The last film on Peter Lawford's contract at Metro-Goldwyn-Mayer, director Allan Davis' "Rogue's March" amounts to a lightweight rehash of Zoltan Korda's classic "The Four Feathers" (1939) with John Clements. Despite an end credits thanks to India for allowing MGM to lense scenes in the Khyber Pass, most of this black & white epic was shot at the studio and at Vasquez Rocks in Southern California. Only the grain on the film betrays the fact that footage from the Errol Flynn adventure film "Kim" (1950) was used. A stellar cast, including Richard Greene, Janice Rule, Leo G. Carroll, Michael Pate, Sean McClory, Hayden Rorke, John Lupton, and Sidney Lawford, surround Peter Lawford. Mind you, it is routine from fade in to fadeout, but this 84-minute escapade depicts the court-martial of Captain Dion Lenbridge (Peter Lawford of "Sergeants 3") just as the Royal Midlands Fusiliers has been ordered to leave for action on the Afghan-Indian border. The military convict Lenbridge of selling secrets to the Russians, strip him of his rank, boot him out of the army, and prepare to try him in civil court. Lenbridge gives his minders the slip and re-enlists in another regiment. All of this comes at a particularly distressful time because Lenbridge had proposed marriage to Jane Wensley (Janice Rule of "Alvarez Kelly"). Although it qualifies as a potboiler, "Rogue's March" is a tolerably entertaining endeavor with a crisp Peter Lawford performance. Too bad it wasn't shot in color to take advantage of all those beautiful British uniforms.
Review of Rogue's March
