The four feathers 1939 - 'When war was war and men were men!'

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IMDB rating: 7,7

Director: Zoltan Korda
Main Cast: John Clements, Ralph Richardson, C. Aubrey Smith, June Duprez

"This was the first sound production of A.E.W. Mason's classic adventure novel, which was brought to the screen three times in the silent era. Zoltan Korda's 1938 The Four Feathers was the last and best traditional patriotic film of the pre-World War II era. The movie benefited from glorious Technicolor photography and unique location shooting: Korda and his second unit crew, under Osmond H. Borradaile, not only shot the action scenes where the battles really took place but also included among the extras people who'd actually seen the fighting (and participated in it) 45 years earlier. Coupled with Korda's skills as an action director (he'd been a cavalry officer, and he knew how to move men and their mounts quickly and to good effect), the result was a movie that captured the imagination of the public on the eve of World War II with its vision of self-sacrifice and gallantry. The movie is a reminder of a time when it was possible to believe that armies could liberate peoples from tyranny, and that the use of force could be a good thing. The film is not unquestioning in this belief, as attested by its brutally humorous treatment of the aging general played by Sir C. Aubrey Smith ('Those were the days when war was war, and men were men'), but ultimately it comes down on the side of action as opposed to inaction. Korda's and Borradaile's African footage was so good that it has been reused in dozens of other movies (including remakes of this one).
The Four Feathers was a great critical and commercial success and received an Academy Award nomination for Best Cinematography.
Follow That Camel, by the British Carry On company, was a direct and savage satire of The Four Feathers." - www.allmovie.com

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The bachelor father 1931 - Great performance by Sir C. Aubrey Smith

IMDB link: http://www.imdb.com/title/tt0021633/?ref_=fn_al_tt_1
IMDB rating: 7,8

Director: Robert Z. Leonard
Main Cast: Marion Davies, Ralph Forbes, C. Aubrey Smith, Ray Milland

"A grumpy old baronet, happily unmarried, decides to send for his three grown-up illegitimate children and provide them a home at his manor. To his surprise, he finds himself bonding with his uninhibited American daughter. Can he find satisfaction in his new role as 'the bachelor father'?
This 1931 film, in which he gives a robust performance, marked the arrival at MGM of elderly Sir C. Aubrey Smith, very soon to be one of Hollywood's most valuable character actors. With his great hooked nose and beetling brows, Sir Aubrey looked every inch the part of the duke or general or statesman he would play so often. He would remain very much in demand in studios all over town, right up to his death in 1948.
The film's top-billed star is Marion Davies. Best remembered today as the mistress of media mogul William Randolph Hearst and the chatelaine of Hearst Castle, the most fabulous residence on the West Coast, she was actually a very talented and pretty comedienne. For a few years, Hearst attempted to make her the queen of MGM (with her own production company and a huge bungalow-dressing room) but the studio already had several other queens - Dressler, Garbo, Shearer, Crawford - and he eventually moved her to Warner Bros. Here Miss Davies gets a chance to joke and clown and her scenes with Sir Aubrey are entertaining. Her love interest is played by Ralph Forbes, a handsome young British actor who was just starting to find good films as the silent days ended. He had all the qualities for major stardom, but sadly it was not to be. Celebrity would come to Ray Milland, here making one of his first screen appearances."

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