Customer Reviews

Gunga Din

5 star:		(68)
4 star:		(9)
3 star:		(3)
2 star:		(2)
1 star:		(2)

 

 

Possibly the best pure action film ever made and certainly the inspiration for many that have followed. Inspired by, rather than based on, a poem by Rudyard Kipling (who briefly appears as a character in the uncut version of the film in the guise of a journalist traveling with the British army) this tale of adventure, comedy, and action in 19th-century India under the British Raj has it all. Superb b&w cinematography (nominated for an Academy Award in Hollywood's greatest year). Perfect casting, with Cary "Archie" Grant as the cockney Sgt. Cutter, Victor McLaghlen as gruff Master Sgt. MacChesney, Douglas Fairbanks, Jr. as the dashing Sgt. Ballantine, Sam Jaffee (in full body makeup) as the humble water carrier Gunga Din, and the scene-stealing Eduardo Cianelli as a ferociously intelligent villain who is far more frightening than any '30's movie monster.

The setting, outside the small town of Lone Pine, in California's eastern Sierras, beautifully mirrors that of northwestern India. Filmed in 100 degree heat, the picture's sets and backgrounds have a look of sere authenticity rarely achieved by location filming in the '30's. The superb score borders on the operatic, with leitmotifs for characters as well as scenes.

I vividly remember thinking as a child, when I first saw a grainy print on our b&w tv, that this was the first time I had seen a non-white person in a film who was obviously smarter than the Caucasian heroes. Yes, Cianelli's guru is a fanatic at the head of a cult of ritual murderers, but his discourse on what makes a good officer ("Great generals, gentlemen, are not made of jeweled swords and mustache wax. They are made of what is here [touches hand to head] and here [touches hand to heart]!") has stayed with me ever since. Not to mention, before throwing himself into the cobra pit so that his soldiers will move against the British, that "India is my country, and I can die for my country as well as you for yours".

Of course, there is also his rousing speech in the temple to his devotees to "Kill for the love of Kali, kill as you yourselves would be killed, kill for the love of killing...kill, kill, kill!" that carries rather chilling relevance to all too many fanatical groups today (though not worshippers of poor slandered Kali, whose temple in Kolkata I have visited). And it's the bravery of a mistreated Hindu, Gunga Din, who saves the day, and British behinds.

This is a film that functions on many levels and inspired far more than the forgettable remake (SOLDIERS THREE). Its lack of availability on DVD in a fully restored version, together with the accompanying George Stevens, Jr. documentary footage on its making (including color film shot on the location), makes it the number one omission in the current DVD catalog.

This 1939 adventure classic rivals the Swiss Army knife for sheer utility: under director George Stevens' sure hand, "Gunga Din" spins a heady mix of adventure, comedy, and (dare I say) drama from the few strands of a Kipling poem, and establishes a hugely influential model in the process. It's a movie that rewards both the serious cineaste and the Saturday matinee escapist, a prototype for the Lucas and Spielberg adventure epics of the '70s, and an enduring model for the classic buddy picture. Why, then, does it remain in home video exile?

Having grown up watching this on New York's "Million Dollar Movie," then airing on an RKO-owned TV station and thus dominated by the erstwhile studio's earlier hits, I was oblivious to the abrupt edits and grainy image quality already creeping into the televised prints. It was enough to savor Cary Grant's loopy, comic performance (as Archibald Cutter, arguably the closest he ever got onscreen to his true working class identity as Archie Leach), Doug Fairbanks, Jr.'s virtuous elegance, Victor McLaglen's signature bluster, and Sam Jaffe's soulful valor. By the time the veddy British colonel (Montagu Love) recited Kipling's title poem as an elegy for a fallen hero, you couldn't be sure if the print really had gotten that murky, or if your vision was blurred by the tears unleashed by the shameless (and highly effective) sentiment of the scene.

Flash forward to the '70s and Los Angeles, when the feisty Z Channel, a cable upstart actually programmed by movie buffs, wanted to air the movie. They approached the director's son, George Stevens, Jr., about finding a better print, perhaps one closer to the original release. Stevens the younger reportedly gave them more than they could have dreamed for--access to the director's own print, which included footage never theatrically exhibited. Turns out that Stevens had shot footage that violated a curious proviso, imposed by the Kipling estate, that no attempt be made to dramatically portray the writer himself.

