{{other uses}} {{Use British English|date=September 2013}} {{Use dmy dates|date=October 2020}} {{Infobox film | name = Zarak | image = Zarak (movie poster).jpg
| caption = Original film poster | director = Terence Young | producer = Phil C. Samuel | based_on = {{based on|''The Story of Zarak Khan''<br>1949 novel|A. J. Bevan}} | writer = Richard Maibaum | narrator = | starring = Victor Mature<br>Michael Wilding<br>Anita Ekberg | music = William Alwyn | cinematography = Ted Moore<br>John Wilcox | editing = Clarence Kolster | color_process = Technicolor | studio = Warwick Productions | distributor = Columbia Pictures | released = {{film date|df=y|1956|12|26|New York City|1957|1||United States|1957|1|10|London}} | runtime = 96 minutes | country = United Kingdom<br />United States<ref>{{cite web |url=https://www2.bfi.org.uk/films-tv-people/4ce2b6bb853b2 |archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20171123005737/http://www.bfi.org.uk/films-tv-people/4ce2b6bb853b2 |url-status=dead |archive-date=23 November 2017 |title=Zarak (1956) |website=imdb |access-date=November 14, 2018}}</ref> | language = English | budget = | gross = $1.4 million (US rentals)<ref>{{Cite news|title=Top Grosses of 1957|work=Variety|date=8 January 1958|page=30}}</ref> }} '''''Zarak''''' is a 1956 CinemaScope adventure film directed by Terence Young with assistance from John Gilling and Yakima Canutt.<ref name="BFIsearch">{{Cite web |title=Zarak |url=https://collections-search.bfi.org.uk/web/Details/ChoiceFilmWorks/150043355 |access-date=9 June 2025 |website=British Film Institute Collections Search}}</ref> Set in the Northwest Frontier (though filmed in Morocco), the film stars Victor Mature, Michael Wilding and Anita Ekberg and features Patrick McGoohan in a supporting role. It was written by Richard Maibaum based on the 1949 book ''The Story of Zarak Khan'' by A.J. Bevan.
==Plot== Zarak Khan is the son of chief Haji who is caught embracing one of his father's wives, Salma. Zarak's father sentences both to torture and death but they are saved by The Mullah, an imam. The exiled Zarak becomes a bandit chief and an enemy of the British Empire.
==Cast== * Victor Mature as Zarak Khan * Michael Wilding as Maj. Michael Ingram * Anita Ekberg as Salma Khan * Bonar Colleano as Biri Khan * Eunice Gayson as Cathy Ingram * Finlay Currie as The Mullah * Peter Illing as Ahmad * Bernard Miles as Hassu * Eddie Byrne as Kasim Khan * Patrick McGoohan as Moor Larkin * Frederick Valk as Haji Khan * André Morell as Maj. Atherton * Harold Goodwin as Sgt. Higgins * Alec Mango as Akbar * Oscar Quitak as Youssuff * Yana as Singer
==Development== The film is based on the 1950 book ''The Story of Zarak Khan'' written by A. J. Bevan. According to Bevan, the real Zarak Khan was an Afghan who spent most of his life fighting the British in the northwest frontier in the 1920s and 1930s. Among his crimes was the murder of a holy man. He eventually surrendered and was sentenced to life imprisonment in the Andaman Islands. However, when the Japanese occupied the islands, he remained in his cell.
