This is a movie I picked on a whim with a bunch of other Errol Flynn adventure flicks. I'd never seen it before viewing it a few days ago, but I was much impressed. It's not as rock solid a movie as Captain Blood nor even Sea Hawk but it is rousing, especially the climax which I found quite exciting.
The movie tells the tale of a pair of brothers (Flynn and Patrick Knowles) in love with the same woman (Olivia DeHaviland) and how they comport themselves with dignity and bravery on the rugged landscape of the Khyber Pass and the valleys of the Crimean War. There's a ruler of the mythical land of Suristan who has been cut off financially by the British and seeks an alignment with the Russians, but who bears a grudge and leads his forces to commit an atrocity at a British fort. The climatic battle at Balaclava, the infamous charge, is in this version an attempt by the British forces to get even for this heinous crime.
Errol Flynn does a bang up job as does David Niven, who plays his sidekick. Niven is stalwart, but human too in this tale of bravery and nobility. Olivia DeHaviland has little to do frankly in this tale of manly men, but she's certainly pretty enough. Nigel Bruce (of Sherlock Holmes fame) is in this one and plays a wonderfully dotty commander who nonetheless turns out to be a man of skill and dignity.
And that's what this rousing tale seems to be most about. It's the dignity of man which is at stake, whether it is how a brother will deal with a cuckolding by his brother or answer the massacre of a bloodthirsty enemy, it's not what he does so much but how he'll face up to the inevitable.
Pretty good movie. Recommended.
Rip Off
by Alfred, Lord Tennyson
Half a league half a league,
Half a league onward,
All in the valley of Death
Rode the six hundred:
'Forward, the Light Brigade!
Charge for the guns' he said:
Into the valley of Death
Rode the six hundred.
'Forward, the Light Brigade!'
Was there a man dismay'd ?
Not tho' the soldier knew
Some one had blunder'd:
Theirs not to make reply,
Theirs not to reason why,
Theirs but to do & die,
Into the valley of Death
Rode the six hundred.
Cannon to right of them,
Cannon to left of them,
Cannon in front of them
Volley'd & thunder'd;
Storm'd at with shot and shell,
Boldly they rode and well,
Into the jaws of Death,
Into the mouth of Hell
Rode the six hundred.
Flash'd all their sabres bare,
Flash'd as they turn'd in air
Sabring the gunners there,
Charging an army while
All the world wonder'd:
Plunged in the battery-smoke
Right thro' the line they broke;
Cossack & Russian
Reel'd from the sabre-stroke,
Shatter'd & sunder'd.
Then they rode back, but not
Not the six hundred.
Cannon to right of them,
Cannon to left of them,
Cannon behind them
Volley'd and thunder'd;
Storm'd at with shot and shell,
While horse & hero fell,
They that had fought so well
Came thro' the jaws of Death,
Back from the mouth of Hell,
All that was left of them,
Left of six hundred.
When can their glory fade?
O the wild charge they made!
All the world wonder'd.
Honour the charge they made!
Honour the Light Brigade,
Noble six hundred!