Directors Zoltan Korda and Terence Young’s completely unwanted CinemaScope remake of the great 1939 Zoltan Korda adventure classic The Four Feathers, based on the novel by A E W Mason, does not even have the excuse of the original being in black and white. It is in the most superb Technicolor.
They even also use verbatim R C Sherriff’s original 1939 screenplay in this tepidly rehashed tale of Harry Faversham (Anthony Steel), a 19th century wartime stay-at-home, who receives the white feathers of cowardice from his comrades John Durrance, Peter Burroughs and Tom Willoughby (Laurence Harvey, Ronald Lewis, Ian Carmichael) but eventually redeems himself in action in the Sudan and saves his buddies’ lives. It opens in 1885.
Steel, Harvey and Lewis give the dullest of performances and raise no spark or interest at all. Zoltan Korda and Young direct without any evident commitment or style. And, to save on the budget, they use a great deal of stock footage from the 1939 The Four Feathers, including much of the location footage and the entire final battle sequence, inter-cut with close-ups of the 1955 actors, as well as a shot of John Laurie as the Khalifa. So, apart from making some extra money, what is the point?
Zoltan Korda, who directed the first, co-produces and co-directs this time.
It is shot by Ted Scaife, Osmond Borradaile and Robert Day, produced by Alexander Korda and Zoltan Korda, scored by Benjamin Frankel, and designed by Vincent Korda and Wilfred Shingleton.
Also in the cast are James Robertson Justice as General Burroughs, Ferdy Mayne as Dr Harraz, Michael Hordern as General Faversham, Jack Lambert as the Colonel, Mary Ure (in her debut) as Mary Burroughs, Geoffrey Keen as Dr Sutton, Christopher Lee as Karaga Pasha, Raymond Francis, Sam Kydd, John Wynn, Avis Scott, Roger Delgado, Frank Sanguineau, Ben Williams, Vincent Holman and Paul Streather.
The Four Feathers was remade in 2002 with Heath Ledger.
© Derek Winnert 2017 Classic Movie Review 6265
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