Evening star., 1939-02-03

classic, DuL WIN VlCCOr MCLdBlen
Douglas Fairbanks, jr., and Cary
Grant helping to give it a new IA
cade, it really is superb retelling
of a yarn of adventurous men in
thrilling situations.
In writing "Gunga Din" Mr.. Kip
ling painted a character who needed
lot of background to provide
sufficient material for an extrava-
gent $2,OO0,OO0 movie. The back
ground was created by no less tai
ented screen dramatists than
Charles Macarthur and Ben Hecht.
The result is a composite of Kip
ing's poem and Dumas novel of the
Three Musketeers.." with number
Of intervals which are pleasantly
reminiscent of the day when movie
audiences rose emotionally as one
man during those cowboy Indian
film climaXes. The three muske-
teers of the R-K-O opus, of course
are so many hard-boiled, natural
soldiers of fortune who fit snugly
into any of Kipling's barrack room
ballads. With the redoubtable Din,
they work up more excitement
than any sophisticated moviegoer
really has right to expect in these
days.
In his rhythmic biography of
Gunga Din, Mr.. Kipling said MOTH
ing about the cruel thug cultists-
a mob of fanatical stranglers-but
not so Hect and Macarthur. Their
dramatically powerful tale turns on
the conflict between the wild cultists
end the English for the control of
northern India. Din Is involved
as a non-white associated with the
three English non-coms in the
thickest of the tempestuous battle.
It is bit of doctoring of Victorian
Journalism which turns out to be
more than approvable. In fact, it is
downright swell.
The most exciting sequences of
the tale, naturally, are those in
which the natives and the English
fight it out practically hand to hand.
The picture has two of these mo-
mentous battles, an indecisive one
at the start, another at its climax.
Both have been handled on the CO.
lossal basis. If Director George
Stevens missed a trick in making his
conflicts exciting, it is not apparent
to the naked eye. There is even
that one of the ladder being pushed
away from the wall, carrying to
death one native warrior for every
rung. There is also the trick of
white mans escape by leaps of sew
eral hundred feet into a convenient
river. Your mind may not believe
it, but your imagination will and
the effect is very good.
Gunga Din, whose name the pic
ture bears, actually is subordinate
to the trio of characters played by
McLaglen, Grant and Fairbanks.
The latter are British soldiers in
the best tradition of British soldiers,
men who would rather fight than
eat-but not drink, apparently.
Fairbanks is the only one of the
three who does not have the self
awareness to know what he wants.
He thinks he prefers marriage, and
the incidental theme of the yarn
Involves the efforts of his two sWash-
buckling comrades to teach him
otherwise. The three characters are
very well drawn with some nice dis
tinctions not merely in the writing
put in the playing. The differences,
IS we'll as the essential similarity be-
tween them, make for most of the
comedy of "Gunga Din" Very pleas
ant comedy it is, too, in spite of the
fact that it is not highly original
In conception.
Excellent playing marks the whole
sweep of the film. In addition to
the three principals, Sam Jaffe gives