THE FOUR FEATHERS (1939)

This is one of several adaptations of the famous novel by AEW Mason, set against the backdrop of the British army's tribulations in the Sudan in the 1880s and 1890s, and is (according to Wikipedia) the best of them.

Each adaptation plays around with the story, but the essentials are firstly, that Harry Faversham is accused of cowardice by three erstwhile army comrades for resigning his commission just before his regiment ships out to Egypt, and secondly, he redeems himself by going out to Egypt, disguising himself as a native, and rescuing said ex-comrades. 

The four feathers of the title refers to white feathers that are sent to Faversham by those ex-comrades as a symbol of his cowardice, as they see it, plus for good measure one from his fiancée, Ethne, prior to breaking off their engagement.

To add some more colour to the story, one of the three, Durrance (here played by Ralph Richardson) goes blind with sunstroke, and upon being invalided back to Blighty looks set to marry Ethne, whom he has always loved.

The story has some ludicrous elements, most conspicuously that Faversham is going to be able to pass himself off as a native (even though he pretends to be mute, which is a nice touch) or that Durrance goes blind after what seems to be just a few minutes out in the African sun without his helmet.

The scenes where Durrance, hiding his blindness, tries to take part in a battle are quite silly, like something out of Monty Python, to the point where it almost seems like a parody of stiff-upper-lip stoicism.

The most powerfully dramatic scene by some distance is one where Ethne realises that Faversham is not dead but is in fact the native who saved Durrance's life when (also ludicrously) he is the only one to survive the battle.  

But it is typical of this film's indifference to dramatic possibilities that we then don't find out her reaction.  Is she still going to marry Durrance?  Does she tell Durrance about Faversham?

We never find out.  Instead the film concentrates on battle scenes shot on location replete with extras galore, and on some Boys Own heroics by Faversham as he, despite having just been heavily flogged, manages to rescue his other two ex-comrades, as well as helping the British army recover Khartoum.

To round things off we get a scene where Durrance, now aware of the truth, does the noble thing and leaves Ethne free to marry Faversham.

I know times were different in 1939 but there's a caption here that actually refers to the natives as 'fuzzy-wuzzies', and the same derogatory term is also used later by Ethne's tedious father.  At the very least, I would have hoped that the caption (which adds virtually nothing) would be removed when this film is now shown on TV.

Ideally, if there were to be a new adaptation Faversham would fall in love with a native girl who would educate him about the downsides of imperialism.  And then at the end of the film he could then choose to marry her, leaving Ethne to marry blind Durrance whom she doesn't love, which would seem to be just what she deserves given her treatment of Faversham.