God's Holy Trousers!

"Peachey, I'm heartily ashamed for gettin' you killed instead of going home rich like you deserved to, on account of me bein' so bleedin' high and bloody mighty. Can you forgive me?

That I can and that I do, Danny, free and full and without let or hindrance.

Everything's all right then."

If you had to push me on which of the many lovely films I treasure is truly my favourite then there is a very good chance I'd pick this film. John Houston's 1975 adaption of Rudyard Kiplings story 'The Man Who Would Be King' is a masterpiece. Starring Sean Connery and Michael Caine as Daniel Dravot and Peachey Carnehan it is an adventure, buddy story that just cannot be beaten.

The films stays remarkably close to the original 1888 short story with only a few necessary deviations for the transition to the big screen. The main premise see our two former British army men set of from British India and head past the Khyber Pass until finally reaching Khafiristan where they become rulers of the tribes that inhabit the land.

Falling foul of the religious men of the land, Danny is mistaken to be the Son of Sikander (Alexander the Great) after a test which see him nearly killed but saved by the accidental revelation of a masonic charm hung around his neck. This freemason symbol just happens to be the symbol left by Sikander and is proof to the religious elders that this must be the Son of Sikander as the symbol has been a secret held only by the senior ranks.

In the book Danny and Peachey are amazed when 'Billy Fish', a tribe chief shakes hands with them and gives them the "grip", a freemasons response handshake. Further testing reveals that they know many of the customs of the freemasons and this leads to the two rogues using this to claim rule over the land. In the film 'Billy Fish' is a very lost British Ghurka (brilliantly played by Saeed Jaffrey) who has spent many a year in the land and becomes a translator for the would be Kings.

The downfall of the characters remain the same for the film and book and I won't tell all in case you haven't seen it. Make sure you do see it!

I love this film, I can't count the amount of times I've watched it. I often find myself whistling the theme tune for the film (wonderfully scored by Maurice Jarre, he of Dr Zhivago and countless others fame). It would be my intention at some point in my life to draw a graphic novel version of the film. I know comic adaptions of various films usually come out when the film is first released but I reckon that doesn't matter for this.

I'm unsure of the legal side of it all though, perhaps I could draw it and I'd be the only one who would ever get to see it in case I was sued to within an inch of my life? Maybe someone knows the legal stance of adapting the film and would care to tell me? I'd have thought it would involve getting just about everyone who was involved in the films permission to do it.

I know I could do the story based on Kipling's book and stray away from the look set by the film but its the film version I love. I've even considered straying form the short story and film to the believed original source of the idea the travels of the American 'Josiah Harlan' who put the Star and Stripes on top of the Hindu Kush back in 1838. Attractive as his story is its not John Huston's film and that's what I love :)

So to sum up, watch this film its great!