Copyright 1956. A Metro-Goldwyn-Mayer picture. New York opening at the Radio City Music Hall: 24 May 1956 (ran five weeks). U.S. release: 8 June 1956. U.K. release: 29 October 1956. Australian release: 24 October 1956. 9,841 feet; 109 minutes. SYNOPSIS: Rioters and passive resisters attempt to disrupt the Indian railroad in 1947.COMMENT: The real joy and interest in this movie lies not so much in the stars or even in the story, but in director Cukor's impressive handling of the crowd and action footage. It will be remembered that Selznick fired Cukor from Gone With The Wind because he felt that Cukor did not have the necessary "big feel" for the spectacle scenes. In Bhowani Junction it's obvious that Cukor set to work with the primary intention of proving that producer wrong. At times, the CinemaScope screen seems filled to bursting with action. As for the plot, however, even in 1956 audiences were getting mighty tired of heroes and heroines who were seeking their identities. Although the movie recovered its huge production and distribution costs, it earned little in the way of actual profit. Ava Gardner fans were none too happy either. She is cast out of her depth here. Although she comes across with power and conviction in some scenes, in general her performance is disappointing. Granger and Travers are none too hot either. It's left to the support cast to provide the really interesting and solid characterizations. Also on the plus side are Freddie Young's picturesque camera-work and Rozsa's vibrant music score.

The epic "Bhowani Junction" took two years in production (1954-55) including the location shooting in Lahore, Pakistan. It is a great melodrama that circumvents the tumultuous times and events unfolding Sub-continent's partition and the socio-political upheaval associated with it.The perplexed minds and characters of Anglo Indians filled with angst were the signs of those turbulent times as the British pack up for their home country in the aftermath of India's partition and Independence. Ava Gardner as Victoria Jones has outperformed in all facets of her central character in the movie, as she perfectly translates her persona and body language which is in complete sync with the abnormal circumstances taking new twists and turns of fate with every passing day. Stewart Granger as Col. Rodney Savage is equally superb in his majestically mature performance who takes hold of a crisis like situation on Bhowani Junction (shot on actual location of gigantic Lahore Railway station) with wisdom, sagacity and the grit to out maneuver the machinations of Hindu rebels or trouble makers. That were trying times and the British colonialists had to deal with unusual challenging situations.The screenplay and direction by George Cukor speaks for itself and I personally feel that this gem of a movie is underrated and unfortunately did not do a roaring business on the box office, but for all the glory that was Hollywood during that golden era of cinema, Bhowani Junction presents a complete feature film coupled with cinema-scope colour production, evocative musical score composed by Miklos Rozsa,thoughtful direction, superb cast and wonderful acting skills of those classic actors of a bygone age. (Ten out of ten). A must see for serious viewers.

Ava Gardner plays the role of a mixed race Anglo-Indian woman coming to terms with the departing Brits. It's 1947, time to pack the bags and go home. But where is her home? During the occupation of India, many British expats 'went native' and developed relationships with Indians. The resulting issues were half-British - chi-chi, a step above the native wogs but hardly the right (read white) stuff. For broadly the opposite reasons, full-blood Indians despised 'em too.Stewart Grainger plays the British army officer charged with the task of maintaining order at an increasingly rebellious outpost called Bhowani Junction. The Indians are employing Ghandi's 'passive resistance' to foul things up and expedite their colonists' departure. A romance develops between they two.This is an inevitably simplistic Hollywood take on British colonial rule. But it's nicely filmed in black and white with some very authentic locations.When Indians lie on the railway tracks in an attempt to blockade the movement of trains, Grainger's army officer has a neat solution. He threatens them with the contents of the station latrines. They call his bluff so he lest 'em have it. At least it gets the trains running on time.It's depicted as outrageous behaviour in the movie, but compared to what these people did to each other after the Brits were gone it was hardly worse than pissing in your tea. How many people were murdered during partition - was it a million? This is a very decent drama, but the stand-out performance is unquestionably Ava Gardner's who - let's face it - never played a bummer in her life.

This is a beautifully shot, and well acted movie. It is almost faithful to the book and a good portrait of the chaos at the end of the second world war. Ava Gardner is luminous as always, and Stewart Granger a good foil for her.