Bhowani Junction (film)
Encyclopedia
Bhowani Junction is a 1956 film adaptation
of the 1952 novel Bhowani Junction
by John Masters
made by MGM. The film was directed by George Cukor
and produced by Pandro S. Berman
from a screenplay by Sonya Levien
and Ivan Moffat
.
The film stars Ava Gardner
as Victoria Jones, an Anglo-Indian
officer
in the Indian Army
, and Stewart Granger
as Colonel Rodney Savage, an Indian Army officer, with Bill Travers
, Abraham Sofaer
, Francis Matthews
, Lionel Jeffries
and (uncredited) Neelo
who went on to become one of the leading ladies of the Pakistan film industry.
The film was shot in England at MGM-British Studios
, Borehamwood
, Hertfordshire
and on the Longmoor Military Railway
, and on location in Lahore
, Pakistan
.
Battalion. In the film, however, he commands the famous 1/13 Frontier Force Battalion
(Coke's Rifles
), which at that time of filming was part of the 7th (Golden Arrow) Division of the Pakistan Army
. Also in the movie is the 4th Battalion (Wilde's) 13th Frontier Force Rifles, the band at the Lahore Railway Station with a deer as its mascot, and the troops taking part in the train accident were from the 4/13th. The battalion has a copy of the book and photographs from both Ava Gardner and Stewart Granger, autographed by them.
Another detail is the brief appearance of Neelo
as a reporter. Neelo was introduced to Cukor by A. H. Rana, the production manager of the film. This was her first role in a movie; she went on to become one of the biggest ever stars of Pakistani movies. Mr Harvey Woods was the Casting Director of Bhowani Junction and Mr A. H. Rana was his Casting Assistant in Pakistan. Rana co-ordinated all the Lahore Railway scenes and scouted for local talent for the film. There are many photographs of A. H. Rana with all the film's numerous stars as well as with its lengendary Director Mr George Cukor.
Film adaptation
Film adaptation is the transfer of a written work to a feature film. It is a type of derivative work.A common form of film adaptation is the use of a novel as the basis of a feature film, but film adaptation includes the use of non-fiction , autobiography, comic book, scripture, plays, and even...
of the 1952 novel Bhowani Junction
Bhowani Junction
Bhowani Junction is a 1954 novel by John Masters, which was the basis of a successful 1956 film. It is set amidst the turbulence of the British withdrawal from India. It is notable for its portrayal of the Eurasian community, who were closely involved with the Indian railway system...
by John Masters
John Masters
Lieutenant Colonel John Masters, DSO was an English officer in the British Indian Army and novelist. His works are noted for their treatment of the British Empire in India.-Life:...
made by MGM. The film was directed by George Cukor
George Cukor
George Dewey Cukor was an American film director. He mainly concentrated on comedies and literary adaptations. His career flourished at RKO and later MGM, where he directed What Price Hollywood? , A Bill of Divorcement , Dinner at Eight , Little Women , David Copperfield , Romeo and Juliet and...
and produced by Pandro S. Berman
Pandro S. Berman
Pandro Samuel Berman , was an American film producer.-Biography:His father, Henry Berman, was general manager of Universal Pictures during Hollywood's formative years. The younger Berman, Pandro Samuel, was an assistant director during the 1920s under Mal St. Clair and Ralph Ince...
from a screenplay by Sonya Levien
Sonya Levien
Sonya Levien was a Russian screenwriter. She wrote for 72 films between 1921 and 1962. She won the Academy Award for Writing Original Screenplay in 1955 for the film Interrupted Melody....
and Ivan Moffat
Ivan Moffat
Ivan Moffat was a British screenwriter and associate producer who, with Fred Guiol, was nominated for an Academy Award for Writing Adapted Screenplay for adapting Edna Ferber's novel Giant into the film Giant....
.
The film stars Ava Gardner
Ava Gardner
Ava Lavinia Gardner was an American actress.She was signed to a contract by MGM Studios in 1941 and appeared mainly in small roles until she drew attention with her performance in The Killers . She became one of Hollywood's leading actresses, considered one of the most beautiful women of her day...
as Victoria Jones, an Anglo-Indian
Anglo-Indian
Anglo-Indians are people who have mixed Indian and British ancestry, or people of British descent born or living in India, now mainly historical in the latter sense. British residents in India used the term "Eurasians" for people of mixed European and Indian descent...
officer
Officer (armed forces)
An officer is a member of an armed force or uniformed service who holds a position of authority. Commissioned officers derive authority directly from a sovereign power and, as such, hold a commission charging them with the duties and responsibilities of a specific office or position...
in the Indian Army
Indian Army
The Indian Army is the land based branch and the largest component of the Indian Armed Forces. With about 1,100,000 soldiers in active service and about 1,150,000 reserve troops, the Indian Army is the world's largest standing volunteer army...
