The Man Who Would Be King is 45
On November 27, 1975, at the Tehran International Film Festival, the premiere of "The Man Who Would Be King" directed by John Huston took place.
The film is based on the story of the same name by the classic of British literature Rudyard Kipling. This tale, in turn, is based on the biographies of several British, American and German real-life historical figures, most notably the American adventurer Josiah Harlan.
The film did not receive a single film award, and the 8 nominations for this film were of secondary importance.
The overwhelming majority of film critics dedicated laudatory reviews to the film, although not without some remarks, mainly boiling down to reproaches for some protraction and overlaps in the acting performance of Michael Kane. However, the guru of American film critic Roger Ebert rated the film with a maximum 4 stars and named it "swashbuckling adventure, pure and simple, from the hand of a master. It's unabashed and thrilling and fun".
In 2015, Sean Connery, in an interview with The Sunday Post, named the role in this film as his favorite. But his filmography accounts almost a hundred roles. Including the beloved by many moviegoers roles of James Bond, Indiana Jones's father and many more. We consider this publication to be a tribute to the memory of this great actor, who recently passed away from us.
By the way, the performer of the second leading role in this film - Michael Caine - who played more than 150 roles, also calls the role in this film his favorite. Perhaps for the reason that the only significant female role in this film is played by his wife Shakira.
Shakira Baksh, who won the Miss Guyana title in 1967 at the age of 19 and then took 3rd place in the Miss World competition in London, married Michael Caine in 1973. On the role of Roxanne in the film "The Man Who Would Be King" she got quite by accident. Another actress was supposed to star in this role, but according to John Houston, the appearance of that actress was not "Asian" enough. And so, literally on the eve of the start of filming, John Houston met the Caine couple in a restaurant, and he saw Shakira for the first time. He immediately decided to shoot her in the role of Roxanne due to her, in his opinion, "Indian" appearance.
The movie audiences' appraisal of the movie is evidenced by the following figures: with a budget of $ 8 million, the film grossed $ 11 million. 66% of IMDB and Kinopoisk users gave this film marks from 8 to 10.
With that said, FilmGourmand rated John Huston's "The Man Who Would Be King" at 7.801, making it 976th Rank in the Golden Thousand .
