The Charge of the Light Brigade (1936)

User Rating:

7.2/10   

Director:

Michael Curtiz

Writers:

Alfred Lord Tennyson (poem)
Michael Jacoby (story)

Release Date:

20 October 1936 (USA)

Genre:

Action | Adventure | Romance | War

Tagline:

The reckless lancers sweep on and on - so that a woman's heart might not be broken! You're not fighting a single legion - you're fighting the entire British army, Surat Khan!

Plot:

A major countermands orders and attacks to revenge a previous massacre of men, women and children.

Plot Keywords:

Massacre | India | Attack | Lancer | Henpecked Husband

Awards:

Won Oscar. Another 2 nominations

Cast

Errol Flynn	...	Major Geoffrey Vickers
Olivia de Havilland	...	Elsa Campbell (as Olivia De Havilland)
Patric Knowles	...	Captain Perry Vickers
Henry Stephenson	...	Sir Charles Macefield
Nigel Bruce	...	Sir Benjamin Warrenton
Donald Crisp	...	Colonel Campbell
David Niven	...	Captain James Randall
C. Henry Gordon	...	Surat Khan
G.P. Huntley	...	Major Jowett (as G.P. Huntley Jr.)
Robert Barrat	...	Count Igor Volonoff
Spring Byington	...	Lady Octavia Warrenton
E.E. Clive	...	Sir Humphrey Harcourt
J. Carrol Naish	...	Subahdar-Major Puran Singh (as J. Carroll Naish)
Walter Holbrook	...	Cornet Charles Barclay
Princess Baba	...	Prema's Mother (as Princess Baigum)

Runtime:

115 min

Country:

USA

Language:

English

Color:

Black and White

Aspect Ratio:

1.37 : 1

Sound Mix:

Mono

Certification:

USA:Approved (certificate #2156) | Australia:G | USA:TV-G (TV rating) | Finland:K-16 | Portugal:M/12 | UK:U

Filming Locations:

Agoura Hills, California, USA

Company:

Warner Bros. Pictures

Trivia:

The original script used the real-life siege of a British fort at Cawnpore (and subsequent massacre of its survivors) during the Sepoy Rebellion--a nationwide mutiny of Indian soldiers in the British army--as the reason for the famous Charge of the Light Brigade at Balaklava during the Crimean War. However, shortly before the film was started, someone pointed out that the Sepoy Rebellion took place three years AFTER the Crimean War. The fort's name was hurriedly changed to Chukoti, and instead of mutinous Indian soldiers, the besiegers were changed to tribesmen of a fictitious warlord called Surat Khan.

Goofs:

Continuity: When the troop first arrives at Chukoti, the British (Union) flag is flying upside down -- long before the fort was in distress.

Quotes:

[first lines]
Sir Humphrey Harcourt: How do you fellows manage to look so comfortably, Vickers?
Maj. Geoffrey Vickers: We may look it Sir, but we're not. They say the first 40 years are about the hottest up here on the frontier, after that you get used to it.
Sir Humphrey Harcourt: Really?

Movie Connections:

Featured in The 100 Greatest War Films (2005) (TV)

Soundtrack:

God Save the Tsar

Charged Up

My main source on battles, the Dupuy's "Encyclopedia of Military History," describes the engagement this way. "The Light Cavalry Brigade, though circumstances never satisfactorily explained, now charged the Russian field batteries to their front, riding up a narrow mile-long valley, exposed at the same time to fire from the captured Turkish guns on their right flank and other Russian guns on their left. They reached the guns, rode through them, clashed with the Russian cavalry beyond, and then the survivors rode back through the crossfire of the "Valley of Death"....doomed to death by the arrant stupidity of Brigadier General . . . Lord Cardigan . . . and Lord Lucan." The Dupuys are rarely so editorial.

Those "unexplained circumstances" probably don't involve Errol Flynn rewriting his orders to get even with his old enemy, Surat Kahn.

Sevastopol must have been an interesting place at the time. Not only were Raglan and Cardigan there (two sweaters, aren't they?) but Florence Nightingale too, her initial experience at the battlefield. Also observing was George MacLellan, later Lincoln's commander of the Army of the Potomac during the Civil War. He learned a lot about siege warfare and even invented a saddle based on his experiences. Maybe he learned to respect siege warfare too much. It was almost an impossible task to get him to move at more than a snail's pace as Lincoln's commander. Old Abe said of MacLellan that "he has a case of the slows."

This is a love triangle wrapped around a couple of battle scenes. Olivia DeHavilland in 1936 seemed tiny, vulnerable, loving, sweet, and entirely innocent, so much so that it would be an affront to even think about her ankles. She's engaged to Flynn but falls in love with Flynn's rather dull brother, for reasons known only to the screenwriters. Flynn rarely loses the girl during this period in his career. The story begins in India with a chronologically out of order battle against some insurgents, the treacherous swine. They lie, shoot innocent women and children, summarily execute prisoners, and break windows. The scene in which the survivors of Chukoti wade out to the boat trying to escape was shot at Lake Castaic. Try getting into Lake Castaic today without paying a million dollars for a shabby condo.

The uniforms are very snappy though -- tan, criss-crossed with black belts and other equipment, and closely enough tailored to make a viewer wonder exactly how this got past the censors. It's hard to imagine that some of the actors weren't embarrassed, although this certainly wouldn't have bothered Flynn.

The battle scenes are excitingly done, although next to completely improbable. (During one ambush by the Kahn's troops, Flynn jumps off a cliff, dehorses and kills one of the sleazebags, dons his black robe and black feathery headdress, and in this unlikely getup rides among the Kahn's troops shouting in their language that more English troops are about to arrive. The enemy believe him and take off in a panic.)

During the final charge the Light Brigade die enthusiastically as they charge the Russian guns in order to even the score for the Kahn's treachery at Chukoti. The horses die, too, a lot of them. At the time, a device called "the running W" was in use, thin wires attached to the horses' legs, and when the wires ran out to their full extent the horses' legs were yanked out from under them. It isn't recorded whether the horses died enthusiastically, there being no equine version of Tennyson. (Or maybe there is and we don't know about it? Horses may have an entire oral folklore describing how they've been exploited and mistreated by humans, not to mention being eaten by hyenas and whatnot. We may be to horses what Grendel was to the Danes.)

Anyway I kind of enjoyed it. Everyone has such a stiff upper lip, the women included. It's completely unpretentious, and Curtiz shot it with no aim other than entertainment. He achieved his goal.