I've read somewhere that this was the second most successful film at the American box office in the acknowledged watershed year of 1939 and can see why that would be so. It's a good old-fashioned crowd-pleasing blockbuster mixing adventure with humour and a starry cast with exotic locations. One can certainly see its glaring faults today but it was made in a completely different era from now and I guess allowances have to be made.
I deliberately read beforehand Kipling's poem on which the movie was based and certainly the film stays true to its ethos. Yes, both Sam Jaffe as Gunga Din and Eduardo Canelli as the Kali guru are obviously in objectionable blackface but there are compensations elsewhere in the panoramic camerawork, populous crowd-scenes and action sequences.
The adaptation here uses the tried and trusted "Take three guys..." template of "The Three Musketeers" "Beau Geste" or, most closely "The Lives Of A Bengal Lancer" by taking three inseparable army buddies and transplanting them to the Indian Raj at the time of the Thuggee rebellion. Cary Grant is the goofy, harum-scarum Sgt Cutter, Douglas Fairbanks Jr the milder, more strait-laced Sgt Ballantine, just about to be manoeuvred into marriage by Joan Fontaine and Victor McLaglen is the tough, gruff Sgt MacChesney.
I personally found the horseplay between them to be a bit forced at times. Cary gets to talk in his native Cockney and even answer to his Christian name by birth at one point but I did think he overdid the mugging and clowning which could have been reined in somewhat. McLaglen does what he always does, in his usual big bluff manner but again I think he's allowed to overdo it. That just leaves ordinary average Fairbanks Jr, usually the butt of the other two's merry japes, but who for me fails to really project anything approaching personality. I did however appreciate director Stevens depicting the real-life character of Kipling to help top and tail the movie but overall, I appreciated this movie a bit less than I thought I would.
If you enjoy it more than me, you're a better man (or woman) than I am.
I deliberately read beforehand Kipling's poem on which the movie was based and certainly the film stays true to its ethos. Yes, both Sam Jaffe as Gunga Din and Eduardo Canelli as the Kali guru are obviously in objectionable blackface but there are compensations elsewhere in the panoramic camerawork, populous crowd-scenes and action sequences.
The adaptation here uses the tried and trusted "Take three guys..." template of "The Three Musketeers" "Beau Geste" or, most closely "The Lives Of A Bengal Lancer" by taking three inseparable army buddies and transplanting them to the Indian Raj at the time of the Thuggee rebellion. Cary Grant is the goofy, harum-scarum Sgt Cutter, Douglas Fairbanks Jr the milder, more strait-laced Sgt Ballantine, just about to be manoeuvred into marriage by Joan Fontaine and Victor McLaglen is the tough, gruff Sgt MacChesney.
I personally found the horseplay between them to be a bit forced at times. Cary gets to talk in his native Cockney and even answer to his Christian name by birth at one point but I did think he overdid the mugging and clowning which could have been reined in somewhat. McLaglen does what he always does, in his usual big bluff manner but again I think he's allowed to overdo it. That just leaves ordinary average Fairbanks Jr, usually the butt of the other two's merry japes, but who for me fails to really project anything approaching personality. I did however appreciate director Stevens depicting the real-life character of Kipling to help top and tail the movie but overall, I appreciated this movie a bit less than I thought I would.
If you enjoy it more than me, you're a better man (or woman) than I am.