The Drum (1938)

What a waste of my time!!!

At first rather annoying in its heavy emphasis on reenactments, this movie ultimately proves fascinating, simply because the complicated, highly dramatic tale it tells still almost defies belief.

The tone of this movie is interesting -- the stakes are both dramatic and high, but it's balanced with a lot of fun, tongue and cheek dialogue.

One of the film's great tricks is that, for a time, you think it will go down a rabbit hole of unrealistic glorification.

Lavishly produced and spiritedly directed, The Drum benefits greatly from its actual Indian locations - even though these are not always blended too convincingly with the Denham Studios material. The cast of course is great. Miss Hobson looks attractive, if somewhat thin by my standards of feminine beauty; the villainous Massey is deliciously wily; Sabu perfect. A typical Korda production in that it's crowded with spectacle - all superbly photographed. A pity that despite clever film editing, the location scenes are a bit obtrusive because photographed in a different style to the studio footage. Admittedly, it would be hard to match the beautiful textures created by Osmond Borradaile who after all had marvellous locations to inspire him and plenty of sun to light his scenes. Yet with all the spectacle, some fans might feel justified in complaining that the movie is somewhat short on bloodthirsty action. As someone more interested in pageant and color, in the exotic, and in times past, this sort of shortage doesn't worry me. The costumes look so splendid in color, the sets and the deployment of crowds of extras are to me sufficiently thrilling in themselves. Always directed with competence, often with style, and superbly acted from the least to the most major roles, The Drum is a fabulously entertaining slice of Empire. (A Manga DVD).

...nevertheless I ended up greatly enjoying THE DRUM! Conceived as a vehicle to cash in on the popularity of child star Sabu (who'd just appeared in ELEPHANT BOY), THE DRUM is a film which fondly reminisces over the glory days of the British Empire. The film is set in the Northwest Frontier of India in the dying days of the Raj, where the occupying Brit troops are stiff-upper-lip possessing heroes and the Indians are divided into loyal subjects and dastardly moustache-twirling villains.Into this mix is thrown Sabu, playing a slightly conceited but nonetheless loyal young prince, whose friendship with a youthful red-headed drummer leads to plenty of laughs. The plot begins aproper when the dastardly Prince Ghul (Raymond Massey) decides to lead an uprising against the just Captain Carruthers (Roger Livesey, the epitome of the kindly British gentleman).Director Zoltan Korda possesses the ability to make his film look great, full of gung-ho battle scenes and convincing depictions of British colonialism - although the film was actually shot in Wales and most of the Indian characters are Brits in blackface! Still, Valerie Hobson is breathlessly beautiful as Carruther's sensitive wife, there's a pleasing hard edge to the violence (with severed heads tossed through windows and bloodshed) and a great climax which gives the film its title. They sure don't make 'em like this anymore!

All is not well on the Northwest Frontier: the dastardly Prince Ghul (Raymond Massey) has assassinated the ruling king so that he can take his kingdom back from the British with the aid of machine guns smuggled in from Afghanistan. To escape the same fate as his father, Prince Azim (Sabu) assumes the identity of a lowly peasant as he tries to warn Captain Carruthers (Roger Livesey) of the danger that awaits him and his men.The Drum is one of those old school British films that glorified our former position as Empire builders by painting us as benign masters deeply concerned about the well-being of those whom we had colonised. The redoubtable Roger Livesey is the embodiment of stiff upper lippery as he strives to foil the skulduggery of the evil Ghul - a wonderfully malign performance from a black-faced Raymond Massey - and return Azim to his rightful place on the throne of Tokot. Livesey wasn't really well-suited to the dashing hero type, although he was the epitome of the British colonial officer. Although he was only in his mid-thirties when he made this film, he looks much older, as if he'd be more at home over a fat cigar and a glass of port in the study than battling fuzzy-wuzzies in the searing heat. Valerie Hobson plays his devoted wife with that glacial air reserved for the wives of officers or upper-class businessmen in pre-WWII Brit flicks, and it's impossible to imagine her locked in a passionate embrace with her husband. In fact that is probably where the biggest problem with this film lies: there's very little passion for anything evident in any of the characters: they are simply facing - or creating - one problem after another and stoically devising ways of dealing with them.The plot is fairly stodgy by today's standards. There's a lot of talk and precious little action until the last reel or two, which means many people will find it hard going. Suffice to say, the equilibrium is restored by the final reel and our Colonial subjects are left to live peaceful lives beneath our benign and ever-watchful gaze.

Great morale booster for the British people, with another World War looming. Shows the bonding between British and Indians that contributed to the long sojourn of the British in India. Definitely a boy's film with all the majesty that the Empire films of the thirties could muster for audiences suffering from economic depression and worries over the rise of fascism and its onward march. Roger Livesey's character brings to life the type of relationship that so many British civilians and civil servants enjoyed with Indians, so sadly ignored/forgotten in the interest of history revision and political correctness.