By the time the dramatic fireworks start popping off, each one feels earned.

This movie tries so hard to be funny, yet it falls flat every time. Just another example of recycled ideas repackaged with women in an attempt to appeal to a certain audience.

Unshakable, witty and deeply felt, the film will be paying emotional dividends for a long, long time.

By the time the dramatic fireworks start popping off, each one feels earned.

Lavishly produced and spiritedly directed, The Drum benefits greatly from its actual Indian locations - even though these are not always blended too convincingly with the Denham Studios material. The cast of course is great. Miss Hobson looks attractive, if somewhat thin by my standards of feminine beauty; the villainous Massey is deliciously wily; Sabu perfect. A typical Korda production in that it's crowded with spectacle - all superbly photographed. A pity that despite clever film editing, the location scenes are a bit obtrusive because photographed in a different style to the studio footage. Admittedly, it would be hard to match the beautiful textures created by Osmond Borradaile who after all had marvellous locations to inspire him and plenty of sun to light his scenes. Yet with all the spectacle, some fans might feel justified in complaining that the movie is somewhat short on bloodthirsty action. As someone more interested in pageant and color, in the exotic, and in times past, this sort of shortage doesn't worry me. The costumes look so splendid in color, the sets and the deployment of crowds of extras are to me sufficiently thrilling in themselves. Always directed with competence, often with style, and superbly acted from the least to the most major roles, The Drum is a fabulously entertaining slice of Empire. (A Manga DVD).

AEW Mason who is best known for writing Four Feathers which has been filmed several times going back to the silent screen wrote the story for Drums. It's set in a more modern time between the two World Wars era of the British Raj. Seen today it is quite an anachronism.Not everyone in India bought Mahatma Gandhi's policy of peaceful non-resistance to British rule. Some like Raymond Massey playing a usurping uncle like Richard III believed in war. Trouble is he's only an uncle, brother to the ruler of his local satrapy and uncle to the Crown Prince played by Sabu. In fact Massey has been plotting for years quietly importing arms and lining up support. He kills his brother, but unfortunately doesn't get Sabu who seeks refuge with the British governor general Francis L. Sullivan. It's the next step for Massey that he hopes will rally the native Indians to his side. He has plans to massacre a troop of British soldiers, Scot's Highlanders to be precise and among the folks there are Sabu's friends Roger Livey and wife Valerie Hobson and a drummer boy Desmond Tester whom he's befriended. What happens here is a slam bang action scene very well staged by Alexander Korda and brother director Zoltan Korda.These two Hungarians who were the backbone of the British cinema never missed an opportunity cinematically to salute the virtues of the British Empire. In some quarters Massey might be considered a hero in what he's doing.In fact the British never outrightly ruled India with the troops they had there. What they did is play off the various religious factions, Hindu, Moslem, Parsee, Sikh, Jain etc. and the various rulers of the hundreds of little kingdoms that were within India after the last Mogul Emperor died. Military advice and supplies and trade did the trick for them for a couple of hundred years. What you see in Sabu's relationship with the British is quite true and you can see that in many other films like The Rains Came which was made in the USA.This was an expensive product for the British cinema. In the Thirties color was even more rarely used than in the USA yet the Kordas sprung for it. And they did a remarkable job in making location shooting in Wales look like India. The print I saw could have used a restoration and hopefully it has been done or will be done.Drums is anachronistic for today's audience both in India and in the west. But it is history if slanted Kipling like history.

Not until the story reaches the tense banquet scene does THE DRUM really come to life. Before that, there's a lot of character and plot exposition that slows things up considerably before the big showdown toward the end that is really the highlight of the drama.SABU is the young prince that RAYMOND MASSEY wants to depose so that he can rule the unruly Indian tribes that resent British rule. ROGER LIVESEY is Captain Carruthers and VALERIE HOBSON is his lovely wife, a British couple adept at keeping a stiff upper lip while they deal with the uprising around them. RAYMOND MASSEY has the juiciest role and he's at his villainous best without overdoing it.It's all very Rudyard Kiplingesque in treatment and if you've got a feeling of deja vu, you're not alone. What it lacks is the excitement of a "Gunga Din" or "Lives of the Bengal Lancers." The story is slow to build suspense and the Technicolor print shown on TCM had a washed out look that made THE DRUM look like a film in need of color restoration.Livesey and Hobson haven't too much to do except to be their charming selves in a very British way and Sabu has been seen to better advantage in countless other films that followed.Summing up: Not one of the best of this genre but worth watching for the climactic banquet and battle.

In colonial India, the natives live happily and peacefully under the kind rule of their British masters. Representing the bond between the two nations, young Prince Azim befriends several of the British officers. However his uncle Ghul is less welcoming of the British and has dark plans to slaughter them and raise a rebellion among the tribes of the hills.Some critics have pointed to the fact that, if this film were made today, it work spark outrage and be roundly condemned. This view ignores that, when the film was first screened in India in the late 30's, it sparked riots among the populace. However, the statement is true as well as being null and void, for there is zero danger of this film ever being made now! The plot is very pro-Empire and it is brazenly flag waving for the British. Looking back now, the film is laughable in it's depiction of it's characters. The British are kind and loving to all the Indians they encounter, while the Indians love them in return; those that don't are, of course, shifty and untrustworthy.This is rather insulting if you think about it too much - I must admit I wasn't offended but then I am neither English or Indian and know little of the history that is clearly being twisted here in favour of propaganda. The film does have a nice vein of good humour to it though that prevents it being too heavy, while the battle scenes are of the `up'n'over' school of filming. The plot itself is too simplistic and can't keep the charade up - especially now that it will be clear to most viewers that it isn't a fair telling.The cast are good, but again, there's no way that an `Indian' film would be shot today in Wales with the majority of the cast in blackface! The standout actor is Sabu. True his character is a little too good to be true but he has cheeky attitude and he is good fun throughout - just a shame his character seem to vanish for about a quarter of the film. The villainous Massey is also good fun and I enjoyed his performance. The British (namely Livesey and Hobson) are very stiff, although they do get the more heroic roles towards the end.Overall this film is worth seeing as we will hopefully not see quite it's like again. The film is un-PC in casting, script, plot and characters, while the history it claims to tell is nothing more than a flag waving exercise that rightly started angry riots in Indian when it was shown there. However it is worth seeing for the period, the glorious (for the time) Technicolor and an amusing and fun performance from Sabu.