Main Cast: Anthony Steel, Laurence Harvey, Mary Ure, Ronald Lewis, Ian Carmichael, James Robertson Justice
Release Year: 1955
Country: UK
Run Time: 113 minutes
Plot
This fourth film version of A.E.W. Mason's adventure yarn The Four Feathers relies heavily on stock footage from the more famous 1939 adaptation (both were produced by Alexander Korda and codirected by Korda's brother Zoltan). Anthony Steel stars as 19th cntury British officer Harry Faversham, who begs off from serving with Kitchener's forces in the Sudan, preferring to stay in London with fiancee Mary Burroughs (Mary Ure). Almost immediately, Faversham receives the traditional "white feather" of cowardice from his three closest friends--and then is handed a fourth feather by Mary. Determined to prove that he is not a coward, Faversham heads off to the Sudan to fight shoulder-to-shoulder with his comrades. He also intends to return those dreaded feather to his three former friends, even resorting to native disguise at one point to do so. Laurence Harvey essays the old Ralph Richardson role of John Durrance, who is blinded by the sun and thus unaware of Faversham's true identity, while James Robertson Justice fills the shoes of Four Feathers' crusty C. Aubrey Smith ("War was war in my day, sir!") ~ Hal Erickson, All Movie Guide
Geoffrey Keen - Dr. Sutton; Jack Lambert - Colonel; Michael Hordern - Gen. Faversham; Christopher Lee - Karaga Pasha; Sam Kydd - Joe, the Instructor; Raymond Francis - Colonel's Aide; Avis Scott - Sergeant's Wife; Roger Delgado - Native Spy; Vincent Holman - Burrough's Butler; Ferdy [Ferdinand] Mayne - Dr. Harraz; Frank Singuineau - Native Servant; Ben Williams - Faversham's Butler; John Wynn - Sergeant
The film depicts Harry Faversham, a sensitive child who is terrified by his father and his Crimean War friends relating tales of cowardice that often ended in suicide. Young Harry follows his father's wishes of being commissioned in the Royal North Surrey Regiment.
A year after his father's death, the North Surreys are given orders to deploy to the Sudan Campaign to join General Kitchener's forces to avenge General Gordon's death at Khartoum. Harry resigns his commission on the eve of his regiment's departure where he is given four feathers as a symbol of his cowardice from his three fellow officers and his fiancee, the daughter of his father's friend General Burroughs.
Unable to live as a coward, Harry contacts a sympathetic friend of his father's, Dr. Sutton, to obtain his help and contacts to join the campaign in the Sudan. Meeting Dr. Sutton's friend Dr Harraz in Egypt, Harry is disguised as a member of a tribe that had their tongues cut out for their treachery by the supporters of the Mahdi. The tribe is identified with a brand that Harry undergoes as well as dyeing his skin colour. The extreme disguise is done to disguise the fact that he cannot speak Arabic or any other native language.
Following as a native worker, Harry follows his old company who have been sent independently from the main force as a distraction to the enemy. His former comrade and romantic rival Captain Durrance loses his helmet on a reconnaissance patrol. He is unable to retrieve it or move from a position facing the sun as a result of Sudanese searching for him. The hours forced to look at the hot sun destroy the nerves of his eyes, making him blind.
Harry warns the company of the enemy's night assault but he is knocked unconscious. His company is wiped out with Harry's former friends, the subalterns Burroughs and Willoughby captured by the enemy and imprisoned in Omdurman. Harry plays mute with the blind Durrance to take him to British lines, then enters Omdurman to find his old friends.
