The Charge of the Light Brigade (1936)
Director: Michael Curtiz
Starring: Errol Flynn, Olivia de Havilland, Patric Knowles
Synopsis:
A British officer defies orders so that his regiment can avenge the massacre of their garrison.
Impressions:
I've been snapping up quite a few of these British Empire epics lately. We've got a familiar team with Michael Curtiz in the director's chair, Errol Flynn as the lead and Olivia de Havilland as the love interest. This is actually a fictionalized account of the Seige of Cawnpore with the Charge of the Light Brigade shoehorned in. Personally, I would've rather they committed to one or the other, but by playing incredibly fast and loose with history, Curtiz is able to portray one of the great military blunders in British history as some grand noble and tragic endeavor. The historian in me takes offense, but the crafter of fiction can appreciate it. Flynn is a known quantity and he's as dashing an action hero as ever. De Havilland and her romantic subplot are rather overshadowed, which would also include Patric Knowles as the other man in the love triangle. Either the romantic drama should've been the central focus or it should've been excised, if you ask me. It comes off as a bit of a distraction to larger events, but in a way, you could say some there's some verisimilitude to it, little nagging things going on amid bigger issues. The action set pieces are pretty good on the whole and the eponymous charge is rather impressive (though if you're strongly opposed to animal cruelty, you're bound to be offended by the enforced method acting the horses go through). Besides the main three cast members, I want to give nods to C Henry Gordon as Surat Khan, David Niven as Captain Randall, and Nigel Bruce as Sir Benjamin Warrenton. Though a little uneven as detailed above, it's still worth seeing. Give it a shot. It's not nearly as bad an idea as the actual Charge of the Light Brigade.
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