Watching this, I was reminded all over again just how invigorating the output from Hammer Films was during its heyday; even so, this isn't a horror film as such and, in fact, has recently been released on DVD through Sony as part of a double-disc 4-movie collection entitled "Icons Of Adventure" (none of which I'd previously watched).
The film has a good reputation quality-wise, but it's even better-known as one of the company's grisliest efforts not that there's excessive bloodshed on display, but director Fisher was certainly able to milk the inherent savagery of British-ruled India for all it was worth (there's plenty of implied physical violence throughout, to be sure, which seems all the more obscene for being triggered by religious fanaticism!). Tying up with this fact, the BBFC (British Board of Film Classification) came down on THE STRANGLERS OF BOMBAY with particular alacrity. Unfortunately, many of the cuts they enforced back then (notably a female hanger-on's ecstatic reaction shots to the violence perpetrated by the titular cult have been all but eliminated, thus rendering her character virtually pointless!) have been retained for the R1 edition
though a scene involving a fight between a mongoose (the hero's pet which saves its master having fallen prisoner to the vicious stranglers from certain death at the eleventh hour) and a cobra, reportedly also trimmed by seven seconds, seems intact here!
I'm ambivalent about the picture being in black-and-white: admittedly, this allows it a gritty realism unusual for the company however, at the same time, the lack of color tends to dilute the film's potential for exotic flavor
especially since this would have alleviated its unremitting bleakness somewhat! Incidentally, while the come-uppance of the cult itself feels a bit rushed, this is eventually redeemed by a satisfactory aftermath wherein a former spiritual leader, now reduced to mere negotiator between his people and Britain's East India Company, gives himself away as an associate of the so-called "thuggees"; similarly devious had been a half-caste officer, whom the hero dealt with personally during a scouting mission for a 'lost patrol'. In any case, THE STRANGLERS OF BOMBAY features one of Hammer's strongest (and most sympathetic) male leads from this era in middle-aged Guy Rolfe though he's matched by an intense display of villainy from George Pastell as the High Priest of the strangling cult; on the other hand, Allan Cuthbertson's overbearing snob of an upper-class officer fails to rise above mere cliché!
By the way, it's always a pleasure to see the names of all the Hammer stalwarts among the credits with cinematographer Arthur Grant and composer James Bernard chief among them, they deliver exemplary work on this picture as well; having said that, THE STRANGLERS OF BOMBAY was uniquely scripted by an American David Zelag Goodman whose best work (Sam Peckinpah's STRAW DOGS [1971]), coincidentally, would also be filmed in England and prove a censorship milestone!
