Victor McGlaglen plays Captain
Donald King of the British Army and as in other
performances, Gunga Din
among them, McGlaglen brims with the robust, bombastic
characteristics of a silent film star, which in
fact he had been (this, his first talkie). That
said, he displays a remarkable honesty underlying
all the beefy gusto.
King's comrades, known as The Black Watch,
are assigned a battlefront in Europe while King
is secretly dispatched to India. The British occupied
country in the East is under threat of rebellion
by the Hillmen of the Khyber Pass. Infiltrating
the Hillmen's high mountain caves is a challenge
complicated further by the tantalizing charms
of their exotic Princess Yasmini, played effectively
by the ever-versatile Myrna Loy.
The world of Indiana Jones clearly
would not have been the same without the literary
works of Talbot Mundy. - The
Black Watch is a movie version of Talbot
Mundy's novel King of
the Khyber Rifles. - Standing out among
the similarities, Captain King disguises himself
at one point in Arab dress, much like Indy in
Raiders and Young
Indy in Daredevils
of the Desert. In Daredevils,
Young Indy darkens his skin, something King does
in the Mundy novel but a deceit the McGlaglen
character does not utilize. As King descends further
into their nefarious camp, he discovers an enslaved
workforce not unlike the one Indy discovers in
Temple of Doom.
Racial insensitivities aside, The
Black Watch is a beautifully constructed
adventure film. Deviating from the opening in
the novel, here Captain King is introduced in
the company of the British Army. The filmmakers
focus much attention on pomp and circumstance,
formality and patriotic fervor. The first act
is dominated by bagpipes, marching and dining
in the company of men. All this serves to make
the mystical and exotic qualities of the East
more alluring. This contrasting of worlds between
the daily grind and eventual trip to the far away
and unfamiliar is an often-used plot device. "What's
more boring than school?" a group of well-known
filmmakers once must have asked themselves. "So,
let's put Indiana Jones in a teacher's
bow tie, arms loaded with books and papers to
grade."
John Ford would go on to direct
numerous classics. George Lucas thought enough
of him to make him a character Young Indy meets
and works with in Hollywood
Follies. Ford motifs such as frame-shaped
compositions, silhouettes and lonely heroes are
all found in this, his first sound film. The
Black Watch is also noteworthy for its
cinematographer Joseph H. August, who would go
on to lens Gunga Din
and having Randolph Scott in a bit part. Lastly,
John Ford favorite and future legend, John Wayne
handled props. Why this long lost treasure is
unavailable on either VHS or DVD is a mystery
only a man in a fedora with a cracking whip could
solve.
(Stephen Jared) |