Gunga Din (1939)
Grade: 59
"Gunga Din" is an action film and comedy that is set in late 19th century India. A film that was so costly to make that it nearly bankrupted RKO, the production values are high and the cast is very good. However, quality is sacrificed for entertainment, and "Gunga Din" misses the mark.
"Gunga Din" is based on a Rudyard Kipling poem. Still, the plot is very similar to "The Lives of a Bengal Lancer" from 1935. Three British soldiers (Cary Grant, Victor McLaglen, and Douglas Fairbanks Jr) are captured by an Indian army that opposes British rule. Grant is impish and excitable, Fairbanks is torn between male bonding and Joan Fontaine, and McLaglen plays mother to an elephant.
Gunga Din (Sam Jaffe) is an Indian waterboy that serves the British army and dreams of becoming a British soldier. So that our sympathies are clearly with the British, the rebel Indians are depicted as belonging to a fanatical religious cult that promotes mass murder. The battle between the Indian and British forces that ends the film is predictable and unconvincing.
Cary Grant was a great comic actor, and his performance in "Gunga Din" generates some laughs. But his wide-eyed character has all the maturity of a twelve-year-old. As in the superior "Lives of a Bengal Lancer", the three British soldiers are kept alive by their captors for little apparent reason, and strain credibility in their success at escaping and sabotaging the rebel forces.
My favorite film about the British adventure in India is "Wee Willie Winkie", a Shirley Temple vehicle from 1938 that was directed by John Ford. Like "Gunga Din", it co-starred McLaglen and was based on a work by Kipling.
kollers@mpsi.net http://members.tripod.com/~Brian_Koller/movies.html
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