The Real Glory

The story is fine but Leeds is wasted.

Gary Cooper is very, very good playing a kind, intellectual adventure hero, a variation of the character he incarnated in his greatest roles. He's got a little bit of Frank Capra's social conscientiousness and a little bit of the bravura of Indiana Jones. The movie depicts a distant Philippine outpost of the US Army in 1906 whose job it is to prepare the local militia, in this majority Catholic country, from attacks by the minority Muslim Moros. Religious zealotry, traditions and superstitions play important roles in the plot. There is lots of derring-do and other movie clichés befitting a traditional colonial adventure and military film of the 1930s, and those are a bit hard to take in 2021, but at least it has good and believable production values befitting such films. Broderick Crawford and David Niven bring life to the screen. One curiosity for movie historians: why does this American film about the US Army have so many British actors ?

Military period piece, which pretty much follows a 'western' narrative in its Philippine setting.

Not in the same league as 'Beau Geste' or 'Gunga Din' (films which this somewhat resembles) but it's got great atmosphere and Gary Cooper is mesmerising.

Exciting and powerful adventure film from Samuel Goldwyn. Gary Cooper is perfectly cast, with David Niven in a good supporting role. The film raises many interesting questions about occupying a foreign territory and dealing with consequences of terrorism as a result. But overall, it's not too heavy a film, and is memorable for it's action sequences such as the rafting scene. Hathaway delivers another exciting adventure yarn in the tradition of his 1935 "Lives of a Bengal Lancer".

There are few war films set in the Asian sphere of combat. This is a good one.