The Real Glory
Tags: romantic, murder, violence

Plot synopsis:
In 1906, Alipang (Tetsu Komai) and his Muslim Moro guerrillas are terrorizing the people of the Philippine island of Mindanao, raiding villages, killing the men, and carrying off the women and children for slaves. Instead of maintaining garrisons indefinitely to protect the Filipinos, the U.S. army tests out a new tactic at Fort Mysang. The army detachment is replaced by a handful of officers – Colonel Hatch (Roy Gordon), Captains Manning (Russell Hicks) and Hartley (Reginald Owen), and Lieutenants McCool (David Niven) and Larsen (Broderick Crawford) - who are to train the native Philippine Constabulary to take over the burden. Army doctor Lieutenant Canavan (Gary Cooper) is sent along to keep them healthy. They are welcomed by a skeptical Padre Rafael (Charles Waldron).
Alipang starts sending fanatical juramentados to assassinate the officers and goad them into attacking before the natives are fully trained. Hatch is the first victim, leaving Manning to take command. Manning's wife (Kay Johnson) and Hartley's daughter Linda (Andrea Leeds) arrive for a visit at the worst possible time; a horrified Mrs. Manning witnesses her husband's murder. Hartley takes charge, but Canavan disagrees with his by-the-book, overcautious approach. Disobeying orders, Canavan sets out for Alipang's camp guided by Miguel (Benny Inocencio), a young Moro boy he has befriended. "Mike" (as Canavan calls him) infiltrates the camp and learns that Alipang has sent another assassin, this time for Hartley. Canavan and Mike intercept the man and take him back a prisoner.
Linda and Canavan fall in love, much to the disappointment of McCool and Larsen. When Hartley insists she leave Mysang with Mrs. Manning, she refuses and helps out at the hospital.
Alipang then dams the river on which the villagers depend. Hartley refuses to send a detachment into the jungle to blow it up (he is concealing the fact that he is slowly going blind from an old head wound). The people have to rely on an old well, but the contaminated water causes a cholera epidemic. Finally, Hartley has no choice but to send Larsen and some men to destroy the dam. They do not return.
The Datu (Vladimir Sokoloff), a supposedly friendly Moro leader, offers to guide Hartley and his men to the dam, but he is actually leading them into an ambush. Canavan learns of the Datu's treachery from Mike, the sole survivor of Larsen's detachment, and races to warn Hartley. Canavan forces the Datu to take him to the dam. The Datu is killed in a booby trap, but Canavan manages to dynamite the dam anyway. Then, he and the men raft back to the village, which is under attack by Alipang's men.
McCool is killed leading the defense, but Canavan and the rest return in time to turn the tide. Alipang is killed by Filipino Lieutenant Yabo (Rudy Robles). Their mission accomplished, the Hartleys and Canavan depart, leaving the village in Yabo's care.

Review: THE REAL GLORY is a terrific follow-up to the adventure classic LIVES OF A BENGAL LANCER (1936) which saw the previous pairing of star Gary Cooper with director Henry Hathaway.
THE REAL GLORY is a 'Boy's Own' style adventure romp through the jungles of the Phillipines following the Spanish-American War.
Cooper leads a small band of American soldiers and medical personnel as they train a police force to fight back against vicious Moro pirates who terrorize and prey upon the local villagers.
Cooper and co-star David Niven are the perfect Hollywood mix of heroism, gallantry and self-sacrifice.
Director Hathaway fills THE REAL GLORY to the brim with rousing action sequences, desperate derring-do and the kind of buckle-swashing that heavily influenced modern classics like Spielberg's RAIDERS OF THE LOST ARK.
A few years earlier, Gary Cooper starred in the very entertaining LIVES OF A BENGAL LANCER--an adventure film about an uprising in Afghanistan and the actions of the British army to crush this rebellion.
In this case, the film cast made some sense, as Gary Cooper's accent could be explained away by his being a Canadian.
But here, we once again have him playing a very similar role as a soldier in the American army but he is surrounded by British actors.
They never really explained how the very-British Reginald Owen and David Niven were American soldiers!
In the case of this film, it is set in the Philippines and based on the very brief Moro uprising towards the beginning of the 20th century.
It's the sort of adventure film you can enjoy provided you have only modest expectations--in other words, this isn't deep or philosophical, but more like a traditional Cowboy and Indian movie set in a tropical setting..
The plot, five US Army officers are tasked to be military advisors in the establishment of the Phillipine constabulary in 1906.
