I'm certain there are already 2,793 reviews of this great period piece, but I'll be glad to toss in me tuppence, Mate. Although the Post-Colonial critics would trample GUNGA DIN and every other work of that magnificent Poet of Empire, Rudyard Kipling, his works have endured the dissolution of the British (and just about every other) Empire and will live on when the critics' names have been rightly forgotten. To begin with, the all-star cast of cary Grant, Victor McLaglan, and Douglas Fairbanks, Jr., generates such convincing chemistry that it's easy to believe they'd been soldiering together "in Inja's sunny clime" for years. The initial scenes of comradely horseplay set the tone for their relationship and introduce both the subplot of Ballantine's (Fairbanks) impending marriage and the timid, scrawny "bhistee" (water boy) Gunga Din's aspirations to become a sepoy (native soldier) bugler. Matters become more serious when a Thugee guru and his villainous son initiate an uprising, which the Sergeants Three attempt to put down triplehandedly; they're captured and tortured, but never betray the Raj and 'Er Majesty de Queen. When the British troops sent to suppress the uprising are on the point of marching into a trap, bagpipes skirling and kilts flapping, Gunga Din sacrifices his life to sound the warning on his beloved bugle. The film may date somewhat in the 21st century, but it is an enduring example of both Hollywood at its best in bringing literature to the screen and of a time when people still believed in heroes, as personified by three fine actors. Shabash, Kipling and company!

This very old classic of cinema aged a lot, but is still a nice and interesting watch. Below, more of my impressions, with some limited SPOILERS.

This film was inspired by the short poem "Gunga Din", written in 1892 by Rudyard Kipling and telling the story of a wounded British soldier and Gunga Din, a humble auxilliary (non-combattant) belonging to the Bishti water-bearers community and therefore routinely called "regimental Bishti". The action of the film is situated in colonial India, somewhere in the beginning of XXth century and begins with a series of small scale attacks against British soldiers. A patrol is send to investigate the situation of an outpost, under the command of three sergeants. As they have to travel through some dried up hills, the soldiers take also with them the "regimental Bishti", Gunga Din. And then the film really begins.

In principle the main stars of the film were the three already famous actors playing the three sergeants, namely Douglas Fairbanks Jr. (Sergeant Ballantine), Victor McLaglen (Sergeant MacChesney, the most senior of the three) and Cary Grant (Sergeant Cutter). The first of them was already more or less on his way out of stardom, as after his service in the military during World War II his career stalled and declined. Cary Grant on another hand was a rising star and he would still shine until 1960. Victor McLaglen is today mostly remembered for his secondary roles he played after 1945 in John Ford films, especially westerns but also the wonderful "Quiet Man", but in the 30s he was a real star and he already got an Oscar for his stellar performance in the drama "The Informer". Those three swashbuckling characters are of course excellent, but ultimately they are outshined by two other characters.

Humble Gunga Din, played wonderfully by Sam Jaffe (yes, the same guy who played Dr. Riedenshneider in "Asphalt Jungle"!), a man on the deepest bottom of the hierarchy in the martial society, steals almost every scene in which he appears and the more the film progresses, the more important he becomes. The antics and adventures of the three sergeants are of course amusing, but both humor and action shown in this film aged a little with time - on another hand the humble, even slightly pathetic but very human and impossibly brave Gunga Din is a character which I think will never age...

And then there is of course ZE BAD GUY, in this case a mysterious guru, priest of Kali, played splendidly by Eduardo Cianelli, an actor little known but who played secondary roles in no less than 153 films (cinema and TV) between 1917 and 1970(!), including big hits like "Helen of Troy" and "Mackenna's Gold". In this film he gives the performance of his life as a perfect mixture of a brave anti-colonialist freedom fighter who is in the same time the leader of a murderous, merciless, totalitarian cult! From the first moment he and his minions appear it becomes clear that the whole second part of Indiana Jones adventures ("Temple of Doom") was in fact a vibrant homage to this movie! The mastery of camera work and lights manipulation in the scenes in which the guru preaches his murderous teachings is a UNIQUE MOMENT OF CINEMA!

Bottom line, this is a film still worth seeing, because even if it aged a lot, it clearly is part of history of cinema and the two "native" characters (Gunga Din and the guru) certainly didn't age at all! I am glad that I bought this film and I will keep my DVD preciously. Enjoy!

This is a rousing epic film with strong performances by its cast, the kind you might have been mesmerized by as a kid in 1939, the year of its production. Even if you lean toward political correctness values, the emotion generated by the heroics here will probably override your tendency to critique such films by those guidelines. The acting and the continuous action, the hairpin turns of plot, will have you cheering for the good guys and hoping the "bad" guys don't win. The film belongs in that adventure category defined by such classics as King Solomon's Mines, Zulu, and the Indiana Jones sagas. It's a riveting performance made even moreso by the presence of Cary Grant, Douglas Fairbanks, Jr., Victor Mclagen, and Sam Jaffe as Gunga Din, and the fascinating story of the British army's run-in with the cult of Kali, the destructive goddess of Hinduism. The time is during the tenure of the Raj towards the end of the 19th century. The mostly Scottish regiment is about to walk into an ambush in the Khyber Pass--can they be warned in time? Stay tuned for the surprise ending, but get the film. You'll return to it often for the thrills.

Although made in 1939 in California, many cinema goers thought the film was made on location in India. George Stevens, the director was a master of his time.

After seeing the film, listen to the excellent comentary about the making of the film. The three stars are almost outshone by Sam Jaffee who plays Gunga Din, and he plays it wonderfully.

This is another example of the quality of hits Hollywood produced in 1939, the golden year in American Cinema.