A Film Canon

 

 

Gunga Din artfully gathers elements of the action, adventure and swashbuckling films under the banner of British Imperialism, moving fluently between punch-ups, gunfire, sword-fights, stunts and exotic gore, all of which occur in the name of a charismatic camaraderie that occasionally overwhelms the letter of military duty with its youthful spirit. The plot turns on a quest for gold, which provides both a pretext for Sergeants MacChesney (Victor McLaglen) and Cutter (Cary Grant) to protect their buddy Ballantine (Douglas Fairbanks, Jr.) from the perils of marriage, equated with a life of tea and petticoats, and an opportunity for local untouchable Gunga Din (Sam Jaffe) to prove his military prowess. Although this arrangement produces many memorable moments, it doesn't quite appreciate Grant's idiosyncrasies, replacing his dry, cerebral comic presence with an acrobatic body, and forcing his eccentric accent into a parody of itself, presumably to mimic the exaggerated vernacular of Kipling's original poem: "An' for all 'is dirty 'ide/ 'E was white, clean white, inside." Fortunately, screenwriters Ben Hecht and Charles MacArthur's elaboration elides a great deal of the poem's racism, or at least deflects it into a more paternalistic register - epitomised by the moment at which Cutter chastises Din for having been "naughty" enough to have stolen a bugle - as well as providing a credible anti- imperialist presence in the Guru (Eduardo Ciannelli) of the murder cult protecting the gold.