What to do, then, with the several key shots, during the exposition and again during that final, tear-jerking scene, with the mustachioed, bespectacled 'journalist' who, while unnamed, was clearly intended to be ol' Rudyard himself? Sadly, the only practical solution was the cutting room floor or, in the case of that final shot, which showed the Kipling figure shoulder to shoulder with the surviving principals, to blow up the negative and crop the offending character from the frame.

With the loan of the director's print, however, the Z Channel and its subscribers got to see a version of "Gunga Din" that solved the narrative hiccups that had plagued the movie for 30 years. Stevens' beautifully-shot, sun-drenched images of his reimagined sub-continent were immaculate, convincingly conjuring its desolate beauty in Southern Californian locations (largely in the Simi Valley, if memory serves). The fluid editing, terrific stuntwork, and, of course, rapid-fire wisecracks of Grant, Fairbanks, and McLaglen underline an early fight sequence (an ambush by Thugs while the soldiers are searching a seemingly abandoned village) as THE blueprint for Indiana Jones, Butch and Sundance, and the "Lethal Weapon" pictures. (As for racial stereotypes, script writers Ben Hecht and Charles MacArthur weren't reactionaries; their fanatical assasins, based on historical fact, seem less far-fetched in the context of recent fundamentalist radicalism than they may have 20 years ago, while the title character, as portrayed by Jaffe, anchors his comic naivete with the gravity of his devotion and glimmers of fatalism.)

I managed to tape an airing on my Beta machine, and subsequent viewings made clear to this older, presumably more film-savvy buff what had been intuitive to the wide-eyed eight-year-old. This was, and is, a wonderful movie. In a year famously regarded as the high water mark for Hollywood's "golden age" of studio-produced magic, "Gunga Din" still stands as a worthy peer to the year's better-served, more easily obtained classics. Whatever legal hurdles presently block its release, "Din" almost certainly survives in a superb print.

Now, who's going to have the taste, not to mention commercial wisdom (and it would be that) to bring this back to life on DVD? You might even tempt no less a light than Spielberg to 'fess up and salute the source, much as Lucas did for the Criterion edition of Kurosawa's 'The Seventh Samurai.' Come to think of it, perhaps Criterion would be the logical candidate to restore a '30s adventure masterpiece to vivid glory.

This copy has one major fault: Too strongly edited. The opening scene with the character of Rudyard Kipling riding in a railway coach has been entirely omitted. The scene with the British Elephant squads setting up their artillery has been severely edited, and one misses the awesomeness of the pachyderms executing the drill of unloading the pieces as no other artillery unit in the world could do. And for what? So mediocre trailers and other trivia could be included on the DVD? I paid 11 cents at a Saturday matinee to see the original, and those scenes have been with me all these years. Would be pleased to have you offer an edition with the scenes restored.

