Classic George Stevens adventure starring Cary Grant, and great cast.
Gunga Din (1939)
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Reviews Counted: 23
Fresh: 21
Rotten:2
Average Rating: 8/10
Runtime: 2 hrs 37 mins
Genre: Action/Adventure
Synopsis: George Stevens' classic action-comedy stars Cary Grant, Douglas Fairbanks Jr., and Victor McLaglen as a trio of carousing British army officers in 1890s colonial India. When the telegraph wires to one of the British outposts are found to... George Stevens' classic action-comedy stars Cary Grant, Douglas Fairbanks Jr., and Victor McLaglen as a trio of carousing British army officers in 1890s colonial India. When the telegraph wires to one of the British outposts are found to have been cut, the three friends, Sergeants Cutter (Grant), Ballantine (Fairbanks), and McChesney (McLaglen), are sent to investigate. They encounter the Thugges, a cult of religious extremists intent on driving the British from their land, but are able to repel their attack. After the soldiers return to their posts, Ballantine decides to leave the service and marry his girlfriend, Emmy Stebbins (Joan Fontaine). His friends are horrified by this news, and try to concoct a ruse to keep him in the army. While waiting, the mercenary Cutter, led by Gunga Din--their loyal, native water-bearer, goes into the hills in search of gold. They find that the temple of gold is, in fact, the headquarters of the Thugges, who capture Cutter, but allow Din to escape. Stevens makes good use of his slapstick training here, putting a comic twist on the potential cliches of nearly every scene. In doing so, he creates of one of the most sheerly entertaining films every made. The three principals are perfectly cast, and the film boosted Grant to a new level of stardom. However, the unfortunate, "white man's burden" treatment accorded to Gunga Din must be seen in the context of the film's more benighted time. [More]
Starring: Cary Grant, Douglas Fairbanks, Victor McLaglen, Sam Jaffe
Starring: Cary Grant, Douglas Fairbanks, Victor McLaglen, Sam Jaffe, Eduardo Ciannelli, Joan Fontaine, Montagu Love, Robert Coote, Cecil Kellaway, Abner Biberman, Lumsden Hare, Charles Bennett
Director: George Stevens
Director: George Stevens
Screenwriter: Fred Guiol
Story: Rudyard Kipling
Producer: George Stevens
Composer: Alfred Newman
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Reviews for Gunga Din
Stevens's deliberate pacing serves the comedy remarkably well, although the action scenes are blunted by too-careful compositions and artsy cutting.
This is a pretty spiffing adventure yarn, with some classically staged fights, terrific performances.
As breezy as the pipe playing Seaforth Highlanders marching to battle without a care in the world.
A little jingoistic today, the film is nonetheless a critical standard-bearer of historical adventure flicks, and a quite funny one too.
If PC backlash makes such classics like Gunga Din difficult to revisit, so be it. At this point, there’s no getting around it.
The best one could ever say for it is that its hinges were once merely creaky instead of frozen.
This hugely exciting adventure film was one of director George Stevens' last pure entertainments before he went off to war and came back as a 'serious' filmmaker.
Gunga Din has served as the inspiration for countless adventure yarns over the decades.
Like the poem, the movie is sentimental and corny and totally absurd, and we wouldn't want it any other way. This is grand and exhilarating filmmaking that's hard to resist.
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