The Charge of the Light Brigade (movie, 1936)

Synopsis

The film tells, in a fictional way, the episode of the Charge of the Light Brigade during the Crimean War .

Technical sheet

• Original title: The Charge of the Light Brigade
• French title: La Charge de la brigade léger
• Director: Michael Curtiz
• Screenplay: Michel Jacoby and Rowland Leigh from a story of Michel Jacoby and a poem The Charge of the Light Brigade by Alfred Lord Tennyson
• Dialogues: Stanley Logan
• Artistic direction: John Hughes
• Costumes: Milo Anderson
• Photography: Sol Polito
• Editing: George Amy
• Music: Max Steiner
• Production: Samuel Bischoff (associate producer), Hal B. Wallis (executive producer) and Jack L. Warner (executive producer) uncredited
• Production and Distribution Company: Warner Bros. Pictures
• Budget: 1,200,000 $ (record for the time) ¹
• Country of origin: United States
• Format: Black and White – 35mm – 1.37: 1 – Mono sound
• Genre: Adventure Movie
• Language: English
• Duration: 115 minutes
• Release dates:
  •  United States : October 20 , 1936
  •  France : December 25 , 1936

Distribution

Note : in parenthesis, the second dubbing done in 1948

• Errol Flynn (VF: Roland Menard ) : Major Geoffrey Vickers, a young and brilliant officer of the 27 ^th Lancers
• Olivia de Havilland (VF: Mony Dalmes ) : Elsa Campbell, his fiancée, the daughter of a colonel
• Patric Knowles (VF: René Arrieu ) : Captain Perry Vickers, Geoffrey’s brother
• Henry Stephenson (VF: Jacques Berlioz ) : Sir Charles Macefield
• Nigel Bruce (VF: Raymond Rognoni ) : Sir Benjamin Warrenton
• Donald Crisp ( Abby Jacquin ) : Colonel Campbell, Elsa’s father
• David Niven (VF: Jean-Francois Laley) : Captain James Randall
• C. Henry Gordon (VF: Claude Péran ) : Surat Khan, the Emir of the Indies who concludes a secret alliance with Russia
• GP Huntley : Major Jowett
• Robert Barrat (VF: Pierre Morin ) : Count Igor Volonoff
• Spring Byington : Lady Octavia Warrenton
• EE Clive (VF: Camille Guerini ) : Sir Humphrey Harcourt
• J. Carrol Naish : Subahdar Major Puran Singh
• Walter Holbrook (VF: Michel André ) : Cavalry Officer Charles Barclay
• Princess Baba : Prema’s mother
• Charles Sedgwick : the cavalry officer Lawrence Pearson
• Scotty Beckett : Prema Singh
• George Regas : Wazir
• Helen Sanborn : M ^me Jowett

And, among the uncredited actors:

• Jimmy Aubrey : the prescription
• Charles Croker-King (VF: Richard Francoeur ) : Lord Cardigan
• Jack Curtis : a sepoy
• Lumsden Hare : Colonel Woodward
• Holmes Herbert : General O’Neill
• Brandon Hurst (VF: Jean Clarens ) : Lord Raglan
• Boyd Irwin (VF: Jean-Henri Chambois ) : General Dunbar
• Crauford Kent : Captain Brown
• Georges Renavent (VF: Jean-Henri Chambois ) : General Canrobert
• Michael Visaroff : Russian General

Around the film

A remake was shot in 1968 by Tony Richardson with Trevor Howard , Vanessa Redgrave and David Hemmings .

Director Michael Curtiz , of Hungarian origin, had a rough English, and asked that the “empty horses” ( “Bring on the empty horses” ) be brought instead of horses without riders. The term “Bring on the empty horses” served as the title for a work by actor David Niven .

For the charge scene, wire was strained to cause the horses to fall. A dozen of them had to be slaughtered. This treatment scandalized and motivated the US Congress to deal with the safety of animals on filming, while the ASPCA issued guidelines banning the use of wire. The film was also the only blockbuster of Errol Flynn that was not released by the Warner brothers.

External links

• (en) The Light Brigade Charge [ archive ] on the Internet Movie Database

Notes and references