Zarak

Zarak is a 1956 British Warwick Films CinemaScope action film based on the 1949 book The Story of Zarak Khan by A.J. Bevan. It was directed by Terence Young with assistance from John Gilling and Yakima Canutt. Set in the Northwest Frontier and Afghanistan , the film starred Victor Mature, Michael Wilding, Anita Ekberg, and featured Patrick McGoohan in a supporting role. Zarak Khan is the son of a chief who is caught embracing one his father's wives Salma . Zarak's father sentenced both to torture and death but they are saved by an Imam . The exiled Zarak becomes a bandit chief and an enemy... of the British Empire. Often classified as a minor piece of "escapism", this 99-minute film nevertheless boasted a surprising amount of emerging film talent. Ted Moore, who handled some of the Technicolor/CinemaScope photography, later performed similar work on the early James Bond films, and art director John Box and costume designer Phyllis Dalton later won Oscars for their work on Doctor Zhivago. Richard Maibaum, who adapted A.J. Bevan's novel, went on to adapt such Ian Fleming novels as Dr. No, From Russia, with Love, and Goldfinger.
more