Lux Radio Theater (1934-1955) aired “The Lives of a Bengal Lancer” on Monday, April 10, 1939 as number 214 of it’s almost 1,000 broadcasts, making it one of the longest running and successful radio shows of all time. This Lux presentation is only the fourth we have showcased since the first two back in 2013 & 2014, with the third coming in February of this year. From 1934-36 Lux ran hour-long adaptations of popular Broadway musicals, but this changed in 1936 when legendary film producer/director Cecil B. DeMille (1881-1959, photo above) was brought on board and the show switched to reprising Hollywood films, again in the hour-long format. DeMille stayed with Lux for nine years (1936-45) bringing in Hollywood’s most famous actors (when possible) to re-enact their starring film roles, and all with full orchestral accompaniment before a live audience.

This radio adaptation of The Lives of a Bengal Lancer began as the 1930 autobiography of British cavalry officer Francis Yeats-Brown (1886-1944, photo at right). It details his time (1905-14) in  Bengal in the Northwest Frontier of British India. Photo at left is of the 1930 Viking Press edition. A film of the same name was made in 1935 to great success, both financially and with 7 Oscar nominations, though it did not follow the plot of the book. The film starred Gary Cooper, Franchot Tone and Richard Cromwell. A short synopsis of the highlights of the story involve an ongoing battle between the Bengal Lancers (comprised of not only British soldiers, but indigenous Sikhs, Muslims, and assorted other groups taking up with the British) and a local warlord named Mohammed Khan and his toughened, diehard army of resistance fighters. Word has leaked out to Khan that a large shipment of 2 million rounds of ammunition will be arriving soon for the British and he is bound and determined to steal it. The British learn about Khan’s plans with intelligence of their own. The plot thickens when the son of the British commander and a couple of others attempt to sneak into Khan’s encampment to sabotage the plan but are caught and tortured (bamboo slivers under the fingernails and then lit reveal the ruthlessness of Khan and his assorted Afghani fighters, although this particular torture is not present in this radio version). How this all turns out is the sixty-four dollar question and doesn’t necessarily have a happy ending for all involved. But it does make for an exciting, tension-filled hour of radio. This adaptation stars Errol Flynn (1909-1959), Brian Aherne (1902-1986), Jackie Cooper (1922-2011), and C. Aubrey Smith, 1863-1948, who some may recall played Jane’s father in the first Johnny Weissmuller Tarzan film, Tarzan the Ape Man in 1932). The rich flavor of the colonial British Empire in India comes to life in this well done dramatization, with crisp dialog and human drama, along with one humorous bit by a soldier who makes the timeless observation that, without coming out and saying it, Military Intelligence is a contradiction in terms…an oxymoron if you will. So set aside an hour, get comfortable and enjoy this well done period piece with its cast of famous film stars bringing it all to life.

(From Left to right: Errol Flynn, Brian Aherne, Jackie Cooper, C. Aubrey Smith)

Play Time: 59:34

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