{"id":41907,"date":"2019-01-13T10:56:23","date_gmt":"2019-01-13T17:56:23","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/filmfanatic.org\/?p=41907"},"modified":"2020-11-22T16:33:43","modified_gmt":"2020-11-22T23:33:43","slug":"drum-the-1938","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/filmfanatic.org\/?p=41907","title":{"rendered":"Drum, The (1938)"},"content":{"rendered":"<p><strong>&#8220;In our mountains, you are wise or dead. I beg you to be wise.&#8221;<\/strong><\/p>\n<table>\n<tr>\n<td>\n<p><a href=\"http:\/\/filmfanatic.org\/wp-content\/uploads\/2019\/01\/Drum-Poster.jpg\"><img loading=\"lazy\" decoding=\"async\" src=\"http:\/\/filmfanatic.org\/wp-content\/uploads\/2019\/01\/Drum-Poster-200x300.jpg\" alt=\"\" width=\"200\" height=\"300\" class=\"alignleft size-medium wp-image-41912\" srcset=\"https:\/\/filmfanatic.org\/wp-content\/uploads\/2019\/01\/Drum-Poster-200x300.jpg 200w, https:\/\/filmfanatic.org\/wp-content\/uploads\/2019\/01\/Drum-Poster-85x128.jpg 85w, https:\/\/filmfanatic.org\/wp-content\/uploads\/2019\/01\/Drum-Poster.jpg 460w\" sizes=\"auto, (max-width: 200px) 100vw, 200px\" \/><\/a><\/p>\n<p><strong>Synopsis:<\/strong><br \/>\nIn a Northwest frontier of colonial India, a British governor (Frances L. Sullivan) negotiates peace with a local king who is assassinated by his power-hungry brother (Raymond Massey). The king&#8217;s son (Sabu) &#8212; who has befriended a British colonel (Roger Livesey), Livesey&#8217;s new wife (Valerie Hobson), and a drummer boy (Desmond Tester) &#8212; goes into hiding, but helps the British fight back against Massey&#8217;s revolutionaries.\n<\/p>\n<\/td>\n<\/tr>\n<tr>\n<td>\n<p>\n<strong>Genres:<\/strong><\/p>\n<ul>\n<li>India<\/li>\n<li>Raymond Massey Films<\/li>\n<li>Rebellion<\/li>\n<li>Roger Livesey Films<\/li>\n<li>Royalty and Nobility<\/li>\n<li>Sabu Films<\/li>\n<li>Zoltan Korda Films<\/li>\n<\/ul>\n<p><strong>Review: <\/strong><br \/>\nThis second of the <a href=\"http:\/\/www.tcm.com\/this-month\/article\/218568%7C0\/The-Korda-Brothers-TCM-Spotlight-.html\">Korda brothers&#8217;<\/a> &#8220;Empire trilogy&#8221; &#8212; made after <a href=\"http:\/\/filmfanatic.org\/?p=36898\"><em>Elephant Boy<\/em> (1937)<\/a> and before <em>The Four Feathers<\/em> (1939) &#8212; was a further opportunity for charismatic young Indian star Sabu to make his presence known to American and worldwide audiences. <\/p>\n<p><a href=\"http:\/\/filmfanatic.org\/wp-content\/uploads\/2019\/01\/Drum-Sabu.png\"><img loading=\"lazy\" decoding=\"async\" src=\"http:\/\/filmfanatic.org\/wp-content\/uploads\/2019\/01\/Drum-Sabu.png\" alt=\"\" width=\"1291\" height=\"915\" class=\"alignnone size-full wp-image-53887\" srcset=\"https:\/\/filmfanatic.org\/wp-content\/uploads\/2019\/01\/Drum-Sabu.png 1291w, https:\/\/filmfanatic.org\/wp-content\/uploads\/2019\/01\/Drum-Sabu-300x213.png 300w, https:\/\/filmfanatic.org\/wp-content\/uploads\/2019\/01\/Drum-Sabu-1024x726.png 1024w, https:\/\/filmfanatic.org\/wp-content\/uploads\/2019\/01\/Drum-Sabu-128x91.png 128w, https:\/\/filmfanatic.org\/wp-content\/uploads\/2019\/01\/Drum-Sabu-768x544.png 768w, https:\/\/filmfanatic.org\/wp-content\/uploads\/2019\/01\/Drum-Sabu-381x270.png 381w\" sizes=\"auto, (max-width: 1291px) 100vw, 1291px\" \/><\/a><\/p>\n<p>Unfortunately, his role in this flick isn&#8217;t large enough by far, and the story itself comes across as simply jingoistic imperialism. Massey is convincingly wild-eyed and obsessed:<\/p>\n<p><a href=\"http:\/\/filmfanatic.org\/wp-content\/uploads\/2019\/01\/Drum-Massey3.png\"><img loading=\"lazy\" decoding=\"async\" src=\"http:\/\/filmfanatic.org\/wp-content\/uploads\/2019\/01\/Drum-Massey3-1024x775.png\" alt=\"\" width=\"640\" height=\"484\" class=\"alignnone size-large wp-image-53889\" srcset=\"https:\/\/filmfanatic.org\/wp-content\/uploads\/2019\/01\/Drum-Massey3-1024x775.png 1024w, https:\/\/filmfanatic.org\/wp-content\/uploads\/2019\/01\/Drum-Massey3-300x227.png 300w, https:\/\/filmfanatic.org\/wp-content\/uploads\/2019\/01\/Drum-Massey3-128x97.png 128w, https:\/\/filmfanatic.org\/wp-content\/uploads\/2019\/01\/Drum-Massey3-768x581.png 768w, https:\/\/filmfanatic.org\/wp-content\/uploads\/2019\/01\/Drum-Massey3-357x270.png 357w, https:\/\/filmfanatic.org\/wp-content\/uploads\/2019\/01\/Drum-Massey3.png 1283w\" sizes=\"auto, (max-width: 640px) 100vw, 640px\" \/><\/a><\/p>\n<p>&#8230; mouthing rhetoric that would sound familiar in modern-day tales of Jihadi fighters, while perpetuating other-izing fears: &#8220;I see a wave &#8212; a wave of men. Lean, hard, hungry free men from the hills, swooping down on the fat, soft comfortable slaves of the plains, their white throats ripe for the knife &#8212; a story as old as time&#8230; I see the mosques and domes rise again.