Cheap Gunga Din (Video) (Cary Grant, Joan Fontaine) (George Stevens) Price

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Customer Reviews of Gunga Din

Victor McLaglen, Cary Grant and Douglas Fairbanks Jr. are superb as they play three veteran non-coms. The supporting cast of Sam Jaffe, Edwardo Ciannelli, Joan Fontaine, Montagu Love and Robert Coote is excellent. Jaffe excells as the native water carrier and Ciannelli gives a memorable performance as the crazed leader of a group of rebel religious fanatics.

The film received no Oscars mainly because the 1939 Academy Awards competition was dominated by GONE WITH THE WIND and THE WIZARD OF OZ.

George Stevens is also remembered for his fine work as director of SHANE, GIANT and A PLACE IN THE SUN. He received Oscars for the latter two movies.

Gunga Din: The Best of the Pre-Politically Correct Movies
GUNGA DIN is the kind of rollicking, enormously entertaining film that most movie lovers have seen many times. The first time that they see it is likely to result in a nearly two hour fun-filled escape into a land filled with varying degrees of adventure, humor, male bonding, spectacle, terror, heroism, and warped history. Further viewings may lead the viewer to see the 1930s as an unfortunate period in racial stereotyping that did not mind subtly tearing down one dark race before elevating one member of that race into the spheres of heroism.
The plot seems simple, but the film's many layered subtexts suggest that the heroism that is most often genetically linked to the British may be found in other races too. Three British sergeants McChesney (Victor McLaughlin), Ballantine (Douglas Fairbanks Jr.) and Cutter (Cary Grant) are stationed in mid-19th century India, and each dreams of locating gold and riches that they are sure lurk hidden, just waiting to be found by adventurers like themselves. And adventurers they are. Despite their constant bickering, they bond strongly on many levels: they watch each others' backs; they close circles against selected competing sergeants (the spiked drink scene with Sgt. Higgenbottom is a classic); they mask their basic heroic selves with petty personal disputes. There is a very minor subplot with Ballantine's wish to marry Joan Fontaine, who does little more than act as a symbolic lure to induce him to resign from the army. The basic plot is one based on greed. The three sergeants hear of a vast amount of treasure hidden in a temple run by a killing sect of stranglers called Thuggees and they determine to sneak in, steal the treasure, and in Cutter's words, open a bar 'bigger than the Crystal Palace.' As they pursue this goal, director George Stevens interjects the politically incorrect but probably the then widespread belief that Indians were a thoroughly untrustworthy lot, totally unable to overcome a British soldier in any one-on-one encounter. Stevens emphasizes this racially prejudiced notion as he shows Cutter, with sprightly music emphasizing a non-threatening aspect, single-handedly punching out a gang of swarthy turbaned Thuggs while McChesney sees this but is in no hurry to help since he is quite sure no help is needed. Along the way, they bring along the regimental bhisti Gunga Din (Sam Jaffi) as a guide. Toward the end of the film, the dramatic center shifts from the three sergeants to Din and to the leader of the Thugs, the Guru, played superbly by Eduardo Cianelli. Both Din and the Guru are equally impressive, though in quite different ways. Din's bravery is astonishing, given his earlier build up as a rather clownish character. But it falls to the Guru to provide one of the most impressive monologues in this or any other film. He finds himself an unexpected captive of the three sergeants, so he takes the time to explain his rationale behind his wish to unite India under his rule. As he describes his notion of honor and battlefield wisdom, he can see that his captors look at him as if he had snakes coming out of his head. Up till this point, he had been speaking in the calm and soothing cadences of one who knows that victory is within his grasp. Their looks anger him for the first time, so he shouts, 'I can see it in your eyes. Who is this little man (himself) to snarl so loudly at the British lion and pull its tail?' When he describes the onrushing torrent of a Thuggee revolution that is punctuated by a rising crescendo of music, he clearly establishes himself as far more than the deranged native the sergeants truly see him as. Din proves that bravery can reside even in a non-heroic setting. The Guru similarly proves that bravery and bloody fanaticism can also co-exist in unlikely looking settings.
GUNGA DIN is still eminently watchable as a tremendously enjoyable film. It has something for nearly everyone, and the various strands of humor, adventure, and spectacle are so seamlessly woven that the audience can be forgiven for overlooking the brutal historical truth behind the movie that many innocent people on both sides died needlessly to fight a war that ought never have occurred in the first place.

"Kill, Kill, Kill for the Love of Kali!"
Just one of the lines that makes your hair stand on end in this best of all 1930s action films, "Gunga Din". I recently rediscovered this old classic in the New York Public Library while hunting for something to occupy my four-year nephew while I was going to baby-sit him. Since he loves Flynn's "Robin Hood", Power's "Mark of Zorro", and Wilcoxin's "The Crusades", I thought that the little guy would probably take to "Gunga Din" like a duck to water, and was I ever right! Not only that, but even I, Aunt TutorGal, bought my own used copy because I just had such a good time with it. As far as I know, this is Cary Grant's only true swashbuckler, and he and the gang are A-one!

Here we're back in Colonial India again, with three soldier comrades: Cary Grant, a Cockney always looking for hidden treasure; Victor McLaglin, a blustery two-fisted elephant lover; and Douglas Fairbanks, the most elegant of the three and the best swordsman of the lot. The crisis comes early when Fairbanks reluctantly announces to the other two that he's not going to renew his term with the British Army because he's going to marry Joan Fontaine and go into the tea business. Classic case of two angry friends trying to bust up a guy's romance or at least find a way to get Doug to re-enlist, even by tricks if necessary.

So who's Gunga Din? Why, he's the Indian water carrier of the regiment who longs to be a soldier-bugler himself. Unfortunately, he has to endure a lot of racist remarks from the prejudiced McLaglen, but at least Cary Grant takes a shine to him, though perhaps he's a little patronizing himself. Sam Jaffee, later Ben-Hur's father-in-law, does a creditable job as eponymous Din. Montague Love, erstwhile Bishop of the Black Canon from "Robin Hood", checks in as the commanding officer, and turns in a good job. Joan Fontaine, in an early role, hasn't much to do as Doug's fiancee, except be a figure of scorn for the other two buddies.

Kudos to Eduardo Cianelli as the evil Guru who has resurrected the devilish Tugghee cult. It's he who directs his swarms of shrouded followers to go out there and strangle as many British soldiers as possible, for the love of Kali, their blood goddess.

Every time The Nephew and I watch the movie, he always asks me in a very worried voice, "But the British are going to win, aren't they?" as though the ending might change while sitting in the video case. But rest assured, that "Gunga Din" satisfies its viewers with action, thrills, and even some tears for A Noble Sacrifice on one character's part. If you really want to have a rollicking good time, "Gunga Din"'s your man.