Truly Dreadful Film

The film makes a home in your brain and the only cure is to see it again.

This is a must-see and one of the best documentaries - and films - of this year.

It is a whirlwind of delight --- attractive actors, stunning couture, spectacular sets and outrageous parties.

The Charge of the Light Brigade (1936) is a beautiful, polished epic film.The cast is superb, and the script and editing are so well-done that even at over 115 minutes the film never drags. This is one of Errol Flynn's best roles, and one of Patric Knowles's best roles as well. Flynn is brave and daring as usual, but without the flippant characterization of some of his other roles -- and the more serious performance is suited to the gravity of the story. The supporting cast of fine British and American actors is just right, with Spring Byington turning in her usual sparkling performance, and Nigel Bruce, C. Henry Gordon, David Niven, Donald Crisp, and Henry Stephenson making real contributions as well. Olivia de Havilland is fine in her role as the love interest of two brothers, doing as well as her role allows in a film which is basically a film about men.The photography, set design and music in this film are beautiful, state of the art for the time, making the experience of watching it enjoyable even if one is not paying much attention to the plot or dialogue. The final battle scene is stunning.Why this film was not nominated for more Academy Awards, I have no idea. I'm also stunned that its IMDb average is only 7.1. A grade of 7.1 implies mediocrity. This is not a mediocre film, but a great one. Anything less than 8 out of 10 would be a gross injustice, and a case could be made for 9 out of 10. It was the equivalent in its day of the "blockbuster" films of our day, but unlike those of our day, it did not rely on computerized special effects, but on fine craftsmanship in every aspect of the film-making. In a vacuum, I would probably rate this film as an 8.1 or 8.2, but I give it a 9 here as a sort of counter-balance, because 7.1 is ridiculously low. It would help if IMDb allowed half-stars; in that case I would have gone for 8.5. The film is available in a slim-case DVD edition in one of the 5-DVD Errol Flynn collections. This edition has the full 115+ minutes of the film, as well as some interesting period extras in the Warner Night at the Movies feature. The image and sound in this edition are very good.

I really should hate this film. Like other Flynn films of the time, most notably "They Died With Their Boots On", it plays fast and loose with the known facts of a historical event to the extent of creating a fictitious pretext for the actual charge of the Light Brigade itself and creating imaginary characters like Flynn's Major Vickers and Indian warlord Surat Khan as the main protagonists in the battle, even the Chikoti massacre which triggered the bloody conclusion is based on events which happened three years after the Battle of Balaklava. More importantly, the now known facts about the production's incidental slaughter of numerous horses in the climactic battle scenes can make it somewhat distressing to view, as I found myself inadvertently watching for the deadly trip-wires which sent so many of them to a no doubt nasty death.That's a lot to put aside but still I can't help but admit that this is another golden-age Hollywood classic, utterly entertaining in the "Boy's Own" tradition of so many great films of that era, many of them of course synonymous with Flynn as the leading man. Here, he's at his dashing best as the honourable Major Vickers, for once giving up the love of his betrothed, the ever-present Olivia De Havilland in favour of his weedy brother, in a turn of events as hard to believe as anything else in the fanciful script, who, to revenge the slaughtered innocents by the barbarous Khan, countermands official orders to lead the suicidal attack of his brave 600 cavalrymen into the valley of death, where Flynn inevitably expires in the knowledge that he has at least avenged Khan personally.Excusing director Curtiz's heartless treatment of the poor horses, one can't deny his ability in managing the sheer spectacle of both the massacre at Chikoti and especially the final carnage at Balaklava. In the days before C-Gen special effects capable of creating imaginary thousands in battle, here you actually see, especially in the long-shots, the actual blood and thunder of war in the raw, which makes the heart race just to watch it.Flynn is of course imperious as the gallant Vickers and there's good support for him too in the familiar forms of De Havilland, Nigel Bruce and in a fairly brief role, the young David Niven. No, they don't make them like this anymore, thankfully in respect of the treatment of animals on set, but regrettably in terms of sheer action and story-telling.