Despite the colonel's plea, the war Department has decided US troops will no longer be responsible for protecting the local people because they will never learn to do it themselves if the US Army does it all.
The movie points out that not all Moros are bad, not all agree with the radicals and some are quite helpful to the advisors.
If we had those things back then, well, the course of history in the Phillipines would have been very different.All in all, an excellent movie with a great cast highlighting an interesting period of US History that is all but forgotten today.
The Real Glory is a rousing dramatic adventure that takes place in my ancestral nation of The Philippines.
I had long been curious about this film as it took place in my parents' homeland of the Philippines during the years of the early 20th century when the U.S. had occupied it with some Army posts there for the purpose of teaching the natives to defend themselves against invading Moros.
Anyway, Gary Cooper plays a military doctor who is in charge of treating many of the natives during the American occupation but decides to help many of them prepare for the eventual battle despite his captain's orders not to bother.
Also on hand to offer support are fellow officers played by David Niven and Broderick Crawford who provide some amusing turns before things turn serious for both of them and Andrea Leeds who is charming as the leading lady who provides the buffer between Cooper and her stubborn captain father played by Reginald Owen.
And leave it to veteran director Henry Hathaway to provide the rousing finish one usually expects from many of these '30s adventure movies.
It is not didactic: it does not attempt to teach viewers anything (except perhaps how to survive in the Phillipine jungle).The plot contains many suspenseful situations, and reminded me of the plots of the series of "cliffhanger" short movies I used to see at the cinema.
The great Henry Hathaway directed this stirring tribute to the American soldiers who fought the savagely crazed Moros in defense of the Filipino people.
So insanely monstrous were these Moros that the .45 automatic handgun was developed to produce the stopping power to prevent these bloodthirsty murderers from wildly hacking innocent Americans to pieces.
The Muslim Moros had to be subdued by military force in the early twentieth century and the terrible struggle by U.S. forces to bring these fanatics to their knees is not well remembered today.
In this exciting film, Gary Cooper gives a fine performance as a brave trooper who risks everything duty demands to save the civilization America brought to the Philippines after the Spanish American war freed the people from Spain's inhuman oppression.
Not the best war movie.
Can you imagine a love triangle, where a woman has to choose between Gary Cooper, David Niven, and Broderick Crawford?
Of course, everyone in their right mind would choose David Niven in a heartbeat, but when Broderick breeds and names a unique species of flowers after his love interest, it's pretty cute.Unfortunately, the best part of The Real Glory is the beginning romance with the three men trying to court Andrea Leeds.
Gary Cooper, the biggest star of the three at the time, soars to take up the most screen time, and the plot is hardly interesting.
I like Gary Cooper in a couple of movies, but when he's cast as in a strong, decisive role, he just isn't convincing.
This is far from the best war movie you'll see in your lifetime, so unless you're a total Gary Cooper fan, I suggest you skip it and find a better one..
This is a very enjoyable adventure that clearly influenced Raiders of the Lost Ark and the other Indiana Jones films.
It is expertly directed by the unfairly forgotten Henry Hathaway and Gary Cooper is excellent in the lead role as a doctor assigned to help train Phillipine natives against the dangerous Moro tribesman who regularly invade their villages.I must point out that another user comment, by one "skt171," attempts to make an analogy between this film and our current situation in Iraq.
This film is now widely considered both "historically and politically dubious," a fact pointed out by the well-respected Time Out Film Guide.For this reason, it is hard for me to take the poster's assertions seriously, particularly when he tries to point out how our media would have "ruined" our successful intervention in Phillipine affairs as it (presumably) is ruining our involvement in Iraq.
Except for one problem...our involvement in the Philippines was neither as noble nor as successful as this film depicts.One other interesting point: this film is being shown repeatedly on the Fox Movie Channel prior to an important election in which Iraq is perhaps the most pressing issue.
Hathaway, of course, made MANY pro-war films during his career...which basically consisted of him taking whatever job the studio gave him.
Lets show nothing but Hathaway films until after the election." Im sure the reason for this is to prompt others to liken this inaccurate film to Iraq...it seems to have worked for skt171 (although he saw the film on VHS), thats for sure!
Bottom line: enjoy this film as an adventure story.
And please, do not use this film as a basis for supporting our presence in Iraq, but rather as a blueprint for what a pro-Iraq War film would be like if we still lived in an era when movies were allowed to function as a propaganda arm of the US Government's military policy..
