Drums (United Artists) (1938)

“East-vs.-West” feud still savagely fought by un tamed Hindu potentates HEN a bespectacled WV youth named Rudyard Kipling came out of India near the turn of the century with a pocketful of stories which won him world fame, the veil of mystery which had shrouded the land of mosques and minarets and temple bells was spectacularly lifted —and the world peeked into a land of barbaric melodrama, strange pageantry and primitive taboos. No one yet had told of such an India when Kipling wrote his “Devartmental Ditties” and “Plain Tales From the Hills.” No one before had given the world such fascinating pictures and such stirring drama about a land it did not know—a land, beautiful, bizarre, mystical. In fact few men have since been able to write of India—with its baffling purdah system, its Yogi cults, its walled cities, its fakirs, its beggars and muezzins, its veiled women and nautch dancers -——as Kipling did. Peshawar, near the Khyber Pass, with its narrow streets and teeming native life, has been immortalized in many stories and poems. (Left) Alex a Ni ee ae ee ee The frontier town of permission was given to the location company to proceed to Chitral to take authentic shots of the Mehitar’s Palace and to penetrate into forbidden zones in the Himalayas for other spectacular scenes. No other pass in the world has possessed such strategic importance and so many bold and bloody historic associations as the Khyber gateway to the plains of India where reside the fierce and warlike tribes who live, so to speak, by killing each other, and who start revolts along the entire frontier every time one chief murders another. In spite of the fact that the Khyber is one of England’s most heavily guarded and most heavily fortified strongholds, and is her most northerly barrier to the hordes of maraud-ers who have swept up from the Afghan Plains to kill and conquer, it is marked simply by a sentry-box and a pole stretched across the jagged road. Coming up from the Punjab on the way to the pass, one crosses a trunk road which leads directly into Peshawar, the gateway to the Khyber which is the last frontier town in British India. From here the traveler continues across an open plain to Jamrud, the mud fort where strangers must register for admission before they can cross the barrier on the road where wait the Khassadars, or armed Pathan guards, who must escort all civilians up the Pass unless, oddly enough, world, Peshawar also has its Street of Vice, where in the shadow of the long black line of hills whence come the marauding tribes of the enemy, the stalwart. and magnificent-looking Pathans come to gamble and drink and watch the gyrations of the professional dancing girls. In sharp contrast to this strange pageant is the Moslem festival of Mohurrum, when the streets overflow with the Mohammedan population who watch from their grilled doorways and overhanging balconies the weird and barbaric procession of young boys, who are stripped to their waists, as they parade down the cobbled streets, chanting prayers and hymns to the montonous beat Here (above Bi cht) is the Khyber Pass, narrow corridor thr; gh the mountains between India bridge and boiled shirts and whiskey and soda when it does not have to worry about bombs and machine guns and native up But the unwritten law which risings—the British Government has persisted among the tribes maintains the Tochi Scouts. even in modern times is that a These Scouts, the most exciting blood feud must never end. Also and highest paid soldiers in the service of the British Army, are quartered at Miram Shah, south of Peshawar, and are regarded as the eyes and ears of the Army. No one of this corps, regardless of age or wage, is allowed to marry. Crossing the Khyber Pass from the British end into the Afghan end, is Landi Kotal, surrounded by some of the grandest and wildest scenery to be seen anywhere, with sweeping stretches of hillside and plain terminating in the brilliant white snows of the Hindu Kush. It is the first outpost of the British defence works as one comes across Afghanistan, and it is girded by a barbed wire barrier and centered by a Fort, while in commanding positions on the surrounding peaks are block houses where continual watch is kept. During the first Afghan War. the Khyber was the srenea History made in battles with fierce tribesmen at India’s last outpost Pass, on the withdrawal of the British officers, and held it for several months. This condition of unrest and warfare continued intermittently until the third Afghan War in 1920. Although Mr. Korda’s film production, “Drums,” does not purport to be an accurate historical document, but rather a thrilling motion picture with many dramatic and romantic events in its story, it presents a dynamic and stirring picture of India of the Frontier—India, with its native unrest, its balls and music, its festivals, its religious dancing, its tribal customs, its barbaric traditions,