Review of Gunga Din (1939) by Scott — 15 Feb 2009

None of the credited actors in this film are actually from India or even of Indian descent. Sabu, who was, was originally cast in the role of Gunga Din but was far too young. (In the original poem, which is awfully racist, Gunga Din is referred to as "You squidgy-nosed old idol," which I doubt you'd call someone fifteen. However, Sam Jaffe, who played the role, was Jewish (born Shalom). The man playing the guru, Eduardo Ciannelli, was (obviously) Italian. I was able to find a couple of actual Indian people, but there were Jews, Hispanics, and even a Syrian. In Hollywood at the time, one ethnic person was much like any other, and if you didn't quite have the right skin tone, that was nothing a lick of paint couldn't fix.

Gunga Din is a watercarrier, a [i]bhisti[/i], for a British regiment in India. Of course, he isn't the focus of the story. No, that's dashing British soldiers Cutter (Cary Grant), MacChesney (Victor McLaglen), and Ballantine (Douglas Fairbanks, Jr.), who have all been friends for a very long time, saving one another's lives over and over. However, Ballantine is going to quit the army, go into the tea business, and marry the lovely Emma (Joan Fontaine). Cutter and MacChesney don't want him to. Rather than going off and being happy, they want him to stay in the army with them and be miserable. They stage this whole elaborate thing to get him out into the middle of nowhere with them, and then, they end up in a battle with the notorious Thugee. This happens because Cutter is frankly stupid.

The original poem didn't give the filmmakers much to work with. We have a dramatic ending, of course, but it's that whole beginning and middle that need work. So they take a swashbuckler, a comedian, and a grizzled old veteran (he was already about 55), and they basically let wackiness ensue. There's no real characterization involved. When Ballantine performs his final action in the movie, I, for one, couldn't understand why. Emma and the Thugee seem to have about the same amount of Plot Device sewn into them. Indeed, Gunga Din himself seems to be floating through most of the movie, waiting for the moment when he can be tethered by his destiny. There's a ridiculous elephant-stealing subplot (really) that seems at least in part to be giving him something to do as setting up the next part of the story.

There was only one other movie in 1939 that grossed more, if you can believe it (or IMDB, at any rate). In that amazing year of film, this was number two. Clearly, past audiences must have seen something in it. To be fair, both Fairbanks and Grant were something of box office draws at that point, and though both were less popular than, oh, Clark Gable--well, the film that grossed more that year did have Clark Gable in it! I'm curious as to how Kipling fans took the addition of a story to Kipling's poetic vignette. (The family took the addition of a character called Kipling--played by Reginald Sheffield--badly, and he was removed from the theatrical release, though he is restored for the DVD.) Presumably, they must not have had too much of a problem with it.

This movie didn't seem to know what it wanted to be. It had one line to make its way toward, one scene it had to feature, and so it had to feature at least some action. But it isn't really an action movie. We are supposed to spend as much time laughing at Cutter's gold-lust as we are biting our nails over his encounter with the Thugee. Gunga Din himself is frankly a comic figure for most of the movie. He clearly wants to be seen as more than he is, but the British only laugh at him--and the other Indians seem to just pretty much ignore him. However, he has Kipling's end to get to the same as anyone else--more so--and so he will not remain a laughingstock.