The Four Feathers

John Clements - Harry Faversham
Ralph Richardson - Capt. John Durrance
C. Aubrey Smith - General Burroughs
June Duprez - Ethne Burroughs
Allan Jeayes - General Faversham
Jack Allen - Lieutenant Arthur Willoughby
Donald Gray - Lieutenant Peter Burroughs
Frederick Culley - Dr. Sutton
John Laurie - Khalifa

In spite of Charles Laughton's acting Oscar for The Private Life of Henry VII, the finest achievement of Alexander Korda's London Films came at the end of the decade, with the release of The Four Feathers in April 1939. Korda himself, although a Hungarian, had fallen in love with Britain, its way of life and its traditions. He once refused to film The Bridge on the River Kwai because it showed British officers collaborating with the enemy, for whatever patriotic reason. He was thrilled by the concept of the British Empire and delighted in extolling its virtues and its battles against the 'ignorance' of the foreigner.

From this desire to portray a country at its best sprang some of the most notable Korda achievements of the 1930s: Sanders of the River, The Scarlet Pimpernel, Fire Over England, Elephant Boy and The Drum. Zoltan was a man who thrived on the spirit of adventure displayed in far-flung places; he was also a superb organiser of big action scenes. Even so, none of this previous work quite prepares one for the magnificence of The Four Feathers. Britain had tried before to match Hollywood in its speciality fields, such as musicals and action films. British critics were very kind when the efforts came close, but in truth the flow, the rhythm and the spark of inspiration were never quite there, however careful the copy.

The Four Feathers nails all this to the wall. Its action scenes, pulsatingly thrilling, totally real, match anything from a similar Hollywood epic, while its colour photography, by the unbeatable team of Georges Perinal, Osmond Borradaile, Jack Cardiff and Robert Krasker, three of whom were to win Academy Awards, was the best the world had seen, bringing brilliantly to life the parched landscapes or northern Africa, as well as the ancestral halls and traditional uniforms of England. Well, perhaps not quite traditional, as Korda himself insisted on one set of blue (the proper colour for a private home) uniforms being changed to red because they would look better on the screen.

A.E.W. Mason's famous novel of redemption from cowardice in the heat of action had already been filmed several times (and more versions would follow). Korda, who had acquired the rights to Lawrence of Arabia as early as 1934, but never filmed it because 'we are friendly with the Turks', decided that the time was right for the most patriotic version yet of Mason's seemingly foolproof yam. The result was a triumph, although it came too late to save Korda's Denham Studios from passing, late in 1938, into other hands. Had The Four Feathers been made six months earlier, and its world-wide receipts settled in the London Films coffers, Korda might have been able to stave off his creditors for another year and, with war around the comer, the whole course of his career might have been altered.

Although the hero is played by John Clements, acting honours in the film were wholly stolen by Ralph Richardson as Durrance, one of the officers who present our hero the white feathers of cowardice when he refuses to go to the Sudan. Richardson is awesomely good, especially when blinded and lost in the heat of the desert - and pathetically touching in his final scenes. C. Aubrey Smith also makes an indelible impression as the old general who relieves his greatest battles on the dinner table. But the abiding memory of the film remains in its panoramas: dozens of Arabs heaving small sailing vessels along the Nile, thousands of natives charging at their enemy, the tense prison rescue, and the battle scenes themselves, full of the sweat, dust, heat, guts and desperation of desert combat. The emotive tug of such scenes is irresistible.