GUNGA DIN (1939) ¢ ¢ ¢ 1/2
D: George Stevens
Cary Grant, Douglas Fairbanks Jr., Victor McLaglen,
Sam Jaffe, Eduardo Ciannelli, Joan Fontaine,
Montagu Love, Robert Coote, Abner Biberman
The classic adventure yarn based on Kipling, with Grant, Fairbanks and McLaglen as army sergeants fighting off the brown-skinned savages in the name of Her Majesty the Queen. Grant gets most of the funny stuff, Fairbanks gets the romance (which doesn't last long), and McLaglen bears a striking resemblance to late-stage Errol Flynn (0r maybe it's that Flynn toward the end of his life was starting to look like Victor McLaglen). I'm still not sure how Grant survives the climactic battle after being shot, stabbed and tortured, but in a movie like this one, it's better not to ask too many questions.