&#8221; As Jay Carr asserts <a href=\"http:\/\/www.tcm.com\/this-month\/article\/212767%7C0\/Drums.html\">in his article for TCM,<\/a> it can &#8220;hardly be regarded as anything more than dated, imperial chest-thumping, patronizing and paternal, in which Brits alone know what&#8217;s good for the rest of the world, in this case India&#8221;; meanwhile, <a href=\"https:\/\/www.dvdtalk.com\/reviews\/51900\/eclipse-series-30-sabu\/\">Stuart Galbraith of DVD Talk<\/a> notes that Sabu&#8217;s character is &#8220;firmly ensconced as a symbol of the contentedly colonized&#8221;.  <\/p>\n<p><strong>Redeeming Qualities and Moments: <\/strong><\/p>\n<ul>\n<li>Fine Technicolor cinematography<br \/>\n<a href=\"http:\/\/filmfanatic.org\/wp-content\/uploads\/2019\/01\/Drum-Cinematography2.png\"><img loading=\"lazy\" decoding=\"async\" src=\"http:\/\/filmfanatic.org\/wp-content\/uploads\/2019\/01\/Drum-Cinematography2-1024x774.png\" alt=\"\" width=\"640\" height=\"484\" class=\"alignnone size-large wp-image-53890\" srcset=\"https:\/\/filmfanatic.org\/wp-content\/uploads\/2019\/01\/Drum-Cinematography2-1024x774.png 1024w, https:\/\/filmfanatic.org\/wp-content\/uploads\/2019\/01\/Drum-Cinematography2-300x227.png 300w, https:\/\/filmfanatic.org\/wp-content\/uploads\/2019\/01\/Drum-Cinematography2-128x97.png 128w, https:\/\/filmfanatic.org\/wp-content\/uploads\/2019\/01\/Drum-Cinematography2-768x581.png 768w, https:\/\/filmfanatic.org\/wp-content\/uploads\/2019\/01\/Drum-Cinematography2-357x270.png 357w, https:\/\/filmfanatic.org\/wp-content\/uploads\/2019\/01\/Drum-Cinematography2.png 1279w\" sizes=\"auto, (max-width: 640px) 100vw, 640px\" \/><\/a><\/li>\n<\/ul>\n<p><strong>Must See? <\/strong><br \/>\nNo; feel free to skip this one unless you&#8217;re a Sabu completist or particularly enjoy the Kordas brothers&#8217; adventure flicks.<\/p>\n<p><strong>Links: <\/strong><\/p>\n<ul>\n<li><a href=\"https:\/\/www.imdb.com\/title\/tt0030082\/\">IMDb entry<\/a><\/li>\n<li><a href=\"https:\/\/www.criterion.com\/current\/posts\/2081-eclipse-series-30-sabu\">Criterion Essay (scroll down to second article)<\/a>\t<\/li>\n<li><a href=\"http:\/\/www.criterionconfessions.com\/2011\/12\/sabu-drumjungle-book-eclipse-series-30.html\">Criterion Confessions Review<\/a><\/li>\n<li><a href=\"http:\/\/www.tcm.com\/this-month\/article\/212767%7C0\/Drums.html\">TCM Article<\/a><\/li>\n<\/ul>\n<\/td>\n<\/tr>\n<\/table>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"<p>&#8220;In our mountains, you are wise or dead. I beg you to be wise.&#8221; Synopsis: In a Northwest frontier of colonial India, a British governor (Frances L. Sullivan) negotiates peace with a local king who is assassinated by his power-hungry brother (Raymond Massey). The king&#8217;s son (Sabu) &#8212; who has befriended a British colonel (Roger Livesey), Livesey&#8217;s new wife (Valerie Hobson), and a drummer boy (Desmond Tester) &#8212; goes into hiding, but helps the British fight back against Massey&#8217;s revolutionaries&#8230;.<\/p>\n<p class=\"read-more\"><a class=\"btn btn-default\" href=\"https:\/\/filmfanatic.org\/?p=41907\"> Read More<span class=\"screen-reader-text\">  Read More<\/span><\/a><\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":1,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"closed","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"jetpack_post_was_ever_published":false,"_jetpack_newsletter_access":"","_jetpack_dont_email_post_to_subs":false,"_jetpack_newsletter_tier_id":0,"_jetpack_memberships_contains_paywalled_content":false,"_jetpack_memberships_contains_paid_content":false,"footnotes":""},"categories":[1],"tags":[],"class_list":["post-41907","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","hentry","category-reviews"],"aioseo_notices":[],"jetpack_featured_media_url":"","jetpack_sharing_enabled":true,"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/filmfanatic.org\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/41907","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/filmfanatic.org\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/filmfanatic.org\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/filmfanatic.org\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/users\/1"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/filmfanatic.org\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcomments&post=41907"}],"version-history":[{"count":17,"href":"https:\/\/filmfanatic.org\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/41907\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":53891,"href":"https:\/\/filmfanatic.org\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/41907\/revisions\/53891"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/filmfanatic.org\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fmedia&parent=41907"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/filmfanatic.org\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcategories&post=41907"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/filmfanatic.org\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Ftags&post=41907"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}