Khan was eventually dealt a suspended sentence and worked for the British in Burma. In 1943, he was leading a patrol when its British officer was killed in an ambush. He watched another British patrol attacked by the Japanese and sent messengers to summon a Gurkha force. To stop the Japanese from escaping with their prisoners before the Gurkhas arrived, he attacked them singlehandedly and killed or wounded six soldiers before being overpowered. He refused to be beheaded and insisted on being flayed alive to buy time to enable the Gurkhas to arrive.<ref>{{cite news |last=Taylor |first=Don |date=16 December 1950 |title=Bravest of them all! |page=1, Magazine section |newspaper=The Examiner |location=Launceston, Tasmania |url=http://nla.gov.au/nla.news-article52798775 |access-date=10 June 2016 |via=National Library of Australia}}</ref>
Warwick Films bought the film rights in 1953.{{Citation needed|date=June 2025}} Producer Irving Allen said he was more interested in the character of Zarak Khan than in the events described in the book. He was contemplating changing Khan's nationality in order to offer the role to Errol Flynn,<ref>{{Cite news|author=Pryor, Thomas|title=Warwick acquires Bevan spy novel: Irving Allen Plans Production of 'Zarak Khan' —-Seeking Errol Flynn for Title Role|work=The New York Times|date=14 May 1953|page=33}}</ref> but he eventually decided to make the film a fictional account set in the 19th century.<ref>{{cite web|url=https://www.tcm.com/tcmdb/title/27995/zarak |archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20120313205511/http://www.tcm.com/tcmdb/title/27995/Zarak/ |url-status=dead |archive-date=13 March 2012 |title=Zarak (1956)—Overview |publisher=TCM|date=2010 |access-date=10 June 2016}}</ref><ref name="warwick">{{cite magazine|date=8 December 2025|access-date=8 December 2025|first=Stephen|last=Vagg|magazine=Filmink|url=https://www.filmink.com.au/forgotten-british-film-moguls-cubby-broccoli-and-irving-allen/|title=Forgotten British Film Moguls: Cubby Broccoli and Irving Allen}}</ref>
==Production== Filming begin Morocco on 1 November 1955 with Yakima Canutt in charge of the second unit. Victor Mature, under a two-picture deal with Warwick,<ref>{{Cite news |author=THOMAS M. PRYOR |date=9 May 1955 |title=TV PACT IS SIGNED BY SCREEN GUILD: Agreement by Du Mont and Union Includes Use of New Video Filming Method |page=28 |work=The New York Times}}</ref> joined the production on 19 November.<ref>{{Cite news|title=Drama: 'Time for Love' Bought; Gregory Sets Play, Film; 'Powder Keg' Purchased|author=SCHALLERT, EDWIN|date=1 November 1955|work=Los Angeles Times|page=B9}}</ref>
Ted Moore handled some of the Technicolor/CinemaScope photography for the film.
Stuntman Bob Simmons, who performed and doubled several stars in the film, noted that Mature refused to ride a horse. When his stunt double Jack Keely was killed in a horse accident on the set, Mature insisted on personally paying for his funeral.<ref>Simmons, Bob & Passingham, Kenneth ''Nobody Does It Better: My 25 Years of Stunts With James Bond and Other Stories'' Sterling Pub Co Inc (October 1987)</ref>
Studio work took place at Elstree Studios.<ref name="weekly">"These Are the Facts", ''Kinematograph Weekly'', 31 May 1956 p 14</ref>
==Soundtrack== Yana sings "Climb Up the Wall" (Auyar Hosseini/Norman Gimbel).
==Release== The original film poster was criticised by the House of Lords for "bordering on the obscene" and was banned in the United Kingdom.<ref>p.129 Harper, Sue & Porter, Vincent ''British Cinéma of the 1950s: The Decline of Deference'' 2002 Oxford University Press</ref>
== Reception == ''The Monthly Film Bulletin'' wrote: "Despite much location shooting in Spanish Morocco, the film's backgrounds contrive to appear almost as artificial as the cliché-ridden plot and dialogue (a weird mixture of pseudo-Oriental and Western-styled speech). Anita Ekberg's 'belly-dance' to the strains of 'Climb Up the Wall' provides the film's most bizarre moment."<ref>{{Cite journal |date=1 January 1957 |title=Zarak |volume=24 |issue=276 |pages=10 |id={{ProQuest|1305815669}} |magazine=The Monthly Film Bulletin}}</ref>
