AllMovie

Louis Hayward goes the "stiff upper lip" route in the Allied Artists "B"-plus actioner The Royal African Rifles. Set in British East Africa during the early days of WW I, the story concerns the efforts by Royal African Rifle troops to get their hands on much-needed machine guns. Officer Denham (Louis Hayward) leads a group of soldiers on a "hunting party," the better to steal the valuable weapons. Michael Pate co-stars as Cunningham, the gun-running heavy of the piece. Veronica Hurst, whom Allied Artists had been grooming for stardom ever since The Maze, is the rather disposable heroine. As usual, director Lesley Selander paces his material like a western film, with salutary results.