The bloody Philippine-American War, during which Filipinos fought for their independence, lasted for four years.
The U.S. declared victory in 1902, but in the south, Muslim Filipinos resisted until 1913, and the Americans never acquired complete control over the Muslim areas of Mindanao.The word "moro" used in the film to refer to the Muslims is a pejorative term used by the non-Muslim (i.e., Christian) majority, and Muslims o that time would not call themselves "moro." While it is historically accurate that there were Muslims pirates that attacked coastal villages, this film represents most Muslims as "native devils" and the non-Muslim Filipinos s as frightened children who need brave Americans to teach them courage.
The reality is that Muslim Filipinos refused to be subjugated by American rule and fought a drawn-ought guerrilla war, the first of its kind in modern history and the only kind possible when faced with the wealth and power of the U.S colonial machinery.When you are fighting against troops that are illegally occupying your country, is that a rebellion or is it self-defense?
The second is that they gained their independence in 1898, but suffered American occupation until 1946.The southern Phillipines are where the Moslem Moros reside and if we hadn't been there, they would still have a lovely religious war with the Christian northern islands.
But we were also occupiers and it is part of an occupying army that new American officers Gary Cooper, David Niven, and Broderick Crawford arrive at a post in one of those southern Moslem dominated islands.The events in this film take place in 1906, four years after the Filipino resistance was crushed.
Our three American officers are assigned to a place where the local Osama is running roughshod over the populace and waging a nasty, brutal war on the Americans with tactics not unlike we see in Iraq and Afghanistan.I can't say too much more about the plot of this film, it gets down right silly at times.
If the key to installing fear in Moslem hearts is as simple as Gary Cooper discovers, we'll beat them without any further ado.Maybe one day someone will make a good film about the Phillipine resistance and our occupation.
It's sad that this is the only film I can think of about the USA in the Phillipines..
For all the difference it makes, the film could easily have been set in the British Raj- or, with only a little rewriting, in a post-Civil War U.S. frontier fort..
The doctor played by Cooper, was a real person forced to take over a military barracks because he was the highest ranking officer left after a Muslim Suicide attack as I recall..
The movie is a diagram of how to treat Muslim terrorists and should be watched by those in today's world who want to stop terror.
The characters are developed well, and while the story might seem like a rehash of another movie, it is a fairly representative movie of a real life hero.
Not Gary Coopers finest work, but is a good movie and will give insight into Muslim Fundamentalist mindset..
Besides which Americans were busy colonizing their own interior.But in the mid- to late 1930s stories of colonial adventures abroad seemed to become suddenly popular in Hollywood, or at least simplified and romanticized versions of same.
Discounting American Westerns, there were "Gunga Din," "Lives of a Bengal Lancer," "Beau Geste," "Morroco," "The Charge of the Light Brigade," others whose names escape me, and this one, "The Real Glory." It takes place in the land of the Moros (Filipino Moslems) who resent the Westernization of their cobbled-together country by first Spain, then, after the Spanish-American war, the Americans.
But, not to worry, everything in the movie turns out alright in the end -- well, almost.Gary Cooper, David Niven, and Broderick Crawford are Army lieutenants stationed at an undermanned fort surrounded by jungle and enemies.
If you think of this as a rather typical situation for this sort of action movie, you're probably on the right track.
Sometimes there's just one (Gunga Din) and sometimes, as here, both Niven and Crawford are given a chance to make the supreme sacrifice.
If I'm not mistaken the Colt Model 1911 .45 caliber automatic, a veritable cannon at the time, was developed partly because smaller caliber pistols were thought unable to stop a charging Moro.The rafting scenes were done, it appears, in the lower reaches of the Kern River.
It's interesting too in that it is the only known home of the Kern Valley salamander (Batrachoseps simatus), and only for a stretch of a few miles along the bank -- and only the northern bank.I think I like Gunga Din better because there is more slapstick, more laughs all around, and because the characters are a little better developed.
Great film, compelling story line and excellent lead role by Gary Cooper..
I saw this film for the first time today and it definitely beat my expectations.
Gary Cooper played an unforgettable role as the brave, yet insubordinate Doc Canavan, a Lieutenant in the U.S. Army working at a medical clinic in a small, mostly Catholic Filipino town in Mindanao ( presumably on the island of Basilan ) which was under constant attack from the ( presumably ) Tausug Moro rebels from the Sulu Archipelago ( which actually did take place for over 300 years in the region ).
