The Man Who Would Be King

1975 129 min ★ 7.5 Adventure, Drama

Tired of life as soldiers, Peachy Carnehan and Danny Dravot travel to the isolated land of Kafiristan, where they are ultimately embraced by the people and revered as rulers. After a series of misunderstandings, the natives come to believe that Dravot is a god, but he and Carnehan can't keep up their deception forever.

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Cast

Sean Connery

Daniel Dravot

Michael Caine

Peachy Carnehan

Christopher Plummer

Rudyard Kipling

Saeed Jaffrey

Billy Fish

Doghmi Larbi

Ootah

Jack May

District Commissioner

Karroom Ben Bouih

Kafu Selim

Mohammad Shamsi

Babu

Albert Moses

Ghulam

Paul Antrim

Mulvaney

Details

Director

John Huston

Screenplay

Gladys Hill

Tagline

"Adventure in all its glory!"

Status

Released

Original Language

EN

Budget

$8,000,000

Revenue

$12,678

Production

Persky-Bright Productions, Devon/Persky-Bright, Columbia Pictures

Reviews

J

John Chard

August 28, 2014

★ 9/10

From the upper echelon of boys own adventures comes - The Man Who Would Be King! Two ex-servicemen are lolling around colonial India, it's just the start of a journey that will see them in Kafiristan. Here the mountain dwellers believe the rouge white fellows to be Gods, and thus things are about to get very interesting indeed. Written by master writer Rudyard Kipling, directed by behemoth J...

F

Filipe Manuel Neto

June 20, 2023

★ 10/10

**A magnificent adventure film that adapts to the cinema a short story by Rudyard Kipling about greed, and the price that can be paid for it.** Born in India, Rudyard Kipling is one of the most distinguished British writers of the late 19th century, and perhaps one of the most prolific. Seeing a list of his written work is an exercise in patience, and if we think that he wrote it all in sunligh...

C

CinemaSerf

January 2, 2025

★ 7/10

"Danny" (Sean Connery) and "Peachy" (Michael Caine) are a pair of chancers at the height of the Raj in British India, who decide that they need to go make their fortune. Thanks to a little help from Rudyard Kipling (Christopher Plummer), they learn of the land of Kafiristan up on the Hindu Kush where the map makers have yet to arrive. Using all of their wits and guile, the pair head north and even...