The British Army battles a Thuggee uprising in colonial India.
There are action movies, there are good action movies, and there is George Stevens' 1939 GUNGA DIN, the greatest action movie ever filmed. It has it all, as the director's son George Stevens, Jr. reminds us in the recent `making of' feature bundled with this dvd - humor, action and humanity. Not - alas - romance (poor Joan Fontaine.) A disappointing, albeit beautiful, actress up to that point, Fontaine is nothing much than a plot device used to lure one of the film's soldiers three - Douglas Fairbanks, Jr. - away from the other two, Victor McLaglen and Cary Grant.
In that same feature are some circa 1985 interview clips of Fairbanks, who tells us that while filming some of the actors wondered if GUNGA DIN was dosed a little too liberally with humor. Indeed, few action movies this side of Indiana Jones are quite so persistently jaunty, few lean so close to slapstick. Grant has the lead comic role, but McLaglen and Fairbanks have their share of gags as well. It's not a comedy, but the humor adds essential air to the proceedings.
The bad guys in GUNGA DIN are malevolent, grim, Kali (the Goddess of Destruction) worshiping Thuggees. The Thuggees are a deadly threat who aren't allowed a slapstick moment. If GUNGA DIN'S humor adds a necessary lightness, the Thuggee menace adds essential weight. These guys are creepy, evil incarnate, and it's in the battles with them - especially the breathtaking grand battle at the end - that the movie generates its thrills.
We have only to account for that rarest of action movie qualities George Jr. mentioned - humanity. Of course, it's embodied in the title character Gunga Din, played by the then relatively unknown Sam Jaffe. Jaffe is pitch-perfect in the role of the beastie, or water-carrier, who dreams of becoming a soldier. Film historian Rudy Behlmer tells us on the commentary track that Jaffe modeled his performance on Sabu, the Indian actor who was the first choice but unavailable for the role. Jaffe, we're told, approached the role as if he were Sabu - a derivative approach who's only virtue is that it works. Jaffe's Din IS humanity - childlike, questing, capable of deeds that make hardened soldiers (and most of the audience, I wager), weep. Din's simple wish is to be accepted, and it is Din who is the soul of this movie.
GUNGA DIN is the best action movie ever, bar none. Strongest recommendation for this essential movie.

This is it -- THE most memorable of Hollywood's high-water action epics; yeah, I love "Captain Blood" and "The Adventures of Robin Hood"; sure, there is nothing like "The Prisoner of Zenda" (with Ronald Colman) for sheer derring-do and slapdash romantics but . . . "Gunga Din" says and does it all -- with a broad touch of screwball, bravado, wit, camaraderie, brashness, exuberance and downright pleased as punch with itself fun; it's the only film I can watch beginning to end, more delighted with each viewing and unbelieving that, after two hours, there isn't more; and does it have anything to do with the Kipling poem? Some . . . but does that matter? Not at all; this is a film about the right stuff in British India during an 1880's resurgence of Thuggee (the murderous Kali-worshipping stranglers that Indiana Jones had to contend with in "The Temple of Doom"); Spielberg and Lucas owe a lot to Stevens and "Gunga Din"; as does any director worth his salt who wants to take a good shot at an action film that people will want to sit through over and over. Yeah, "Gunga Din" is broadly acted, the action scenes are probably sped up, the black and white photography gets a little grainy (someone please restore this movie! ), but who cares -- the music, script, direction are sublime; the acting charming; the end is something to get on your feet for. And it's only 61 years old. Let's hope an enlightened studio rereleases ito n video and DVD real soon. Like maybe for the holidays?

This 1939 favorite is a rousing, rip roaring, action/adventure buddy movie that takes place in India during the British Raj in what looks to be sometime during the latter part of the nineteenth century. There, the British run into a spot of trouble, as the notorious Thuggee cult that worshipped the goddess Kali and was ostensibly wiped out by the British years earlier seems to be enjoying a resurgence.

At one time, this ancient murderous cult of professional thieves numbered as many as ten thousand, and it members, called Thugs. At the height of their power, Thugs would kill approximately thirty thousand unsuspecting people a year, often innocent travelers on the road. Thugs had an interesting modus operandi, as they would kill their victims by garroting them with a weighted scarf, relieve them of their worldly possessions, and then quickly bury them in graves, so that the victims would appear to have vanished off the face of the earth. This killer cult flourished for centuries in India, until the British, with the cooperation of the existing Indian government of the time, decimated their ranks, making them a curious relic of India's colorful past.

So, when it becomes apparent that Thugs are once again on the rise, it is of utmost concern to British officers, especially as these Thugs seem to be destroying communications by cutting down the lines over which telegraph signals are transmitted. Meanwhile, in one British outpost, three military buddies, cut-up Sgt. Archibald Cutter (Cary Grant), blustery Sgt. 'Mac' McChesney (Victor McLaglen ), and dashing Sgt. Thomas Ballantine (Douglas Fairbanks, Jr.) are involved in a free wheeling brawl with others. This is the viewer's introduction to these three buddies, whose motto seems to be all for one, and one for all. They are the functional equivalent of the three musketeers in the army of the British Raj. They are also the one's selected to investigate the mysterious downing of the lines of communication. What they discover ends up in a rousing skirmish by a small band of Thugs.

