Thursday, April 5, 2012

April 5: The Drum (1938 -- Zoltán Korda)

★★★

The Drum is finally a Korda film that I can enjoy without having to constantly wince at the ideology.  There are still many objectionable ideological elements, for sure: the British offering to “protect” Tokot (history is clear what that meant), the good Indian ruler being an immature juvenile who needs paternalist (British) guidance, and the competent Moslems being sneaky and dangerous. 

All that aside, I was interested in the setting, the Pakistan/Afgan border area that is even today unsettled.  Complete with militants, though in the case of this film, not totally fundamentalists.  And you have to like the Technicolor here, too, with the occasional nice vista and riveting reds.  While The Drum doesn’t have the most original story, the plot is at least moderately engaging, and it leads to an action climax that pays off.  Again, though, I’d have to say that Korda is in the Michael Bay action camp because it’s hard to follow exactly what the characters are doing and where everyone is in relation to each other when the shooting starts. 

I saw this film because it’s in the Sabu Eclipse set, and the young actor had grown by the time he did this role.  In The Drum, he’s playing a character who is outside something the actor would have experienced in daily life, and he acts here rather than doing things for the camera he might have done in his off-camera life.  He’s a little stilted, but he still has clear charisma here that adds a little energy to a movie that can creak in places.

Zoltán Korda isn’t going on my list of directors to seek out, but at least The Drum didn’t leave me aggravated, as some other Korda films have.

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