, and Stewart Granger
Stewart Granger
Stewart Granger was an English-American film actor, mainly associated with heroic and romantic leading roles. He was a popular leading man from the 1940s to the early 1960s rising to fame through his appearances in the Gainsborough melodramas.-Early life:He was born James Lablache Stewart in Old...
as Colonel Rodney Savage, an Indian Army officer, with Bill Travers
Bill Travers
William Lindon-Travers was an English actor, screenwriter, director and an animal rights activist, known professionally as Bill Travers.-Life and career:...
, Abraham Sofaer
Abraham Sofaer
Abraham Sofaer was a stage actor of Burmese-Jewish descent who became a familiar supporting player on film and television in his later years. He was born in Rangoon, Burma...
, Francis Matthews
Francis Matthews (actor)
-Early life:Matthews attended St Michael's Jesuit College, Leeds and started his acting career with Leeds repertory theatre before service in the Royal Navy.-Career:...
, Lionel Jeffries
Lionel Jeffries
Lionel Charles Jeffries was an English actor, screenwriter and film director.-Early life and career:Jeffries attended the Queen Elizabeth Grammar School, Wimborne Minster, Dorset. In 1945, he received a commission in the Oxford and Buckinghamshire Light Infantry...
and (uncredited) Neelo
Neelo
Neelo is a well known actress from Lahore and mother of the film actor Shaan.-Early life:Neelo was born on 30 June 1941 in Bhera, Sargodha. She appeared as an extra standing in a mob scene in Hollywood's Bhowani Junction which was shot in and around Lahore...
who went on to become one of the leading ladies of the Pakistan film industry.
The film was shot in England at MGM-British Studios
MGM-British Studios
MGM-British was a subsidiary of Metro-Goldwyn-Mayer initially established at Denham Film Studios in 1936. The films produced there were A Yank at Oxford , The Citadel , Goodbye, Mr...
, Borehamwood
Borehamwood
-Film industry:Since the 1920s, the town has been home to several film studios and many shots of its streets are included in final cuts of 20th century British films. This earned it the nickname of the "British Hollywood"...
, Hertfordshire
Hertfordshire
Hertfordshire is a ceremonial and non-metropolitan county in the East region of England. The county town is Hertford.The county is one of the Home Counties and lies inland, bordered by Greater London , Buckinghamshire , Bedfordshire , Cambridgeshire and...
and on the Longmoor Military Railway
Longmoor Military Railway
The Longmoor Military Railway was a British military railway in Hampshire, built by the Royal Engineers from 1903 in order to train soldiers on railway construction and operations.-Route:...
, and on location in Lahore
Lahore
Lahore is the capital of the Pakistani province of Punjab and the second largest city in the country. With a rich and fabulous history dating back to over a thousand years ago, Lahore is no doubt Pakistan's cultural capital. One of the most densely populated cities in the world, Lahore remains a...
, Pakistan
Pakistan
Pakistan , officially the Islamic Republic of Pakistan is a sovereign state in South Asia. It has a coastline along the Arabian Sea and the Gulf of Oman in the south and is bordered by Afghanistan and Iran in the west, India in the east and China in the far northeast. In the north, Tajikistan...
.
Cast
- Ava GardnerAva GardnerAva Lavinia Gardner was an American actress.She was signed to a contract by MGM Studios in 1941 and appeared mainly in small roles until she drew attention with her performance in The Killers . She became one of Hollywood's leading actresses, considered one of the most beautiful women of her day...
as Victoria Jones - Stewart GrangerStewart GrangerStewart Granger was an English-American film actor, mainly associated with heroic and romantic leading roles. He was a popular leading man from the 1940s to the early 1960s rising to fame through his appearances in the Gainsborough melodramas.-Early life:He was born James Lablache Stewart in Old...
as Colonel Rodney Savage - Bill TraversBill TraversWilliam Lindon-Travers was an English actor, screenwriter, director and an animal rights activist, known professionally as Bill Travers.-Life and career:...
as Patrick Taylor - Abraham SofaerAbraham SofaerAbraham Sofaer was a stage actor of Burmese-Jewish descent who became a familiar supporting player on film and television in his later years. He was born in Rangoon, Burma...
