AEW Mason who is best known for writing Four Feathers which has been filmed several times going back to the silent screen wrote the story for Drums. It's set in a more modern time between the two World Wars era of the British Raj. Seen today it is quite an anachronism.
Not everyone in India bought Mahatma Gandhi's policy of peaceful non-resistance to British rule. Some like Raymond Massey playing a usurping uncle like Richard III believed in war. Trouble is he's only an uncle, brother to the ruler of his local satrapy and uncle to the Crown Prince played by Sabu.
In fact Massey has been plotting for years quietly importing arms and lining up support. He kills his brother, but unfortunately doesn't get Sabu who seeks refuge with the British governor general Francis L. Sullivan.
It's the next step for Massey that he hopes will rally the native Indians to his side. He has plans to massacre a troop of British soldiers, Scot's Highlanders to be precise and among the folks there are Sabu's friends Roger Livey and wife Valerie Hobson and a drummer boy Desmond Tester whom he's befriended. What happens here is a slam bang action scene very well staged by Alexander Korda and brother director Zoltan Korda.
These two Hungarians who were the backbone of the British cinema never missed an opportunity cinematically to salute the virtues of the British Empire. In some quarters Massey might be considered a hero in what he's doing.
In fact the British never outrightly ruled India with the troops they had there. What they did is play off the various religious factions, Hindu, Moslem, Parsee, Sikh, Jain etc. and the various rulers of the hundreds of little kingdoms that were within India after the last Mogul Emperor died. Military advice and supplies and trade did the trick for them for a couple of hundred years. What you see in Sabu's relationship with the British is quite true and you can see that in many other films like The Rains Came which was made in the USA.
This was an expensive product for the British cinema. In the Thirties color was even more rarely used than in the USA yet the Kordas sprung for it. And they did a remarkable job in making location shooting in Wales look like India. The print I saw could have used a restoration and hopefully it has been done or will be done.
Drums is anachronistic for today's audience both in India and in the west. But it is history if slanted Kipling like history.
Not everyone in India bought Mahatma Gandhi's policy of peaceful non-resistance to British rule. Some like Raymond Massey playing a usurping uncle like Richard III believed in war. Trouble is he's only an uncle, brother to the ruler of his local satrapy and uncle to the Crown Prince played by Sabu.
In fact Massey has been plotting for years quietly importing arms and lining up support. He kills his brother, but unfortunately doesn't get Sabu who seeks refuge with the British governor general Francis L. Sullivan.
It's the next step for Massey that he hopes will rally the native Indians to his side. He has plans to massacre a troop of British soldiers, Scot's Highlanders to be precise and among the folks there are Sabu's friends Roger Livey and wife Valerie Hobson and a drummer boy Desmond Tester whom he's befriended. What happens here is a slam bang action scene very well staged by Alexander Korda and brother director Zoltan Korda.
These two Hungarians who were the backbone of the British cinema never missed an opportunity cinematically to salute the virtues of the British Empire. In some quarters Massey might be considered a hero in what he's doing.
In fact the British never outrightly ruled India with the troops they had there. What they did is play off the various religious factions, Hindu, Moslem, Parsee, Sikh, Jain etc. and the various rulers of the hundreds of little kingdoms that were within India after the last Mogul Emperor died. Military advice and supplies and trade did the trick for them for a couple of hundred years. What you see in Sabu's relationship with the British is quite true and you can see that in many other films like The Rains Came which was made in the USA.
This was an expensive product for the British cinema. In the Thirties color was even more rarely used than in the USA yet the Kordas sprung for it. And they did a remarkable job in making location shooting in Wales look like India. The print I saw could have used a restoration and hopefully it has been done or will be done.
Drums is anachronistic for today's audience both in India and in the west. But it is history if slanted Kipling like history.