5/5 By the living God that made you
  by bernie (Arlington, Texas)

You're a better man than I Gunga Din

RKO Radio Pictures presents Gunga Din as told through the lives of three famous comrades in Her Majesty's Service. Sergeant MacChesney (Victor McLaglen), Sergeant Ballantine (Douglas Fairbanks Jr.), and Sergeant Cutter (Cary Grant).

After 50 years of dormancy the Thugs (worshipers of the goddess Kali) raise again. They threaten to run the British out of India. Let's put it this way they are the bad guys. Their layer is stumbled upon by three adventuring shoulders. Helping them in their pursuit fights and potentially saving the day is a water boy by the name of Gunga Den (Sam Jaffe.)

The movie is fast paced with lots of marching and saber rattling. This presentation is accompanied with music only could be described as swashbuckling. The music is by Alfred Newman.

The Man Who Would Be King


5/5 Gunga Din
  by John A. Billone (N.Y., USA)
What a movie!!! The greatest adventure movie of all times in my opinion. I can not say how times I've seen it since i was a kid and still love watching it! You're a better man than I am Gunga Din!!!!!!!

5/5 A fascinating adventure yarn from Hollywood's Golden Age
  by Robert Moore (Chicago, IL USA)
The great thing about this movie is that it can be enjoyed on several levels. One can view it as an exciting adventure yarn, for instance. The amazing thing is that there is a story to tell at all. Anyone who has read Kipling's famous poem knows that it tells no real story at all, and the decision to ask hardnailed writers Ben Hecht and Charles MacArthur to write an exotic colonial adventure story was an odd one. The two, however, succeeded, and the film is enlivened not only by a fun story, but the camaraderie between the three main characters, played by Grant, McLaglin, and the junior Fairbanks. Visually, the movie is always at least interesting, even though to any trained eye the scenery is pretty obviously in the mountains of California and not India. The film is also an interesting variant on films about colonialism, and while it was not in any sense an innovator in that regard, nonetheless tends to repeat most of the biases and stereotypes. The context is somewhat interesting, in that the Indian movement for independence, led by Gandhi, was reaching a crescendo at the moment, only to be delayed by WW II. It is interesting that what is essentially a film about a group attempting the independence of India, albeit in violent fashion, should receive so little sympathy, indicating how very, very out of touch Hollywood at the time was with international affairs.

The heart of the film is the cast, however. This was Cary Grant's first attempt at an adventure film after having emerged as perhaps the premier comic actor in Hollywood in the previous few years in films like THE AWFUL TRUTH, HOLIDAY, and the Topper films (BRINGING UP BABY, on the other hand, despite being a classic today, was considered a career killer at the time, actually causing Howard Hawks, the original director of GUNGA DIN, to be replaced by George Stevens, because BABY lost so much money, and causing Katherine Hepburn to leave Hollywood temporarily for the Broadway stage to revive her career, which she did by appearing in THE PHILADELPHIA STORY, which would reunite her with Cary Grant). Victor McLaglin, a former soldier, excels as Sgt. MacChesney, in a role that pretty much signaled the end of his career as a leading man and his transition to that of character actor. Douglas Fairbanks Jr., while he never achieved the success or fame of his father, was likable in a number of film roles, this one chief among them. And while Joan Fontaine does not have an especially prominent role in this film, it is interesting to see her just a year before becoming a star in REBECCA. Italian actor Eduardo Ciannelli was properly sinister (as he often was in film roles) as the high priest of Kali. But the film, to be successful, had to have a first rate performer in the title role, and in that Sam Jaffe succeeded magnificently. Hollywood never knew what to do with Sam Jaffe. Over the course of his career, he actually appeared in a surprisingly few number of films, most memorably in THE SCARLETT EMPRESS, LOST HORIZON (as the High Lama), and, in perhaps his finest role, THE ASPHALT JUNGLE. But his unusual features, which suited him admirably for certain roles, made him ineligible for many others. He was, a bit like comedian Bert Lahr, a major talent, but one not precisely suited for the kinds of films that Hollywood liked to turn out.

Trivia: Ben Hecht first became noted for writing what are essentially human-interest columns in the Chicago Tribune. His frequent writing partner and fellow Chicagoan Charles MacArthur was the husband of stage great Helen Hayes, adoptive father of actor James MacArthur (HAWAII FIVE-O) and brother of insurance and real estate mogul and, upon his death, philanthropist John T. MacArthur. Cary Grant plays Archibald Carter; Archibald was his actual first name (Archibald Leach). In 1940 Grant would play in a comedy updating of Hecht and MacArthur's classic THE FRONT PAGE, retitled HIS GIRL FRIDAY. Grant employs a small time hood on that one played by Abner Biberman, who plays the son of the high priest of Kali in GUNGA DIN. Two years after GUNGA DIN, Grant and Joan Fontaine would star in SUSPICION, which would net her an Oscar for Best Actress.

5/5 A Story of 'The Great Game'
  by Major (Retired) T. Kevin Griffin, MA
Gunga Din is one of the rare cases where the film honors the work of a giant of literature. Kipling is criticized for what he wrote which can fail in missing the superb descriptions of soldiering and the associated cultures where it was conducted. This film incorporates the reality of quasi religious cults and their dangerous fanaticism matched with soldiers who served and fought with gallant professionalism in a story not ignoring color, wit and rough and tumble always a part of military life. The effective use of tactics shown in the film is truly art reflecting life. From jovial marching song, to deployment in line of battle to bringing a Gatling Gun into action station is timeless in its authenticity. And the finish - the loyal subordinate who gave his life for comrades and command. If only mankind had as apt a vehicle to equality.

5/5 Dated but eminently watchable
  by the merovingian
Haven't seen this movie for 30 years, and yes it's old, but still good fun. The story of a wanabe British soldier of the Raj whose sole claim to fame was that he carried water for the soldiers he so admired. Constantly reminded that he is not a soldier Gunga Din serves with enthusiasm, even when under fire and finally proves that he was the better man.
Sure the fight scenes are dated, but it's amazing what they managed to pull off without the benefit of modern technology and expertise built on the expertise of filmakers such as this.