The Charge of the Light Brigade (1936)

Directed by Michael Curtiz. Starring Errol Flynn, Donald Crisp, Henry Stephenson, Nigel Bruce, Olivia de Havilland, Patric Knowles, C. Henry Gordon, David Niven, Spring Byington, G. P. Huntley Jr.

The famed Alfred Lord Tennyson poem inspired this largely fictional adventure film, one of the era’s popular British Imperial escapades. Flynn is suitably cast as a major of a lancer company stationed in India who burns for vengeance after a nefarious rajah (Gordon) massacres the occupants of an English outpost; de Havilland is on hand for some romantic flavor, but despite prime billing on promotional materials, she doesn’t have much screentime (this is also an unusual occasion where she’s paired up in a film with Flynn, but her character is actually in love with another man—Flynn’s brother, played by a dull Knowles). Polished and well-paced despite its trite love triangle, with reliable performances and laudable production values; the booming entertainment value of its titular climax, however, is severely compromised by the knowledge that over two dozen horses were killed during filming (the outcry resulted in Congress passing animal protection laws). Music by Max Steiner, his first of over a hundred film scores for Warner Bros. Academy Award-winner for the (short-lived) category of Best Assistant Director; it went to Jack Sullivan.

71/100