Top 250 Challenge: 250!!!! Challenge Completed

The Man Who Would Be King (1975)
Number 249 on IMDb's Top 250

While at the offices of the Northern Star newspaper, Kipling (Christopher Plummer) is approached by a ragged, seemingly crazed derelict, who reveals himself to be his old acquaintance Peachy Carnehan (Michael Caine). Peachy tells Kipling the story of how he and his cohort Danny Dravot (Sean Connery) traveled to remote Kafiristan, became gods, and ultimately lost everything.

After meeting Kipling at his newspaper office a few years earlier and signing a contract pledging mutual loyalty, Carnehan and Dravot muster an army from the natives of a Kafiristan village. In their first battle, the natives decide that Daniel is a god after he is shot with an arrow in the chest but continues fighting. In fact, the arrow has struck a bandolier beneath his clothing and become lodged in it, but the natives don't know this. When they arrive in the holy city of Sikandergul, the natives confuse their Masonic medals for symbols of Alexander the Great and declare the men to be gods.

Danny has delusions of grandeur, while Peachy wants to sneak out of the city with chests of gold and jewels. Danny decides to take a wife from amongst the natives, much against Peachy's advice; he chooses Roxanna (played by Michael Caine's wife Shakira). Roxanna fears no woman can live if they consort with a god, and so tries to escape from Daniel, biting him in the process. The bite draws blood, and when the natives see it they realise Daniel is human after all, and pursue him and Peachy through the streets of his erstwhile kingdom. Hilarity ensues.

Trivia: John Huston tried to launch the film version of The Man Who Would Be King many times before completing it . It was originally conceived as a vehicle for Clark Gable and Humphrey Bogart in the fifties, and later as a vehicle for Burt Lancaster and Kirk Douglas. When it was considered as a vehicle for Robert Redford and Paul Newman, Newman suggested Sean Connery and Michael Caine. Director John Huston had failed to cast the role of Roxanne before shooting started. During filming, at a small dinner party for some cast and crew, Huston was asked if he had yet filled the part. When he answered no, all heads turned toward Shakira Caine, the wife of star Michael Caine. Huston cast her on the spot. Karroom Ben Bouih, who played the high priest Kafu-Selim, was 103 years old when he made his first and only film appearance. When he saw some of the footage he declared that now he would live on forever.

This was a very good movie. It's a buddy movie, with Connery and Caine as the buddys, but unlike most buddy movies, it's not a comedy. There is a real chemistry between Connery and Caine. There is really not much to say about this movie, just a solid performance by both Connery and Caine. Have I said Connery and Caine enough yet?

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