Bhowani Junction

"M-G-M's Drama Aflame With Love And Revolt!"

1956 1h 50m EN

😐

6.1

MID

★6.1TMDB · 40

AdventureRomanceDrama

Synopsis

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Anglo-Indian Victoria Jones seeks her true identity amid the chaos of the British withdrawal from India.

“M-G-M's Drama Aflame With Love And Revolt!”

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Cast

Ava Gardner
Victoria Jones
Stewart Granger
Col. Rodney Savage
Bill Travers
Patrick Taylor
Abraham Sofaer
Surabhai
Francis Matthews
Ranjit Kasel
Alan Tilvern
Ted Dunphy
Marne Maitland
Govindaswami
Peter Illing
Ghanshyam

Credits

Behind the camera

Director: George Cukor
Writers: Sonya Levien, Ivan Moffat
Languages: English
Countries: United States of America

Want more? Switch to Cinephile mode in the header for DP, composer, budget, box office, production companies, keywords, and release history.

Did you know?

Fun facts 🍿

1 / 8

ERA

Did you know

70 years old — a genuine piece of film history.

MoodPlayr · trivia#01

2 / 8

DIRECTOR

Did you know

Directed by George Cukor, shot by Freddie Young. Note their partnership — DPs and directors often return to each other across a career.

MoodPlayr · trivia#02

3 / 8

DIRECTOR

Did you know

Original score by Miklós Rózsa. Worth a dedicated listen after — most great films lose half their impact without the score.

MoodPlayr · trivia#03

4 / 8

DIRECTOR

Did you know

Editor George Boemler shaped the rhythm. On an edit-heavy film, the editor does more to control your pulse than the director.

MoodPlayr · trivia#04

5 / 8

CAST

Did you know

Ava Gardner and Stewart Granger and Bill Travers carry the top of the cast.

MoodPlayr · trivia#05

6 / 8

FACT

Did you know

Marketing tagline: "M-G-M's Drama Aflame With Love And Revolt!".

MoodPlayr · trivia#06

7 / 8

WILD

Did you know

IMDB entry: tt0049007 — still the authoritative cross-reference for credits and trivia.

MoodPlayr · trivia#07

8 / 8

WILD

Did you know

Only 40 TMDB ratings — you're getting ahead of the curve on this one.

MoodPlayr · trivia#08

Cinephile deep dive

The take

George Cukor directs. Freddie Young behind the camera. Miklós Rózsa scores. George Boemler cuts. Produced in United States of America. Dialogue in English.

Trivia

Things worth knowing

170 years old — a genuine piece of film history.
2Directed by George Cukor, shot by Freddie Young. Note their partnership — DPs and directors often return to each other across a career.
3Original score by Miklós Rózsa. Worth a dedicated listen after — most great films lose half their impact without the score.
4Editor George Boemler shaped the rhythm. On an edit-heavy film, the editor does more to control your pulse than the director.
5Ava Gardner and Stewart Granger and Bill Travers carry the top of the cast.
6Marketing tagline: "M-G-M's Drama Aflame With Love And Revolt!".
7IMDB entry: tt0049007 — still the authoritative cross-reference for credits and trivia.
8Only 40 TMDB ratings — you're getting ahead of the curve on this one.

The technical file

Cinematography: Freddie Young
Original score: Miklós Rózsa
Editing: George Boemler
Costume design: Elizabeth Haffenden
Makeup / hair: Charles E. Parker
Runtime: 110 min · 1h 50m
Status: Released
Original language: EN
IMDB: Bhowani Junction (1956)

Also by

George Cukor

Trailers & featurettes

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Community reviews

What people are saying

Wuchak2022-05-30
★ 6/10
An Anglo-Indian woman (Ava Gardner) is caught between India and England During the chaotic final days of British rule in northwest India in 1947, the beautiful daughter (Gardner) of an English train engineer and an Indian mother struggles to find her identity while pursued by three men: a rail-traffic superintendent (Bill Travers), his Sikh subordinate (Francis Matthews) and a British colonel (Stewart Granger). Meanwhile Indian supporters of Mahatma Gandhi campaign for independence while Communists, led by a revolutionary called Davay (Peter Illing), fuel unrest. “Bhowani Junction” (1956) is an exotic drama with adventure elements similar to the future "A Passage to India" (1985), although not as good as that one. It features most of the elements you’d think of when India comes to mind — never-ending throngs of people in (usually) white garb, trains, street commotion, etc. Ava is beautiful, Granger makes for a stalwart male protagonist, the locations are authentic and the historical setting is interesting. But I rolled my eyes at the subplot regarding a certain person feeling guilty about something, which didn’t make sense since what that person did was in self-defense and the perpetrator was an ignoble scumbag. The movie runs 1 hour, 50 minutes, and was shot in Lahore, Pakistan, which is just across the border from northwestern India; the train wreck sequence was done 35 miles outside London to the southwest; another sequence was shot at Tram Tunnel, Kingsway, London, while studio stuff was done at the MGM British Studios just north of the city. GRADE: B-/C+

Production companies