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A captain in the East India Company launches an investigation into a growing number of disappearances and murders in British colonized India during the 1830s. Guy Rolfe plays the captain who discovers evidence pointing to the deadly Thuggee cult, stranglers who make human sacrifices to their goddess Kali. When a petty, ineffective officer (Allan Cuthbertson) is put in charge of the investigation, Rolfe takes it upon himself to reveal the cult as the murderers they are — but how many of his comrades and neighbors are among its members?
Britain’s reliable Hammer Films lends The Stranglers of Bombay the highest-possible production values for a low-budget movie, re-dressing many sets from the previous year’s Horror of Dracula. The cast lacks any heavy-hitters, though Guy Rolfe does remind one of a taller, beefier Peter Cushing. The first half of the screenplay is a bit plodding and predictable. It opens with the Thuggees explaining their murderous plans, robbing the story’s rising action of any mystery. Things pick up considerably in the second half, though. The struggle shifts between identifying the killers to convincing the public to convict them. Kali’s worshipers are all around — so much so, that we question how many supporting players may be in on the sinister agenda. Highlights include a consequential fight between a cobra and a mongoose that ends up saving Rolfe’s life and a mass strangling that occurs when the cult descends upon a merchant caravan in the middle of the night.
Directed by Terence Fisher. With George Pastell as the leader of the cult, Jan Holden, Andrew Cruickshank, and music by Hammer staple James Bernard.