NOTE: The below Blu-ray captures were taken directly from the Blu-ray disc.

ADDITION: Kino Blu-ray (April 2020): Kino have transferred Henry Hathaway's The Lives of a Bengal Lancer to 1080P Blu-ray. It appears to be from the same master approved with the same marks as the DVD and is described as a "Brand New 4K Master". The higher resolution makes the damage (see three samples below) more visible but the overall image, on a dual-layered disc with a max'ed out bitrate (7X that of the SD) is vastly superior. The heavy film textures are very prevalent and the slightly darker image is far more representative of the original 1.37:1 presentation.

NOTE: We have added 56 large resolution Blu-ray captures (in lossless PNG format) for DVDBeaver Patrons HERE

On their Blu-ray, Kino use a DTS-HD Master 2.0 channel mono track (16-bit) in the original English language. It has plenty of low-level production audio effects and a wonderful adventure-esque score by uncredited Herman Hand (The Song of Songs, A Farewell to Arms), John Leipold (Christmas in July, Murder in the Zoo, The Devil is a Woman, The Flying Deuces, Duck Soup and Those Redheads from Seattle, Preston Sturges' The Lady Eve, Sullivan's Travels), Milan Roder (The Song of Songs, Supernatural, Murnau's Tabu) and, credited, Heinz Roemheld (I, Jane Doe, Ruby Gentry, Dangerous, The Monster that Challenged The World, The Land Unknown, The Mole People, 1933's The Invisible Man)  sounding a bit deeper than the lossy SD. Kino offer optional English subtitles on their Region 'A' Blu-ray.

The Kino Blu-ray offers a new audio commentary by film historian Eddy Von Mueller and he discusses and support his contention that The Lives of a Bengal Lancer has many of the conventions of a western - just one drafted onto colonial India - a 'Northern Western' per-se. He talks about the aesthetic of orientalism in the production and that there is very little of Francis Yeats-Brown novel in the film. I particularly found interesting how evocative the film is of Sam Pechinpah's The Wild Bunch in many instances throughout the film. It's very good and worth the indulgence. There is also a theatrical trailer and trailers for similar films.

The Lives of a Bengal Lancer is a fabulous adventure epic in what would be modern Pakistan - about three comrades-in-arms (with a Musketeer-like bond) confronting loyalty in the age of Victorian honor. Henry Hathaway's vintage-era gem looks great on Kino's 4K-restored Blu-ray and the new commentary makes it a very easy recommendation! 

Gary Tooze

ON THE DVD (2005): This DVD is the black sheep of the boxset with a very hazy, multiply scratched image in the first 10 minutes - it then settles down well gaining sharpness and although the scratches remain they are less noticeable. I imagine the print was quite damaged and there was little they could do barring a full restoration. It is on one side of a single layer with Beau Geste on the other side. Outside of the first 10 minutes this is acceptable for CRTs. 

Gary W. Tooze