Main Cast: John Clements, Ralph Richardson, C. Aubrey Smith, June Duprez, Allan Jeayes
Release Year: 1939
Country: US/UK
Run Time: 99 minutes
Plot
This was the first sound production of A.E.W. Mason's classic adventure novel, which was brought to the screen three times in the silent era. Harry Faversham (John Clements) is the son of a military man who expects his son to follow in his footsteps on the fields of battle. Gen. Burroughs (C. Aubrey Smith), the father of Faversham's sweetheart, Ethne (June Duprez), was also a hero in the Crimean War, and he often regales Harry with tales of his exploits under fire. However, Harry is not so sure he believes in the family's tradition of military service and resigns his commission in 1898, shortly before his company is scheduled to head into the Sudan. Three of Faversham's comrades in arms, Capt. John Durrance (Ralph Richardson), Lt. Peter Burroughs (Donald Gray), and Lt. Arthur Willoughby (Jack Allen), each present Harry with a white feather, symbolizing their belief that he is a coward; Ethne shares their belief, and gives him one as well. Disgusted with himself, Faversham disguises himself as a Sangali tribesman and travels to the Sudan so that he might be able to move behind enemy lines and serve the British forces as a scout and reconnaissance agent. When his former regiment is attacked, Faversham is able to lead Burroughs and Willoughby to safety, with the wounded Durrance not realizing that the Arab who saved his life was in fact the man that he accused of cowardice. The Four Feathers was a great critical and commercial success and received an Academy Award nomination for Best Cinematography. ~ Mark Deming, All Movie Guide
Review
Zoltan Korda's 1938 The Four Feathers was the last and best traditional patriotic film of the pre-World War II era. Based on a 1902 novel by A.E.W. Mason, it benefited from glorious Technicolor photography and unique location shooting: Korda and his second unit crew, under Osmond H. Borradaile, not only shot the action scenes where the battles really took place but also included among the extras people who'd actually seen the fighting (and participated in it) 45 years earlier. Coupled with Korda's skills as an action director (he'd been a cavalry officer, and he knew how to move men and their mounts quickly and to good effect), the result was a movie that captured the imagination of the public on the eve of World War II with its vision of self-sacrifice and gallantry. The movie is a reminder of a time when it was possible to believe that armies could liberate peoples from tyranny, and that the use of force could be a good thing. The film is not unquestioning in this belief, as attested by its brutally humorous treatment of the aging general played by Sir C. Aubrey Smith ("Those were the days when war was war, and men were men"), but ultimately it comes down on the side of action as opposed to inaction. Korda's and Borradaile's African footage was so good that it has been reused in dozens of other movies (including remakes of this one). Follow That Camel, by the British Carry On company, was a direct and savage satire of The Four Feathers; and, as was revealed in an interview shortly after its release, it was The Four Feathers and not Beau Geste that Marty Feldman was satirizing in The Last Remake of Beau Geste, but it was too late to change the title once he'd realized his mistake. ~ Bruce Eder, All Movie Guide
Jack Allen - Lt. Arthur Willoughby; Donald Gray - Lt. Peter Burroughs; Frederick Culley - Dr. Sutton; Clive Baxter - Harry Faversham (younger); Derek Elphinstone - Lieutenant Parker; Henry Oscar - Dr. Harraz; John Laurie - Khalifa; Amid Taftazani - Karaga Pasha; Archibald Batty - Adjutant; Alexander Knox; Hay Petrie - Mahdi Interpreter; Norman Pierce - Sgt. Brown; Robert Rendel - Colonel; Hal Walters - Joe
In 1895, a military expedition is prepared by the British Empire to belatedly avenge the death ten years earlier of General Charles "Chinese" Gordon by Sudanese led by the Khalifa (John Laurie). On the eve of its departure, British officer Harry Faversham (John Clements) resigns his commission. As a result, his three friends and fellow officers, Captain John Durrance (Ralph Richardson) and Lieutenants Burroughs (Donald Grey) and Willoughby (Jack Allen), signify their contempt of his supposed cowardice by each sending him a white feather attached to a calling card. When his fiancée, Ethne Burroughs (June Duprez), says nothing in his defense, he bitterly demands one more, from her. She refuses, but he plucks one from her fan and leaves.
While the officers go off to war, he admits to his old acquaintance Dr. Sutton (Frederick Culley) that he is a coward and must make amends. He departs for Egypt. There, he adopts the disguise of a native with the help of Dr. Harraz (Henry Oscar), choosing to play a despised mute Sangali to hide his lack of knowledge of the language.
In the Mahdist War, Durrance is ordered to take his company to lure the Khalifa's army away from Omdurman. Durrance is blinded by sunstroke and can do nothing when his company is overrun and wiped out. He is left for dead on the battlefield, and Burroughs and Willoughby are captured. However, Faversham, still pretending to be a mute native, manages to take the delirious Durrance across the desert and down the Nile to the vicinity of a British fort. He then puts something in a letter that Durrance kept with him. Some soldiers witness this and mistakenly assume Durrance is being robbed. Faversham is beaten and placed in a convict gang, but escapes.
Sightless, Durrance is discharged from the army and returns to England. Out of pity, Ethne becomes engaged to him. One day, when he is telling the tale of his miraculous rescue, he takes out the letter. A white feather attached to his calling card drops out of it. The message is clear: his rescuer was Faversham. Nobody has the heart to tell Durrance.
Burroughs and Willoughby are thrown into a prison in Khartoum with numerous other inmates. Soon afterwards, the disguised Faversham passes them a file while drinking from the river, but arouses the suspicions of the guards. He is flogged and imprisoned as well. He reveals his identity to his friends and organizes an escape, timed to coincide with the Battle of Omdurman. Faversham leads the prisoners in capturing and holding the Khalifa's arsenal, playing a major part in the British victory. When Durrance learns of Faversham's deeds from the newspaper account read to him by Dr. Sutton, he concocts a story, dictating a letter to Ethne, telling her that a prolonged course of treatment in Germany will restore his eyesight...and sending his congratulations to Faversham.
The hero returns to England in triumph. When Ethne playfully asks what act of bravery will make her take back her white feather, he interrupts her father, General Burroughs (C. Aubrey Smith), in the midst of his favorite war story about the Battle of Balaclava and corrects his embellishments; the irritated general complains that he will never be able to tell that story again.
Orhaz a Karpatokban (with Gyula Zilahi) ·A Becsapott újságíró (with Gyula Zilahi) ·Tutyu és Totyó·Lyon Lea (with M. Miklós Pásztory) ·A Tiszti kardbojt·Mesék az írógépröl·Mágnás Miska·Fehér éjszakák·Ciklámen·Az egymillió fontos bankó·A Nevetö Szaszkia·A Nagymama·A Kétszívü férfi·A Dolovai nábob leánya·St. Peter's Umbrella·Harrison és Barrison·Faun·A Gólyakalifa·Mágia·Mary Ann·Yamata·Neither at Home or Abroad·White Rose·Ave Caesar!
1920s
A 111-es ·The Prince and the Pauper ·Herren der Meere ·Die Tragödie eines verschollenen Fürstensohnes ·Samson and Delilah ·Das unbekannte Morgen ·Jedermanns Frau ·Tragödie im Hause Habsburg ·Dance Fever ·Madame Doesn't Want Children ·A Modern Dubarry ·The Stolen Bride ·The Private Life of Helen of Troy ·Yellow Lily ·Night Watch ·Love and the Devil ·The Squall ·Her Private Life
