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Hollywood's British Raj, "so romantic to a greenhorn like me. Kipling and all that, you know." "Romantic?" Gary Cooper in pith helmet and pencil mustache, a Canadian lieutenant in the Khyber Pass, eager to return Afridi fire. (His superior expires from a bullet mid-sentence, chastising him for impulsiveness.) "No place for a cub," naturally his comrades are a snarky dandy (Franchot Tone) and a rookie with daddy issues (Richard Cromwell). The colonel (Guy Standing) is a ramrod who dithers helplessly when it comes to paternal matters, "you can't let death move you, nor love," all the same he steps before a charging boar to protect his son. The perilous rendezvous is with the Afghan prince (Douglass Dumbrille), who's handy with torture and proverbs: "The little jackal barks, but the caravan passes." Duty and courage and polo matches, a locus classicus of imperialist escapism to showcase Henry Hathaway's particular flair for jocular adventurers. Soldiers hit their marks and are rewarded with a visit to the palace of the Emir of Gopal (Akim Tamiroff), where a cacophony of jangling bracelets announces the arrival of his harem. "Quite a teepee, huh?" The sleek agent (Kathleen Burke) catches everybody's eye but passion is reserved for the boys themselves—shirtless Cooper with soapy jaw towers over Cromwell in a bathtub while Tone plays a nervous flute and a cobra stands at attention. Glimpses of Ernest B. Schoedsack's location footage give the swarming vitality of India beyond the regimentation of military camps, the bungled disguise of the heroes unintentionally comments on the widespread use of brownface. "I told you this Mardi Gras would be a washout." The borrowing from Ford (The Black Watch) is repaid in Rio Grande. With C. Aubrey Smith, Monte Blue, Colin Tapley, J. Carrol Naish, Noble Johnson, and Lumsden Hare. In black and white.
--- Fernando F. Croce |