★ 7 / 10
Take Indiana Jones, mix in a little Zulu
tmcd77
Take Indiana Jones, mix in a little Zulu, and add a splash of The Man Who Would be King. Replace Michael Cain and Harrison Ford with Cary Grant, and what do…
Take Indiana Jones, mix in a little Zulu, and add a splash of The Man Who Would be King. Replace Michael Cain and Harrison Ford with Cary Grant, and what do you get?
Answer - A film that stands the test of time.
Grants comedic performance is totally on point, the punch bowl scene in particular having me in stitches. Based of various poems by Radyard Kiplin, this movie tells the story of three British army officers against a cult of indian strangler assassins. The eponymous Gunga Din being their water carrier (spoiler alert) who saves the day.
Certainly Lucas and Spielberg deserve some plagerism claims. Temple of Doom being very near the knuckle on a few scenes!
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★ 8 / 10
Swashbuckling Epic of the British Empire telling an American Story
l_rawjalaurence
Let's get the obvious out of the way: George Stevens's film contains many of the orientalist tropes that characterized many of the Hollywood India epics of the…
Let's get the obvious out of the way: George Stevens's film contains many of the orientalist tropes that characterized many of the Hollywood India epics of the Thirties: a hero (Sam Jaffe) in blackface, an unashamedly imperialist message positing the British as the saviors of civilized India against the threat of the Thugs led by the Guru (Eduardo Ciannelli), and a celebration of the British virtues of friendship and loyalty as personified by the American Douglas Fairbanks jnr, and the English-born Victor McLaglen and Cary Grant.On the other hand the film must be looked at in context as a fundamentally American story of the frontier wrapped up in a British fictional form. The Indian forces whoop and charge just like the Native Indians - as represented in Westerns of that time - and the Californian locations (standing in for India) remind us of more recent US history and the need for the settlers to protect their lands (the fact that they stole it off the Native Indians in the first place being conveniently forgotten). GUNGA DIN follows in a venerable tradition of films of similar subject-matter produced by most of the major Hollywood studios, including CLIVE OF India (MGM, 1935), LIVES OF A BENGAL LANCER (Paramount, 1935), and WEE WILLIE WINKIE (20th Century-Fox 1937), also starring McLaglen.In historical terms GUNGA DIN can also be approached as a warning against the evils of Fascism and dictatorship as personified by the Thugs, who are prepared to fight dirty at all costs to secure their aim of ruling the whole of India. It is only due to Gunga Din's selfless act of devotion to the British in alerting the troops as to the Thugs' plans that the colonial army is actually saved.In structural terms, George Stevens's film contains everything - plenty of swash and buckle at the beginning and end, some moments of pure comedy involving Grant, McLaglen and the luckless Sergeant Higginbottom (Robert Coote), a brief love-interest sequence with Fairbanks and a youthful Joan Fontaine, not to mention an inspiring end where Rudyard Kipling (Reginald Sheffield) crawls out of the tent canvas to pen the famous poem that provides the inspiration for the entire work. In short, there is something for just about everyone here.
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★ 7 / 10
This movie featured by three swaggering sons of the British battalions and with the seething , gusty excitement of cyclone
ma-cortes
The film is based on Kipling's heroic lines that inspire Hollywood's biggest movie 1939 . Out of the drumbeat rhythm of Kipling's most famous 85 lines rises a…
The film is based on Kipling's heroic lines that inspire Hollywood's biggest movie 1939 . Out of the drumbeat rhythm of Kipling's most famous 85 lines rises a picture that will become known as the one great movie of the year . Big on the score of its armies in battle , its war elephants , its bandit hordes , its terror temples Thugs and mystic mountains of India . The picture is bigger still in its scope and sweep , is thrill and action but biggest of all in the life breathes through three (Gary Grant , Victor McLagen and Douglas Fairbanks Jr) roaring , reckless , swaggering sons of the thundering gunfighters men who stride its mighty scenes in the flesh and blood of high adventure , it's a honest film of it all that makes Gunga Din a new experience in entertainment . Joan Fontaine gambled her against the valiant sergeants three . The romance between Fontaine and Fairbanks Jr aflame through dangerous days and nights of terror in a land where anything can happen . This George Stevens motion picture has thrills for a thousand movies plundered for one mighty show . It's a fabulous , furious and far-flung adventure with the red-blood and gunpowder heroes who rise from the storied mystery of India and storm the screen with the lusty , rousing , robust life-thunder of men who fight for the love of it and love for the fun of it . Those portions of this picture dealing with the worship of The Goddess Kali are based on historic fact . Upon release a campaign was launched by the Indian newspapers against the misrepresentation of Indian caricatures in the film, and the displaying of insensitivity towards Hindu customs , following riots in India and Malaya the film was withdrawn by the censors . The roles of Sergeants Cutter, Ballantine, and MacChesney were based on Privates from Kipling's "Soldiers Three" short stories .The picture is well interpreted by the brave and roguish Gary Grant who rounded hundred villains Thugs and the mean Guru -Eduardo Ciannelli- , then Grant shouts : You're under arrest! . Gary Grant being amusingly accompanied by two great and sympathetic colleagues : Douglas Fairbanks Jr. and Victor McLagen . Besides , appearing the heroic water man , Sam Jaffe , whose regiment colonel -Montagu Love- says of him : You're a better man than I am , Gunga Din ! . However , Sabu was first choice to play Gunga Din ; when it became clear he was unavailable , the Jewish Russian-American Sam Jaffe was hired in his place , playing convincingly the valiant Indian Muslim .
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89%
TOMATOMETER
· 28 reviews
74%
AUDIENCE
· 5K ratings
7.2/10
13.8K
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One thing the British did to rid the world, and India in particular, the thuggee cult. Next will be the 21st Century moslems aka Thuggees wannabees, ha ha ha.