a mild spoiler): the two Indian soldiers on the train survive the film, and are useful during the entire journey. Go Team Redshirt! The child actor is much more agreeable than most.

J Lee Thompson was regarded as workmanlike director but this film along with The Guns of Navarone launched him to the big time.The film is set in 1905, there is feuding between Muslims and Hindus as insinuated in the film, a divide and conquer philosophy promulgated by the British. Captain Scott (Kenneth More) is charged with the safety of a young Hindu Prince who he has to take to Delhi. They take off on a train but it will be an eventful ride.The film was made in 1959 yet the film is rather modern and cynical in the way it discusses colonialism, communal rivalries, even the arms trade. At the same time is also has views that probably resonated in the post war period in which it was made. The colonial superiority that some people have such as Ursula Jeans, the Governor's wife in the film. The British brought civilisation over with them, as if the Taj Mahal was built by magic.The film was shot in location is Spain, India and in the studio in England. The opening scenes were shot in the Amber Fort in Rajasthan and as we went there the fort did look familiar to us. Tension mounts as we then go to the claustrophobic atmosphere of the train as we find out more about the characters. Herbert Lom plays a cynical journalist, Lauren Bacall the prince's American governess with an enlightened attitude, Wilfrid Hyde White as a diplomat, Eugene Deckers as an arms dealer. We find contrasts in attitudes which drives the film along with the action as the rebels advance. Thompson directs with a sure touch in keeping the film thrilling. An enjoyable action yarn.

Perhaps a little old for a captain in British India,Mr Kenneth More displays his customary noisy schoolboy/romping spaniel charm in this Kiplingesque adventure yarn. Tasked with rescuing a young Hindu prince during one of the many religious conflicts that have blighted that country for hundreds of years,Captain Scott(Mr More)and a disparate group of strangers face danger from without and within(see "Lifeboat")before arriving safely at their destination. In 1959,at the height of his box - office popularity,Mr More could put bums on seats sticky with chewing gum all over the country.Still fondly remembered for his turn as Douglas Bader,it would not be too big a stretch of the imagination to see a similarity in the hearty,rugger - bugger personae of the two men. However,Scott is more overtly upper - class,cleverly hiding his keen intelligence under the outward guise of the bluff soldier . Sharing a train with him are a journalist,an arms dealer,a Colonial Administrator,the wife of a high official and the widow of a recently deceased American doctor. Scott suspects that one of them means the prince harm,and in the exciting climax this unlikely band join together to oust the traitor in their midst. All splendid B.O.P. stuff,then,but the spice in "North West Frontier" is in the performances. Mr Herebert Lom is excellent as the splenetic mixed - race reporter, Miss Bacall does better than the role deserves as the unlikely American proto - feminist who uncomplainingly makes endless cups of tea for her fellow travellers. Mr Hyde - White outstanding as the old posh geezer,the like of whom nowadays is only found snoozing in the House of Lords. But for me,Mr Johar as Ghupta the engine driver walks away with the picture.Like Captain Scott,a complex man behind a simple exterior,it is he,bravely nursing his engine across a swaying bridge,instructing Capt. Scott to get every ounce of steam and inch of traction as the rails buckle and strain beneath him,who is the hero of the piece. Unfashionable as Kipling is today,he was still well - regarded fifty - odd years ago and it was with no shame or post - colonial guilt that his shade was recalled by "Northwest Frontier".Courage and sacrifice was required from our soldiers in the early 20th century just as it is in the early 21st century.It may be Eton,Sandhurst and Afghanistan now,but men like Captain Scott are still performing their everyday acts of heroism.

Rebellion is breaking out in India and all that stands in the way of religious and political chaos, not to mention British control, is a six-year-old Hindu prince and the unflagging confidence of Captain Scott (Kenneth More). Charged with bringing the boy safely from a small, fortified hill station to the British base at Kalapur 300 miles away, Captain Scott will need every bit of his resourcefulness, energy, ingenuity and pluck. The year is 1905 and Muslim tribes in India's north west territories are rising up against the Hindu princes and their British masters. Young prince Kishan is seen as a symbol of order and justice. If the rebels can kill him, there will be uprisings against the British which they may not be able to control. But how to get the prince to Kalapur? The last refugee trains have left and attempting the journey by horseback through enemy territory would be madness. But then Captain Scott remembers there was an old, derelict steam locomotive, The Empress of India, in the train sheds. Could it be put back into service? He calls upon his friend, Gupta (I. S. Johar), who assures him in broken English that his locomotive will not fail Captain Scott and that Gupta, himself, will run it. In a trice Gupta brings needed maintenance to The Empress and Scott finds himself loading an assorted group of passengers onto the one passenger car. There is Lady Wyndham (Ursula Jeans), the governor's wife; Peters (Eugene Deckers), an arms dealer whose weapons now most likely arm the rebels; Mr. Bridie (Wilfred Hyde-White), a diplomat and old India hand; and Van Layden (Herbert Lom), a reporter who has no love for the British. Most importantly, there is the prince and his American governess, Catherine Wyatt (Lauren Bacall). On this desperate journey, Captain Scott and this group of passengers will encounter massacres, the old steam engine's urgent need for water, the hard work of replacing rails, the tense clamber over a blown bridge with only the rails remaining, then the careful driving of the engine across those shifting, sagging rails, and the mass attacks of Muslims on horseback racing to capture the train and the prince. More troubling, Scott discovers that his group harbors a traitor, someone determined to either kill the prince or see that the boy is killed. Only the best traditions of British military leadership, exemplified by the publicly confident but privately worried Captain Scott, plus the vital assistance he receives from a number of the passengers, enable North West Frontier to have a happy ending. For Captain Scott, the ending is even happier. Not only has he fulfilled his mission, it appears that he and Catherine Wyatt will have a future together. This film is a throwback to the classic movies about the British Empire and the quality of the brave men who made the Empire possible. It's all fiction, of course, but it's greatly entertaining. Films like Drums and The Four Feathers reassured many that the British Empire would always be around and that the men who made it work were...well, gentlemen; that is, dedicated to bringing order, opportunity and justice to the natives as only British gentlemen could, and who always dressed for dinner. While this movie arrived in the theaters as the underside of empire was becoming known, it still tells a cracking good yarn. There is a bit too much exposition, in my opinion, offering justification for and against the Empire's rule in India (and the pro side wins the argument most of the time). It also seemed to me that the villain of the movie is far too easily identified. One final weakness is that the pairing of More and Bacall doesn't really work; they have such different personalities that their attraction for each other and their eventually pairing just doesn't strike any sparks for me. Still, the movie offers some grand adventures, great scenery, a journey on a steam train, brave derring-do, a typically forceful and optimistic performance by Kenneth More, and a nice reminder of why adventure stories are so much fun.