as Surabhai - Francis MatthewsFrancis Matthews (actor)-Early life:Matthews attended St Michael's Jesuit College, Leeds and started his acting career with Leeds repertory theatre before service in the Royal Navy.-Career:...
as Ranjit Kasel - Marne MaitlandMarne MaitlandJames Marne Maitland was an Anglo-Indian character actor in British films and television programmes.He made his film debut in Cairo Road , and went onto be type cast as villains from the Far East, particularly for Hammer Film Productions...
as Govindaswami - Peter IllingPeter IllingPeter Illing was an Austrian born, British film and television actor.-Filmography:* Silver Darlings * The End of the River * Against the Wind * Traveller's Joy...
as Ghan Shyam aka Davay - Edward ChapmanEdward Chapman (actor)Edward Chapman was an English actor who starred in many films and television programmes, but is chiefly remembered as "Mr. Wilfred Grimsdale", the officious superior and comic foil to Norman Wisdom's character of Pitkin in many of his films from the late 1950s and 1960s.Chapman was born in...
as Thomas Jones - Freda JacksonFreda JacksonFreda Maud Jackson was an English stage actress who also worked in film and TV. Born in Nottingham, she was famous for her stage role as the cruel landlady Mrs. Voray in the play No Room at the Inn in the mid-1940s; she appeared in the film adaptation of 1948...
as The Sardarni - Lionel JeffriesLionel JeffriesLionel Charles Jeffries was an English actor, screenwriter and film director.-Early life and career:Jeffries attended the Queen Elizabeth Grammar School, Wimborne Minster, Dorset. In 1945, he received a commission in the Oxford and Buckinghamshire Light Infantry...
as Lieutenant Graham McDaniel - Alan TilvernAlan TilvernAlan Tilvern was a British film and television actor. He is best known for his role as R.K. Maroon in the film Who Framed Roger Rabbit.-Television appearances:* Doctor Who serial, Planet of Giants...
as Ted Dunphy
Production notes
In the book Rodney Savage commands a GurkhaGurkha
Gurkha are people from Nepal who take their name from the Gorkha District. Gurkhas are best known for their history in the Indian Army's Gorkha regiments, the British Army's Brigade of Gurkhas and the Nepalese Army. Gurkha units are closely associated with the kukri, a forward-curving Nepalese knife...
Battalion. In the film, however, he commands the famous 1/13 Frontier Force Battalion
55th Coke's Rifles (Frontier Force)
The 55th Coke's Rifles was a regiment of the British Indian Army. It was raised in 1849 as the 1st Regiment of Punjab Infantry. It was designated as the 55th Coke's Rifles in 1903 and became 1st Battalion 13th Frontier Force Rifles in 1922...
(Coke's Rifles
55th Coke's Rifles (Frontier Force)
The 55th Coke's Rifles was a regiment of the British Indian Army. It was raised in 1849 as the 1st Regiment of Punjab Infantry. It was designated as the 55th Coke's Rifles in 1903 and became 1st Battalion 13th Frontier Force Rifles in 1922...
), which at that time of filming was part of the 7th (Golden Arrow) Division of the Pakistan Army
Pakistan Army
The Pakistan Army is the branch of the Pakistani Armed Forces responsible for land-based military operations. The Pakistan Army came into existence after the Partition of India and the resulting independence of Pakistan in 1947. It is currently headed by General Ashfaq Parvez Kayani. The Pakistan...
. Also in the movie is the 4th Battalion (Wilde's) 13th Frontier Force Rifles, the band at the Lahore Railway Station with a deer as its mascot, and the troops taking part in the train accident were from the 4/13th. The battalion has a copy of the book and photographs from both Ava Gardner and Stewart Granger, autographed by them.
Another detail is the brief appearance of Neelo
Neelo
Neelo is a well known actress from Lahore and mother of the film actor Shaan.-Early life:Neelo was born on 30 June 1941 in Bhera, Sargodha. She appeared as an extra standing in a mob scene in Hollywood's Bhowani Junction which was shot in and around Lahore...
as a reporter. Neelo was introduced to Cukor by A. H. Rana, the production manager of the film. This was her first role in a movie; she went on to become one of the biggest ever stars of Pakistani movies. Mr Harvey Woods was the Casting Director of Bhowani Junction and Mr A. H. Rana was his Casting Assistant in Pakistan. Rana co-ordinated all the Lahore Railway scenes and scouted for local talent for the film. There are many photographs of A. H. Rana with all the film's numerous stars as well as with its lengendary Director Mr George Cukor.