FOUR FEATHERS

This film is held by the BFI (ID: 30082).

Synopsis

Harry Faversham finds himself branded a coward by his friends and family when he resigns his commission before the war campaign against the Sudan uprising.

 

Context

The Four Feathers was the fourth film version of A.E.W. Mason’s popular novel which has as historical background the lead-up to the Battle of Omdurman in 1898 and Kitchener’s re-conquest of the Sudan. The Sudan was an area which had been ruled by Khalipha, a Muslim leader since 1885, the year when General Gordon’s army was defeated at Khartoum. Kitchener’s victory in 1898 led to the re-organisation of the Sudan as an Anglo-Egyptian condominium, which remained until 1955.

The Four Feathers was a box-office success in Britain and the USA (Street: 2002: 65). Reviewers concentrated on its thrilling imperial spectacle and Technicolor cinematography. Its technical achievements were praised as rivalling those of Hollywood, and the film’s depiction of the ‘British army and British spirit’ described in one review as ‘thrilling and sometimes moving’ (Film Weekly, 29 April 1939: 31). C.A. Lejeune commented that the film ‘keeps the screen packed with movement, spectacle and excitement. Beyond these obvious box-office qualities, however, it has another quality. It tells a thumping good personal story. I suppose you might describe its thesis as the conquest of fear’ (Observer, 23 April, 1939). Indeed, the film foregrounds an individual’s bravery rather than the wider context of British imperialism. General Burroughs’ attitudes were singled-out in one American review as anachronistic, and alien to American values: ‘The entire cast, notably Mr Smith (C. Aubrey Smith) has that air of well-bred just rightness which only a carefully selected native English cast can have in pictures dealing with that curiously foreign race’ (New York Times, 4 Aug 1939: 11). Censors in India cut the depiction of the white prisoners’ torture (Jaikumar, 2006: 161).

 

Analysis

The Four Feathers is a Technicolor spectacle which examines imperial, masculine codes of honour and chivalry. Although the film is about Faversham’s conversion to heroism it is important that the means whereby he achieves the title of the ‘bravest Faversham’ are unconventional. At the beginning of the film the expectations placed on him to demonstrate his bravery in the military are depicted as rigid and unyielding. At the dinner table General Burroughs repeats the same story of his bravery in the Crimean War time and time again. We later learn that Burroughs’ supposed heroic act was in fact an accident: he led an important charge at a key moment because his horse was startled, not because of his own ingenious timing.

In contrast Faversham’s bravery is anonymous and not associated with such boastful exaggeration. His masquerade as the mute tribesman delays the revelation of his true identity until a white feather is found on each of the men he has saved. So, rather than prove his bravery in the conventional way, he chooses to flout military structures, reject the pomp and pageantry of military ambition and instead pursue a personal quest to redeem himself by returning the white feathers to the individuals who despised him for failing to perform his imperial duty. On a more personal level, the character Durrance also demonstrates bravery and self-sacrifice in his decision at the end of the film to facilitate Ethne and Harry’s reunion in spite of his own love for Ethne.

The film therefore rejects a straightforward celebration of imperial codes by privileging bravery that is not self-aggrandising or overtly exploitative. The strain of pacifism which the film represents is confirmed when Harry describes the Egyptian campaign as ‘madness’. Chapman and Cull suggest that this is a result of screenwriter R.C. Sheriff’s anti-war views (2009: 26). On the other hand, the Khalipha and Dervishes are represented as backward and cruel. The Battle of Omdurman is depicted as an exciting and necessary triumph for the British forces which take advantage of inter-tribal conflict to bargain for support from pro-British local factions. As such the film promotes the view of the British as bringing order to warring tribes in strategically placed territories. In spite of Harry’s personal rejection of the pomp and circumstance of empire, validation of the British cause is thus ultimately supported, in keeping with producer Korda’s imperialistic beliefs. 

