The Four Feathers (1939)

Directed by Zoltan Gorda. Starring John Clements, Ralph Richardson, C. Aubrey Smith, June Duprez, Jack Allen, Donald Gray, Allan Jeayes, Frederick Culley, Robert Rendel, Derek Elphinstone, Henry Oscar.

Stuffy, too scarcely credible British wartime adventure in the grand tradition, based on the A. E. W. Mason novel of redemption against cowardice. Lieutenant Faversham (Clements) swears that it’s not cowardice that prompts him to leave his regiment on the eve of a campaign against the Khalifa in the Sudan, but becomes convinced that it really was (as if objections against dying on a distant battlefield for murky imperialist reasons are less about good sense than frail nerve); he then embarks on an unlikely plan to prove to three soldiering buddies and the fiancée who turned her back on him that he’s got grit after all. Time has had a negative impact on the spectacle aspect—those big Technicolor shots of desert dunes and advancing armies look downright muddy and bleak compared to the glorious photography of later sand-swept epics (Lawrence of Arabia, Kingdom of Heaven, The Searchers, Khartoum, etc.)—and too few of the performances hold up under pressure (even the usually reliable Richardson is uneven, and charisma-deprived Clements is so earnestly dull that it’s hard to pay attention to him expounding at length when one is constantly being distracted by how much he resembles a young George Harrison). Granted, character actor Smith gets one of his finest roles as a career soldier and blustery storyteller, recreating battle lines with whatever he can find on the dinner table, but his amusing pomposity actually undercuts the disciplined message of heroism that the rest of the film is trying to tell. Same story has been told several times, including multiple silent pictures beforehand and multiple full-sound efforts later on. Originally released at 130 min., but shortened by fifteen minutes for later prints.

58/100