A largely fictionalized mishmash of two historic disasters in two quite distinct British wars in the 1850s. Most of the film deals with the misadventures of the Indian British army in connection with a largely fictional Surat Khan, who seems to be a tribal war lord in present northern Pakistan(arid and mountainous). The attack of the Khan on the isolated outpost of Chukoti, somewhere in the general vicinity of the regional headquarters in Lohora(presumably, present Lahore, PK), and subsequent slaughter of the survivors, after Flynn and Olivia escaped on a raft, clearly is a reference to the historic massacre of Brits by Indian rebels at Cawnpore, which was located in present northeastern India. Then, suddenly, in the last part, we switch to the historically prior Crimean War, and have Surat Khan allied with the Russians against the Turks and Brits, hence allowing the transferred Indian Brit cavalry an opportunity to extract revenge on the khan. Although Flynn's character, who leads this dramatic misguided charge on the entrenched cannon-rich Russians does manage to kill the khan, he, as well as the rest of his cavalry, pay the ultimate price for their pyrrhic revenge. As scripted, Flynn's character is really more of an insubordinating fool than a hero. Reminds me of a rather similar dramatic ill-fated charge in the later "Fort Apache".Flynn had traded mortal wounds with the khan, hence conveniently ending the romantic triangle problem with his brother and Olivia's character. But, Olivia and his brother don't appear after the battle. Instead, we have a conference between the 3 commanders involved in the Balaclava fiasco with Henry Stephenson, who seems to have been the governor general of India, located in Calcutta, now strangely transferred to the Crimea. He implies that all 600 in the charge died: the British equivalent of Custer's Last Stand. Historically, this is far from the truth. Also, Lord Cardigan, who led the charge and hence was being played by Flynn, survived the charge. Historically, this charge by the sword and lance -wielding light cavalry was the result of confusion in officer communications. Central to this confusion was Captain Nolan, who was also the first to die in the charge. Thus, Flynn's character relating to this charge is an amalgam of Cardigan and Nolan. His character had previously incorporated some of Nolan's prior activities.Returning to the middle portion of the film, a huge army of natives armed with anachronistic modern repeating rifles surrounds the frontier town/fortress of Chukoti, intent on massacring its inhabitants. Unfortunately, the fort commander(played by Donald Crisp) had previously ordered most of the cavalry out on a detail, leaving Flynn as the effective commander of the few remaining. Looks like an Alamo situation. The tribals use their many ladders to scale the wall , and it looks like they will soon kill all. But, suddenly, we switch to the women and children huddled in a room, and the attack seems to stop for no reason?? Later, when the escaped Flynn returns with reinforcements, they find all dead: mostly women and children. Flynn vows revenge, and eventually gets his chance when he learns that the khan has allied himself with Russia against the Brits and Turks in the Crimea.....Incidentally, the original screenplay didn't include the Crimean War segment. However, it was feared that it was too similar to the recently released popular "The Lives of a Bengal Lancer"Henry Stephenson, who generally played fatherly authority figures in many films of the '30s and '40s, returns from Flynn's first starring role, in "Captain Blood"(as well as the award-winning "Mutiny on the Bounty) of the previous year. In the finale scene, he tells the 3 commanders involved in the charge fiasco that he takes full responsibility, after receiving a letter from Flynn's character admitting that he rewrote Stephenson's orders after having failed to convince Stephenson that his light cavalry unit deserved a chance to try to extract vengeance upon the khan. Stephenson burns his letter, preferring to take the blame in place of than his fallen 'hero'.After the joyous romance of Flynn and Olivia's characters at the end of "Captain Blood", it's curious that Flynn is cast as the odd man out in the triangular love affair in this next pairing, especially since the historical leader of the charge he plays survived the charge. Flynn's character would, of course, again die in "They Died With Their Boots On", in another foolhardy cavalry incident. Again, Olivia played his love interest in their eighth and final film pairing.At least we are spared the gruesome details of the historical massacre of mostly women and children at Cawnpore. Professional butchers were sent and literally hacked the victims to pieces. This instigated a furious response by the British, who slaughtered or burned thousands of Indians in retribution, with the battle cry "Remember Cawnpore".I think it's a toss up whether we see more falling horses during the charge or in "The Comancheros". In the latter, at least the cruel and often lethal use of trip wires to make the horses fall when desired had long since been abandoned.

This Errol Flynn classic has some of the best war action on horseback ever filmed.The storyline is convoluted history and the scriptwriters conveniently mixed up dates but who cares just sit back watch and enjoy. The plot revolves around Major Vickers (Errol Flynn) and his adventures first in the British Raj serving at the North West Frontier defending it from the Afghans and Pathans. The area according to my father who served in the same area with the RAF from 1944 to 1947 does not justify the actual ruggedness, fearsome mountains and ravines of the Hindu Kush. I couldn't care less because to me the movie is a true classic and such details are irrelevant.Major Vickers, his fiancé and his deputy are first in Calcutta and then in the frontier where later their regiment is massacred by the Pakthoons and Afghans. This is etched in the memory of the regiment who swear revenge. They are provided the opportunity when the regiment is placed at the Balaclava Heights in the Crimean War. Major Vickers uses his position to forge an order and attack the Russian battalion which included the Afghan Sultan responsible for his regiments massacre. The resulting courageous but senseless charge is Lord Tennysons poem in action.In the background is the story of love, betrayal and sacrifice which adds to the romantic theme. Errol Flynn is rather subdued in his performance but shines in scenes where he loses his lady love. Olivia de Havilland is as ever beautiful. Patrick Knowles is not very effective or convincing. David Niven and Nigel Bruce are at their best. The background score of Max Steiner is terrific and was his first for WB. The action sequences are staged effectively and have been copied by later films. Not accurate history but great fun.