While the majority of the locations are in the Sudan, the technique of intermittently showing London accentuates the impact of the contrasting spectacular Egyptian landscape where the action sequences are suspenseful and dramatise the narrative of imperial adventure. Harry’s masquerade provides an example often found in the empire genre of westerners disguising themselves as locals, in this case as a member of the Sanghali tribe. The pretence is seldom questioned by locals, whereas for audiences it is obvious. This inevitably communicates a sense of western superiority since the local people in the narrative are apparently unable to see through the masquerade, a strategy which arguably aligns the audience with the western characters by sharing the same insight. In this and other instances, The Four Feathers relates to the themes of other 1930s British films in the empire genre by suggesting that although the empire is profoundly unstable and dangerous, British military intervention and the endorsement of particular codes of masculine chivalry are necessary to keep order.

Sarah Street 

 

Works Cited

Chapman, James and Cull, Nicholas, Projecting Empire: Imperialism and Popular Culture (London: I.B. Tauris, 2009), pp. 15-32.

Jaikumar, Priya, Cinema and the End of Empire: A Politics of Transition in Britain and India (Durham and London: Duke University Press, 2006), p. 161.

Review in Film Weekly, 29 April 1939, p. 31

Review in the New York Times, 4 Aug 1939, p. 11.

Review in the Observer, 23 April, 1939 (BFI microfiche, no page number).

Street, Sarah, Transatlantic Crossings: British Feature Films in the USA (New York: Continuum, 2002), p. 65.

 

Titles

  • FOUR FEATHERS
 

Technical Data

Year:
1939
Running Time:
126 minutes
Film Gauge (Format):
35mm Film
Colour:
Colour (Technicolor)
Sound:
Sound
Footage:
10361 ft
 

Production Credits

Production Countries:
Great Britain
Camera Operator
COOPER, Wilkie
Camera Operator
KRASKER, Robert
Camera Operator
UNSWORTH, Geoffrey
Director
KORDA, Zoltan
Producer
KORDA, Alexander
2nd Unit Director
BOOTHBY, Geoffrey
Additional Dialogue
BIRÓ, Lajos
Additional Dialogue
WIMPERIS, Arthur
Art Director
KORDA, Vincent
Associate Producer
ASHER, Irving
Author of the Original Work
MASON, A.E.W.
Boom Operator
MITCHELL, John W.
Camera Assistant
HENTY-CREER, Henty
cast member
ALLEN, Jack
cast member
BATTY, Archibald
cast member
BAXTER, Clive
cast member
CLEMENTS, John
cast member
CULLEY, Frederick
cast member
DUPREZ, June
cast member
ELPHINSTONE, Derek
cast member
GRAY, Donald
cast member
JEAYES, Allan
cast member
LAURIE, John
cast member
OSCAR, Henry
cast member
PHILLIPS, Leslie
cast member
PIERCE, Norman
cast member
RENDEL, Robert
cast member
RICHARDSON, Ralph
cast member
SMITH, C. Aubrey
cast member
TAFTAZANI, Amid
cast member
WALTERS, Hal
Clapper
BEAVERS, Willy
Clapper
GODAR, John Howard
Colour Consultant
KALMUS, Natalie
Costumes
BRENNAN, Godfrey
Costumes
HUBERT, René
Director of Photography
BORRADAILE, Osmond
Director of Photography
PÉRINAL, Georges
Editor
CORNELIUS, Henry
Music
RÓZSA, Miklós
Music Director
MATHIESON, Muir
Photography
CARDIFF, Jack
Production Assistant
DAVID, Charles
Production Company
London Film Productions
Production Manager
CUNYNGHAME, David B.
Screenplay
SHERRIFF, R.C.
Sound
COOK, J.C.
Sound
WATKINS, A.W.
Sound Engineer
BRUNKER, Jerry
Studio
Denham Studios
Supervising Editor
HORNBECK, William
Technical Adviser
ANDERSON, Donald C.
Technical Adviser
STIRLING DSOMC, Lt.Col.
 

Countries

 

Genres