When they return to their outpost, down but not out, they are going to be sent back out for further investigation, only this time it initially appears that Ballantine will not be going, as his enlistment is up and, much to the chagrin of his comrades, he is scheduled to marry a young, beautiful woman (Joan Fonataine). Of course, boys will be boys, and peer pressure wins out. So, Ballantine goes off with his buddies, ostensibly for one last time. Accompanying them and their men is the garrison's regimental water bearer or bhisti, Gunga Din (Sam Jaffe), a simple man who harbors a secret desire to be a soldier and bugler in the British army.

When Cutter and Gunga Din accidentally stumble upon the ancient golden temple of Kali and its Thug adherents, they discover that the Thugs are led by a charismatic, highly articulate and intelligent Guru (Eduardo Ciannelli). This Guru, angry at the decimation of the Thuggee cult, has gathered its remaining adherents in order to attack the British and drive them out of India. He is determined to oust the British Empire from India, so that his own may flourish as they did in the old days. In order to allow Gunga Din to go back for help, Cutter then does the unthinkable. This leads to a series of rousing events that are sure to keep the viewer riveted to the screen.

While the film is not an adaptation of Rudyard's Kipling's poem of the same name, the essence of the character Gunga Din, played by Sam Jaffe, is that of the character in Kipling's poem. In fact, Rudyard Kipling appears as a minor character at the end of the film and a few lines of that poem are read.
I loved this film as a child, and I still love it today. This is simply a marvelous film that, by the standards of today, may be a bit politically incorrect in parts, but remains, nonetheless, wholly entertaining.

The role of Cutter, which is essentially a comedic role, was originally to be played by Douglas Fairbanks, Jr., and the role of the dashing Ballantine was to be played by Cary Grant. When Grant read the script, he insisted on playing Cutter or he would not play anyone at all. Of course, as Grant was then in top form as a box office star, his wish was granted, and he does not disappoint. He is positively marvelous as the cheeky Cutter. The role of Ballantine is well-served by the debonair and handsome Douglas Fairbanks, Jr., and Victor McLaglen is excellent in the role of the blustery, slightly misogynistic McChesney. This trio of comrades and their adventures will keep the viewer riveted to the screen.

Of course, Sam Jaffe is terrific as Gunga Din. By the time the end of the film rolls around, one can understand the line in Kipling's poem, "Gunga Din" that pretty much sums up the character in the film, "You're a better man than I am, Gunga Din!" As touching a performance as Sam Jaffe gives, however, there is one performance that stands out above all others in the film. Given the cast in this film, it is high praise, indeed! That singular recognition goes to the Italian born, veteran actor, Eduardo Ciannelli. Known mostly for the gangster roles that he played, Ciannelli outdid himself with his hypnotic and compelling performance as the fanatical Guru. His is the standout performance in a film riddled with excellent ones.

To my surprise, the film was shot on location in Lone Pine, California, although, while watching it, I would have sworn that it had been shot in the Northwest Frontier of India, somewhere along the Khyber Pass. George Stevens did a great job of directing this film and making it a favorite of many film buffs. This is a film worthy of a place in one's personal film collection. Bravo!

Just one of the lines that makes your hair stand on end in this best of all 1930s action films, "Gunga Din". I recently rediscovered this old classic in the New York Public Library while hunting for something to occupy my four-year nephew while I was going to baby-sit him. Since he loves Flynn's "Robin Hood", Power's "Mark of Zorro", and Wilcoxin's "The Crusades", I thought that the little guy would probably take to "Gunga Din" like a duck to water, and was I ever right! Not only that, but even I, Aunt TutorGal, bought my own used copy because I just had such a good time with it. As far as I know, this is Cary Grant's only true swashbuckler, and he and the gang are A-one!

Here we're back in Colonial India again, with three soldier comrades: Cary Grant, a Cockney always looking for hidden treasure; Victor McLaglin, a blustery two-fisted elephant lover; and Douglas Fairbanks, the most elegant of the three and the best swordsman of the lot. The crisis comes early when Fairbanks reluctantly announces to the other two that he's not going to renew his term with the British Army because he's going to marry Joan Fontaine and go into the tea business. Classic case of two angry friends trying to bust up a guy's romance or at least find a way to get Doug to re-enlist, even by tricks if necessary.

