Rating summary

Movie		3.0
Video		4.0
Audio		4.0
Extras		4.0
Overall		3.5

The Stranglers of Bombay Blu-ray Movie Review

Reviewed by Jeffrey Kauffman April 1, 2020

Note: This film is available as part of Hammer Volume Three: Blood & Terror.

Ask even the most casual film fan what comes to mind when they hear the name Hammer Studios (and/or Hammer Film Productions, Ltd., as it is officially known), and my hunch is very few if any of them would answer “war movies”, since (as is probably obvious) Hammer has long been known for its Gothic horror output. But Hammer did make some war movies, albeit not necessarily always with the same focus that some of the major Hollywood studios did through the years. Powerhouse Films’ Indicator series has been bringing out rather interesting aggregations of Hammer properties, including Hammer Volume One: Fear Warning!, Hammer Volume Two: Criminal Intent and the recently reviewed Hammer Volume Four: Faces of Fear (Hammer Volume Five: Death & Deceit is coming out just as this review is going live). This third volume is an unusual assortment of Hammer films that all feature some kind of war as at least a tangential element, with two of the films offering plots that are putatively connected to World War II, and two others reaching further back into the mists of history to detail other kinds of battles and/or skirmishes.

If The Camp on Blood Island and Yesterday's Enemy are linked by a number of elements, including featuring World War II settings with depictions of war crimes in each, then The Stranglers of Bombay and The Terror of the Tongs are linked in their depictions of historical British interactions with various “colonial natives”. Both films also include what some of the supplements on these releases mention is some questionable judgment with regard to casting of those "colonial natives", either Indian (in this case) or Asian (in the case of The Terror of the Tongs) characters.

The Stranglers of Bombay deals with a British East India Company captain named Henry Lewis (Guy Rolfe), whom some of the supplements on this disc state was based on a real life major general in the organization, one William Henry Sleeman (Sleeman is overtly referenced in a brief closing coda text that ends the film). The “natives” who provide conflict in this case are the so-called Thugees who worship the goddess Kali and “kindly” (?) strangle their victims so as to not spill blood. The film in some versions (see below in the supplements section) begins in fact with a ritual initiation by the Thugees which includes knife slices to the arm and then a branding with a hot iron, all while a rather lascivious looking woman named Karim (Marie Devereux) reacts with almost orgasmic pleasure. This is all to say this is a Hammer “interpretation” of a supposed historical horror film, but even this opening segment divulges that the film is going to often be an overheated melodrama, even if it doesn’t fully disclose how graphically violent a lot of the imagery turns out to be.

In that regard, supplements both on this disc and The Terror of the Tongs get into how this rather gruesome film managed to get an “A” certificate (meaning kids could attend with adult supervision) rather than an “X” certificate (only those older than 16 would be allowed in to see the film). For conspiracy buffs all of the supporting documentation that the BBFC typically has evidently disappeared somewhere along the way, but the existing record only accounts for minor trims that evidently were made. How some of the remaining bodily immolations (and indeed amputations) made it into various versions is kind of amazing since, as is also discussed in some supplements, the American side of the pond censors were also involved in reviewing things for the planned United States exhibitions. (Kind of hilariously, the American censors seemed to be more concerned with Karim's reaction shots than any of the on screen violence.)

The questionable casting choices in this film include Hammer stalwarts George Pastell and Marne Maitland, both often admittedly assigned to so- called "exotic" roles, and here tasked with menacing portrayals of Thugs. Perhaps even more curiously, David Spenser is on hand as a Thugee initiate who has second thoughts and who almost seems to weirdly be in matinee idol mode.

In any case, there are a number of rather lurid sequences in The Stranglers of Bombay, with Lewis kind of shunted aside due to perceived class consciousness, leading to disaster for the Brits at the hands of the Thugs, a group which has also incidentally infiltrated their very ranks. The Strangler of Bombay does have some rather disturbing imagery (including stock footage of a mongoose fighting a cobra, as well as all sorts of gore on various victims), but the story is kind of patently ridiculous. I’m assuming the fact that Lewis has a pet mongoose was written around the existence of the stock footage, perhaps one indication of the general ambience of this feature.

