The Charge of the Light Brigade

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Actors: David Niven , Spring Byington , Nigel Bruce , Robert Barrat , Olivia de Havilland , Patric Knowles , Errol Flynn , Donald Crisp , E.E. Clive , Henry Stephenson , C. Henry Gordon , J. Carrol Naish , G.P. Huntley , Princess Baba , Walter Holbrook

Director: Michael Curtiz

IMDB Rate: 7.2 out of 10 (1578 votes)

Plot Summary:Why is The Charge of the Light Brigade so rarely even mentioned among Errol Flynns swashbucklers? Its a terrific movie, something like the peak of spectacular Hollywood action filmmaking and the bravura style of Michael Curtiz. The setting--till the Crimean War climax--is the Indian frontier (impersonated, as so often, by rocky Lone Pine, California), where the 27th Bengal Lancers run afoul of an Oxford-educated slime named Surat Khan (C. Henry Gordon). Flynn and Olivia de Havilland bring real tenderness to two-thirds of a romantic triangle (the other corner is the heros brother, Patric Knowles). Theres the fearsome siege of Chukoti, an unspeakable atrocity, and finally the foolhardy, inspired Charge at Balaklava. The camerawork and editing of that grand sequence never cease to astonish. History (and political correctness) is better served by the 1968 Tony Richardson movie, but for unabashed epic sweep and matchless thrills, this is the one you want.