So who's Gunga Din? Why, he's the Indian water carrier of the regiment who longs to be a soldier-bugler himself. Unfortunately, he has to endure a lot of racist remarks from the prejudiced McLaglen, but at least Cary Grant takes a shine to him, though perhaps he's a little patronizing himself. Sam Jaffee, later Ben-Hur's father-in-law, does a creditable job as eponymous Din. Montague Love, erstwhile Bishop of the Black Canon from "Robin Hood", checks in as the commanding officer, and turns in a good job. Joan Fontaine, in an early role, hasn't much to do as Doug's fiancee, except be a figure of scorn for the other two buddies.

Kudos to Eduardo Cianelli as the evil Guru who has resurrected the devilish Tugghee cult. It's he who directs his swarms of shrouded followers to go out there and strangle as many British soldiers as possible, for the love of Kali, their blood goddess.

Every time The Nephew and I watch the movie, he always asks me in a very worried voice, "But the British are going to win, aren't they?" as though the ending might change while sitting in the video case. But rest assured, that "Gunga Din" satisfies its viewers with action, thrills, and even some tears for A Noble Sacrifice on one character's part. If you really want to have a rollicking good time, "Gunga Din"'s your man.

This is THE greatest adventure movie of ANY time. I agree with every reviewer who has pointed out that this movie really ought to be on DVD (and to think its even out of print??? I guess that's because Hollywood doesn't want us to know they've been `homaging' this movie for the past forty years). I remember when I first picked this up...just thinking `hmmm...Cary Grant and Victor McLaglen, can't be all that bad...' I was utterly rapt when I finally watched it. When they find that deserted town and the one prisoner starts calling out `Kaalii!! Kaalii!' and all those figures appear in the hills, MAN OH MAN! After that, your face is inches from the screen! Three brawling British soldiers (Cary Grant, Victor McGlaglen, and Douglas Fairbanks Jr.) go toe-to-toe with the murderous Thuggee cult in India (years before Indiana Jones knew what a Thuggee was). The action in this picture is stupendous! Douglas Fairbanks Jr. CATCHES a hurled throwing axe and returns it to its owner!! Cary Grant drops a stick of dynamite on a cultist, the guy bends over to pick it up, and EXPLODES! This is inspired by the Rudyard Kipling poem of the same name, which concerns a plucky Hindu waterbearer who proves to be the best man of all in the climactic battle sequence at the end. The villainous Guru-head of the Kali worshippers is played with sinister, quiet menace, the heroes are as likable and swashbuckling as you can get, and when young Mr. Kipling reads that poem at the end, you WILL be in tears (manly tears, of course...) This movie is astounding! Great black and white cinematography that really ought to get the digital treatment.

Ok ,I know hollywood isn't known,particularly in recent years ,for intelligence, but the present unavailability of this movie is the ultimate example of idiocy.This is on everyones list as one of the greatest movies ever made--in fact many believe it to be THE greatest adventure film ever made.So why isnt it available in DVD or VHS??I mean its been out of distribution for years now.What gives???

GUNGA DIN is a great story about British army life in India in the late nineteenth century. It contains plenty of military action reminiscent of BEAU GESTE and a lot of humor.

Victor McLaglen, Cary Grant and Douglas Fairbanks Jr. are superb as they play three veteran non-coms. The supporting cast of Sam Jaffe, Edwardo Ciannelli, Joan Fontaine, Montagu Love and Robert Coote is excellent. Jaffe excells as the native water carrier and Ciannelli gives a memorable performance as the crazed leader of a group of rebel religious fanatics.

The film received no Oscars mainly because the 1939 Academy Awards competition was dominated by GONE WITH THE WIND and THE WIZARD OF OZ.

George Stevens is also remembered for his fine work as director of SHANE, GIANT and A PLACE IN THE SUN. He received Oscars for the latter two movies.