The Stranglers of Bombay Blu-ray Movie, Video Quality 

The Stranglers of Bombay is presented on Blu-ray courtesy of Powerhouse Films' Indicator imprint with an AVC encoded 1080p transfer in 2.35:1. Powerhouse's insert booklet contains only the following pretty generic verbiage about the transfer:

Sony's HD remaster was the source of this Indicator edition. The film's original mono audio was remastered at the same time.

As can be gleaned from the Supplements section, below, as well as some of the comments above in the main body of the review, The Stranglers of Bombay exists in two different theatrical versions, one for the UK market and one for the US market, with each having various excisions at different points employed. The Integral Version, below, incorporates all footage from both versions, and is not meant to be any kind of historical record (as some text information states), but simply the most complete assemblage of existing footage. I noticed no quality discrepancies between any of the versions, other than perhaps a very slightly dupey quality to the text crawl and initial establishing shot of the British East India Company in the UK version (both the text crawl and the establishing shot occur at different moments in the US version, and look significantly better in that version). While the obvious use of stock footage during the showdown between the mongoose and the cobra is relatively fuzzy and not very well detailed, the rest of this presentation offers excellent contrast and detail levels, with precise renderings of sometimes very busy patterns on clothes or background elements. There's a bit of murkiness evident in some scenes that take place at night, and a couple of the wide shots in outdoor locales don't offer the same level of clarity and sharpness as the bulk of the presentation.

The Stranglers of Bombay Blu-ray Movie, Audio Quality 

The Stranglers of Bombay features a DTS-HD Master Audio Mono track that is at times surprisingly full bodied given the age of the film. James Bernard's kind of bombastic score sounds burnished and forceful throughout, and the film's over equally overheated dialogue receives more than adequate support throughout the presentation. I noticed no problems whatsoever with regard to any major age related wear or tear.

The Stranglers of Bombay Blu-ray Movie, Special Features and Extras 

• UK Theatrical Version (1080p; 1:20:17)


• US Theatrical Version (1080p; 1:19:52)


• Integral Version (1080p; 1:20:21)


• Audio Commentary with Screenwriter David Z. Goodman


• Ritual Murder: Inside The Stranglers of Bombay (1080p; 16:47) is another well done "inside" piece by Marcus Hearn, and again featuring Jonathan Rigby and Alan Barnes.


• Hammer's Women: Jan Holden (1080p; 5:32) features Colette Balmain discussing the actress.


• The Stranglers of Bombay and the Censors (1080p; 26:56) is an absolutely fascinating piece with an ex-BBFC "examiner" named Richard Falcon discussing the film's history with the Board.


• About the Versions (1080p; 6:35) is a fun comparison at the various cuts the UK and US censors insisted be made to the film.


• Musical Orientalism (1080p; 16:59) features the erudite David Huckvale analyzing James Bernard's "exotic" score.


• Theatrical Trailer (1080p; 2:02)


• Trailer Commentary with Brian Trenchard-Smith (1080p; 3:50) is culled from Trailers from Hell.


• Image Gallery (1080p)

Additionally, a really nicely done insert booklet is included, which offers essays on the film, an unmade Dracula in India project, screenwriter David Z. Goodman, and the Thugee cult, along with exploitation material and contemporary reviews. Brief technical information is also offered.

The Stranglers of Bombay Blu-ray Movie, Overall Score and Recommendation 

The Stranglers of Bombay has an unusual emphasis, but it's filtered here through a kind of Hammer template that means the supposed "historical" aspect is at best questionable and the use of disturbing injuries provides regular jolts of anxiety. The film itself may strike some as either ridiculous or offensive, but the supplements on this disc at least offer a really interesting array of documentation on its various versions and some of the thinking that went behind it. Technical merits are generally solid and the supplementary package excellent for those considering a purchase.