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So I have managed to dig up some more Roger Delgado. Actually, finding his episode from The Persuaders (1972) wasn’t hard at all as my husband is a huge Roger Moore fan and have just about everything with him. I remember loving The Persuaders as a child. The title melody still makes me feel happy. This episode is called “To the Dearth, Baby” and in it the Persuaders are set to save a young heiress from the shady clutches of a con man. Only with a twist. And a side order of fake money. Apart from some casual racism consisting of some rather cringe worthy scenes in a Roma village, the episode is good fun and one I actually remember I have seen before. But if you just want to see Roger Delgado, well, then you probably should save your money. He has a tiny role as a villainous card player, though he is delightfully snarky and eyebrow raising. He never takes off his shades, though, which is a pity.

Then I watched The Stranglers of Bombay (1959) and was pleasantly surprised, despite the big but I had for it. We take that first:

The movie takes place in India in the 1830’s. Are the Indians actually played by people from India? No, they are not. They are played by white people in make-up. Common thing back then, still very uncomfortable to watch today. But if you can get over that bit, the movie is actually surprisingly good. It’s based on the true story of the Thugs of India, a strangling cult devoted to Kali, which killed a huge amount of people until they were rooted out. I don’t know much more than that, but I suspect liberties were taken in regard of actual historical events. Though it’s a Hammer movie and the trailer suggests it’s a horror movie, it is actually a thriller.

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The hero of the movie is an officer, Lewis, who has lived in India for many years. He has realised that a lot of natives go missing every year, something his superiors believe are by natural causes. He still manages to persuade his boss to form a small group dedicated to find out the truth. He expects to get the job to lead this group, but instead it goes to a nonchalant young officer who has been to the right schools. He completely blows off all the research Lewis has done. This comes to blows when Lewis servant Ram Das disappears and he wants to search for him, leading to his dismissal. He goes of looking anyway and manage to untangle the clues leading to the Cult of Kali and the stranglers.

Though there are a lot of racism against Indians, most of it are expressed by the noticeably dim-witted officers. And though Lewins is very much The White Hero who saves the natives, he and his wife clearly has a both loving and respectful relation to Ram Das, who is a loyal and courageous character. I will argue that the real hero of the movie is Ram Das mongoose Toki, though. It’s he who leads Lewis to a hidden mass grave and he later saves him from a rattlesnake.

Roger Delgado’s part is small, when it comes to speaking lines, but as the cult leader's second in command he is on screen a lot, doing a good job looking smouldering. Actually his two best scenes don’t have any lines at all. There is a scene when the cult leader is so overwhelmed by watching people being tortured that he has to go around the corner to wank off. Well, he doesn’t, because this movie is from 1959, but his facial expression and he getting so sweaty his handkerchief gets soaked when he wipes his face isn’t exactly subtle. Thne Delgado’s character surprises him and seeing what is happening thoughtfully gives his boss a clean handkerchief and gets slapped for it. And then he has a wonderful hammy death scene which he milks for what it’s worth. I suspect he had fun doing it.

There is quite a bit sexual innuendo, we have the native girl who gets to show off her cleavage and look happy and aroused every time someone is subjected to violence. She is really very pointless because that’s the only thing she does, but I read up a bit and it seems her part was largely cut at some point and she actually had a plotline before that. For example, this poster with what looks like Delgado’s character strangling her? Doesn’t occur in the movie.

And there are a lot of men with bare chests, so if you ever wanted to see the Master half naked, then this movie is definitely for you. I think that considering the 50’s standard for a nice man’s bod, Delgardo pretty much hit it. In fact, after watching this movie and The Persuaders I really realise how much the perception of what kind of body a handsome man should have has changed. The standard for women are pretty much the same, though there was no artificial breasts around back then, but even leading men could have a body that sagged both here and there. Roger Moore and Tony Curtis were both in their forties in The Persuaders and there are both hints of man boobs and tummies. Then google Daniel Craig…