The Four Feathers (1939 film)
| The Four Feathers | |
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 original 1939 movie poster |
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| Directed by | Zoltan Korda |
| Produced by | Alexander Korda |
| Written by | R. C. Sherriff Lajos Biro Arthur Wimperis based on the novel by A.E.W. Mason |
| Starring | John Clements June Duprez Ralph Richardson |
| Music by | Miklos Rozsa |
| Cinematography | Georges Perinal |
| Editing by | Henry Cornelius |
| Distributed by | United Artists London Films |
| Release date(s) | 20 April 1939 (UK) August 3, 1939 (US) |
| Running time | 130 minutes |
| Country | United Kingdom, Sudan |
| Language | English |
The Four Feathers is a 1939 adventure film directed by Zoltan Korda, starring John Clements, Ralph Richardson, June Duprez, C. Aubrey Smith. Set in the 1890s during the reign of Queen Victoria, it tells the story of a man accused of cowardice. It is one of a number of adaptations of the 1902 novel of the same name by A.E.W. Mason. The movie was mostly filmed in the Sudan in Technicolor. The Welsh Guards were used in period uniforms for scenes in which they withstood the Dervish advance en masse. The troops had loaded rifles just in case the Dervish actors took their attack too seriously.
It was nominated for the Academy Award for Best Cinematography.
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[edit] Plot
In 1895, the North Surrey Regiment of the British Army is called to active service to join the army of Sir Herbert Kitchener in the Mahdist War against the forces of The Khalifa (John Laurie). Forced into an army career by family tradition, Lieutenant Harry Faversham (John Clements) resigns his commission on the eve of its departure. As a result, his three friends and fellow officers, Captain John Durrance (Ralph Richardson) and Lieutenants Burroughs (Donald Gray) and Willoughby (Jack Allen), show their contempt of his perceived cowardice by each sending him a white feather attached to a calling card. When his fiancée, Ethne Burroughs (June Duprez), says nothing in his defence, he bitterly demands a fourth from her. She refuses, but he plucks one from her fan. Harry confides in an old mentor and former surgeon in his father's regiment, Dr. Sutton (Frederick Culley), that he is indeed a coward and must make amends. He departs for Egypt. There, he adopts the disguise of a despised mute Sangali native, with the help of Dr. Harraz (Henry Oscar), to hide his lack of knowledge of the language.
During the army's advance, Durrance is ordered to take his company through the desert to lure the Khalifa's army away from Omdurman. Durrance is blinded by sunstroke before he can lead the company to safety and it is overrun and wiped out. He is left for dead on the battlefield, and Burroughs and Willoughby are captured. However, the disguised Faversham takes the delirious Durrance across the desert and down the Nile to the vicinity of a British fort. As he puts Durrance's white feather into a letter that Durrance kept with him, Harry is mistaken for a robber. Faversham is placed in a convict gang, but escapes to continue his quest. Six months later, the blind Durrance has returned to England to learn to cope with permanent blindness. Out of pity, Ethne pledges to marry and care for him. At dinner with Ethne, her father, and Dr. Sutton, as Durrance relates the tale of his miraculous rescue, the white feather drops out of his letter, revealing to the others that his rescuer was Harry Faversham. Nobody has the heart to tell Durrance.
Burroughs and Willoughby are abused and kept in a dungeon in Omdurman with other enemies of the Khalifa. Playing the addled Sangali, Faversham surreptitiously gives them hope of escape and passes a file to unlock their chains, but arouses the suspicions of the guards. He is flogged as a spy and imprisoned with the others. He reveals his identity to his friends and organizes an escape as a last chance to survive the coming attack of Kitchener's army. The prisoners overpower their guards and use their weapons to seize and hold the Khalifa's arsenal.
Durrance learns of Faversham's deeds from a newspaper account read to him by Dr. Sutton, and dictates a letter to Ethne to break their engagement on the false pretext of a prolonged course of treatment in Germany to restore his eyesight ... and includes congratulations to Faversham. Some time later Harry, in mufti, attends a dinner with his friends and Ethne, where General Burroughs (C. Aubrey Smith), Ethne's father, acknowledges that Harry has forced all to take back their feathers—except Ethne. He playfully makes her take back her white feather by interrupting Gen. Burroughs in the midst of his favourite war story about the Battle of Balaclava to correct his embellishments; the irritated general complains that he will never be able to tell that story again.
[edit] Cast
- John Clements as Harry Faversham
- Ralph Richardson as Captain John Durrance
- C. Aubrey Smith as General Burroughs
- June Duprez as Ethne Burroughs
- Allan Jeayes as General Faversham
- Jack Allen as Lieutenant Willoughby
- Donald Gray as Peter Burroughs
- Frederick Culley as Dr Sutton
- Clive Baxter as Young Harry Faversham
- Robert Rendel as Colonel
- Archibald Batty as Adjutant
- Derek Elphinstone as Lieutenant Parker
- Hal Walters as Joe
- Norman Pierce as Sergeant Brown
- Henry Oscar as Dr. Harraz
- John Laurie as The Khalifa
[edit] See also
- Khartoum, a 1966 film dealing with the events leading up to General Gordon's death.
[edit] External links
- The Four Feathers at the Internet Movie Database
- The Four Feathers is available for free download at the Internet Archive [more]
- The Four Feathers (1939 film) at the TCM Movie Database
- The Four Feathers (1939 film) at AllRovi
- Extended movie review at BFI Screenonline
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