The Four Feathers (1939) - film review

In 1895, the British army is about to launch an attack against the Sudanese, ten years after General Gordon’s humiliating defeat.   On the day before his regiment leaves England, officer Harry Faversham resigns his commission, knowing that he is not cut out for the life of a military man.  His fellow officers, Burroughs, Willoughby and Durrance, each send him a white feather which signifies their contempt for his cowardice.   Knowing that his fiancée, Ethne, is also disappointed with him, Faversham takes a fourth feather from her fan and, to redeem himself, he decides to join in the war in Sudan.  The only way he can reach his regiment is for him to disguise himself as a mute Sangali native.  Faversham can have no idea what ordeals lie ahead, but he is determined to press on and persuade his erstwhile friends to take back their feathers...

The fourth and best of the seven screen adaptations of A.E.W. Mason’s popular adventure novel, The Four Feathers marked one of the highpoints of British cinema in the 1930s and was a personal triumph for its producer, Alexander Korda.  With the kind of lavish production values that are now taken for granted but which were then exceptionally rare in British cinema, this was a film that enthralled audiences when it was first released and has since been held in high esteem, in spite of its inescapable racist undertones and some excruciating overt jingoism.   

Zoltan Korda (the producer’s brother) directs the film with flair throughout, but he appears particularly inspired by the battle sequences, which are amongst the best ever to have featured in a British film.  The glorious Technicolor photography gives the film both a keen edge of realism and a subtle poetry, capturing not just the majestic beauty of the desert location, but also its unremitting harshness.   The performances are exemplary, with particularly memorable contributions from John Clements and Ralph Richardson, although the stiff upper lip delivery does occasionally lend a hint of unintentional mirth.

Alexander Korda’s unbridled anglophilia is well-known and The Four Feathers is the film that most vividly demonstrates his love of all things English.  No film celebrates the British Empire and the myth of flawless British rectitude and valour as fervently as this one.   Today, it is easy to criticise the film for its unflattering portrayal of African natives (Fuzzy Wuzzies with silly wigs and even sillier dances) and some may even write it off as a piece of wartime propaganda.  (Even though it was released a few months before the Nazis invaded Poland, the film would undoubtedly have helped recruitment into the armed services, especially as most of the population saw that a war with Germany was inevitable.)   Whilst such criticisms are valid, they should not detract from the film’s immense artistic achievement.  The Four Feathers is a stunning piece of cinema and the most sincere expression of the noblest characteristics of the British.

© filmsdefrance.com 2009

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