''Kine Weekly'' wrote: "The picture, probably the biggest bit of hokum ever to hit the screen, leaves nothing to chance and even less to the imagination. The British officer is always the gentleman, his wife remains perfectly cool in the hot climate, camels, as well as horses, figure in the many spectacular forays, hot-cha-cha harem sequences abound, a theme song accompanies much of its action, and, above – or below – all, religion creeps into the climax. As for the acting, Victor Mature displays tireless bravado as Zurah, Michael Wilding keeps a stiff upper lip in testing circumstances as the true-blue, though somewhat dim-witted, Ingram, Eunice Gayson is very South Kensington as Cathy and Anita Ekberg revels in striptease as Salma. The other well-known players, like most of the stars, perform with their tongues in their cheeks. The dialogue, definitely ''Boys' Own Paper'', is appropriate, and the CinemaScope and Technicolor camera mobile. Great fun, whichever way you look at it; it's bound to hit the popular jackpot."<ref>{{Cite journal |date=17 January 1957 |title=Zarak |volume=477 |issue=2579 |pages=16 |id={{ProQuest|2826275716}} |magazine=Kine Weekly}}</ref>
''Picturegoer'' wrote: "This must be seen to be believed. It's my favourite awful film for years. Everyone involved in it should get an Oscar for absurdity. ... The tragedy is that there's actually a glimmer of fact in the story. But, for the most part, this drama's so funny that it makes up for all the bad British comedies of the past twelve months."<ref>{{Cite journal |date=2 January 1957 |title=Zarak |volume=33 |issue= |pages=16 |id={{ProQuest|1771141111}} |magazine=Picturegoer}}</ref>
''Picture Show'' wrote: "Colourful, exciting, spectacular film ... Photographed in colour, it is well acted by a cast who are difficult to recognise in make-up for their parts."<ref>{{Cite journal |date=16 February 1957 |title=Zarak |volume=68 |issue=1768 |pages=10 |id={{ProQuest|1879656145}} |magazine=Picture Show}}</ref>
''Variety'' wrote: "A lot of razzle-dazzle action with horsemen dashing across vast plains and deserts, and scant costuming to emphasize the voluptuous contours of Miss Ekberg are laid on thick, but still fail to veil the fact that the story by A. J. Bevan, scripted by Richard Maibaum, is strictly formula stuff, and quite old-fashioned. Terence Young's direction mostly emphasizes movement, with assists from associate directors Yakima Canutt and John Gilling in the mass chase footage, but still accounts for an unreasonable number of static scenes between the principals none of whom seems to have much feel for their characters. With virtually no character reality to portray, the three stars turn in the type of performances that are stock for such desert action plots. "<ref>{{Cite journal |date=26 December 1956 |title=Zarak |volume=205 |issue=4 |pages=6 |id={{ProQuest|}} |magazine=Variety}}</ref>
In ''The Radio Times Guide to Films'' Adrian Turner gave the film 2/5 stars, writing: "Victor Mature, in full Afghan mode, leads his gang of cut-throats against the might of the British army, headed by Michael Wilding, in a trashy adventure yarn set in the halcyon days of Empire. Apart from a belly dance by Anita Ekberg which should have earned the movie an X-rating it's notable only as one of producer 'Cubby' Broccoli's pre-Bond collaborations with director Terence Young, writer Richard Maibaum and cameraman Ted Moore."<ref>{{Cite book |title=Radio Times Guide to Films |publisher=Immediate Media Company |year=2017 |isbn=9780992936440 |edition=18th |location=London |pages=1051}}</ref>
''Filmink'' called it "silly, colourful, entertaining" and one of Warwick's best films.<ref name="warwick"/> == Legacy == The action sequences reappeared in John Gilling's ''The Bandit of Zhobe'' (1958) and ''The Brigand of Kandahar'' (1965). The film was remade in India as ''Zarak Khan'' (1963), starring Paidi Jairaj and Chitra.<ref name="RajadhyakshaWillemen1999">{{cite book |last1=Rajadhyaksha |first1=Ashish |url=https://archive.org/details/encyclopaediaofi0000raja |title=Encyclopaedia of Indian cinema |last2=Willemen |first2=Paul |publisher=British Film Institute |year=1999 |access-date=12 August 2012 |url-access=registration}}</ref>
== See also == *List of American films of 1956
==References== {{Reflist}}
==External links== * {{IMDb title|title=Zarak|id=0051219}} * {{TCMDb title|id=27995}} * {{AFI film|id=52457|title=Zarak}}
{{Terence Young}}
Category:1956 American films Category:1956 British films Category:1956 films Category:American adventure drama films Category:British adventure drama films Category:1956 English-language films Category:Films based on British novels Category:Films directed by Terence Young Category:Columbia Pictures films Category:Films set in the British Raj Category:1950s romance films Category:Films with screenplays by Richard Maibaum Category:Films scored by William Alwyn Category:Films set in Afghanistan Category:Films shot in Morocco Category:Films shot at MGM-British Studios Category:English-language romance films