As a speaker of Tagalog, it was fun to hear the dialog between the Filipino actors and actresses in the film, and I was entertained by the fact that they had so much of it.Although the film is entirely a work of fiction and does not assert that this is a depiction of historical events, some reviewers here seem to have tried to label this film as "propaganda" and as being an "Arm of the U.S. Government's War Machine" because it depicts the U.S. military as something other than a rowdy gang of puppy-tossing, blood hungry murderers and thugs.
After seeing this movie I was inspired by the message that the movie sent, and was reminded of how there really was a time in American history where Americans were somewhat cognizant of how things actually work in the world.
As interesting as the personal relationships were written - for the times, the action sequences were the most escapist - from the laws of probability.It was interesting to see the Moro leaders speak to each other in English then turn to their followers and speak to them in the native language.
THE REAL GLORY 1939This Samuel Goldwyn Production is about a series of battles during the Moro war in the Philippines.
The film stars, Gary Cooper, David Niven, Broderick Crawford, Andrea Leeds, Reginald Owen, Russell Hicks and Vladimir Sokoloff.The film is set on the Philippines island of Mindanao.
The US Army is pulling out and leaving the local militia and Police force in charge.
The locals are sure that once the US Army leaves, the Moro guerrillas will swoop in and kill all the men, then sell the women and children into slavery.
The Army leaves several men to help train the locals to defend themselves.
(Cooper, Niven, Crawford, Owen, Hicks) The Moro leader, Tetsu Komai, tries to draw the American led militia out into the jungle where they plan on slaughtering them.
When this does not work, Komai, with help from his inside man, Vladimir Sokoloff, send in several suicide types to kill the American commanding officer.
Now the Moro types dam up the river and stop the flow of fresh water to the village.
The Army doctor, Gary Cooper does what he can.
Owen finally orders one of the men, Broderick Crawford, to take a detachment of militia and destroy the dam.
The situation now is desperate in the village from lack of fresh water, as well as the disease problem.Now Sokoloff steps up and offers to lead another detachment up a secret trail to the dam.
Cooper, left in command of the village, now discover Sokoloff's duplicity.
He puts David Niven in charge, grabs up a shotgun and takes off to warn Owen.While Owen is being led up and down various jungle paths, the Moros have massed for an attack on the now depleted garrison.
Cooper manages to reach Owen and fill him in on Sokoloff.
After disposing of the swine Sokoloff, Cooper and the rest destroy the dam, build some rafts, and return to the village.
Just as it looks like the Moro bunch will be victorious, Cooper and the boys arrive.
The Moro leader, Komai, is killed by one of the Philippine Militia officers, Rudy Robles.
There is a side plot where Reginald Owen's daughter, Andrea Leeds, falls for the dashing doctor, Cooper.
The director was Henry Hathaway, who had worked with Cooper on, THE LIVES OF A BENGAL LANCER.
He would crank out a series of well-respected westerns and film noir like, DOA, UNION STATION, BRANDED, THE VIOLENT MEN, SIEGE AT RED RIVER, THE FAR HORIZONS, and THE RAWHIDE YEARS..
What appears to be an imperialist jungle army adventure along the lines of Gary Cooper's previous 'Lives of a Bengal Lancer' turns out to be a disaster movie.
Like all disaster movies, we sit through an hour and a half of character japery, sinister plots and love interests before the climactic spectacular set-piece, an old-fashioned dam-busting that spurts a Wagnerian birth-rush, waking up the cholera-ridden locals.
I had no idea what to expect from THE REAL GLORY, a 1930s adventure film set in the Philippines but shot in California.
It stars Gary Cooper in a role long before HIGH NOON, and he plays one of many officers stationed in the Philippines and attempting to stifle an uprising by Muslim rebels.
The film is directed by Hollywood director Henry Hathaway, who directed a lot of good stuff over a long career including John Wayne's TRUE GRIT.
The tale starts off a little slow but it turns out that it's merely taking time to get to know the characters before involving them in an action-packed tale.
Indeed, THE REAL GLORY gets better and better as it goes on, turning into a pulp story full of outlandish incident and heroism.Things culminate in an incredible siege climax which is one of the best-directed I've seen from the era.
It's edge of the seat stuff, full of violence, stunts, and general excitement, ending the movie on a real high.
Cooper is a solid and likable lead and given fine support from the likes of a youthful David Niven and Broderick Crawford.