The Charge of the Light Brigade (Warner Bros.) (1936)

. Captain Geollrey Vickers (Errol Flynn) accompanies Sir Humphrey Harcourt (E. E. Clive), an English diplomat, on a mission to inform Surat Khan (C. Henry Gordon), Amir of India, that the British government has discontinued an annuity sranted his father. Surat Khan, outwardly friendly, receives the information with a veiled threat which passes over Sir Humphrey’ Ss head, but which Vickers, long in the Indian service, knows means trouble. Army officers in India are worried Ponce England is threatened by hostilities of the Russians in Crimea and have been ordered to maintain peace in India. Vickers is ordered to report to the garrison at Calcutta. This pleases him oreatly because Colonel Campbell (Donald Crisp) is there with his daughter, Elsa (Olivia de Havilland), to whom Vickers is engaged. But his brother, Perry (Patric Knowles) , is in Calcutta, and has been making love to Elsa. Perry tells his brother that he and Elsa love each other. Vickers will not believe it, and the brothers have a violent quarrel. The next day Vickers is sent to Arabia to purchase thousands of horses for the British Army: He is harrassed by the border tribesmen, but drives them off and a with the horses. For this he is made a major. Later he is sent to Chukoti, now under the command of Colonel Campbell, and Perry is ordered to Lohara, just a few miles from Chukoti, where Sir Benjamin Warrenton (Nigel Bruce) is in command of all the border forces. Vickers arrives at Chukoti to find that Elsa has ridden to Lohara, presumably to meet his brother. She returns, and while there is no outward breach between the lovers, their relations are somewhat strained. Meantime Surat Khan has been secretly stirring up the border tribes. Sir Benjamin, unaware of this, orders Colonel Campbell to send most of his troops to Lohara for manceuvres. While the troops are gone, Surat Khan attacks the Chukoti garrison. ‘Ihe British are besieged and finally run out of food and ammunition. Surat Khan sends an emissary under a white flag and promises the British sate conduct if they will surrender. Women and children, with a few officers, are placed in boats to take them.to Lohara, Elsa and Major Vickers among them. The minuite they are in the boats Surat Khan's troops open fire. Vickers is wounded but manages to pick up Elsa, who has been knocked overboard, and saves her. They make their way to Lohara to warn the garrison. Before the troops can reach Chukoti, Surat Khan has miandored Colonel Campbell and his officers, and massacred all the women and children. Surat Khan then Hees to join the Russian forces in the Crimea. Sir Benjamin, commander of the Light Brigade, and Major Vickers also are ordered there, with Perry as a subordinate ollicer to his brother. Before Vickers leaves, Elsa comes to him and tells him she fears Perry will). be killed, contessing that she loves him. Vickers promises her he will see that Perry is not endangered. At the Crimean front, siege is laid to Sebastopol, the Russian base. The city is believed too formidable to take, so Sir Charles Macefield (Henry Stephenson) , commander of the British forces in the Crimea, sends an order to Sir Benjamin, by Vickers, not to attack. Vickers, knowing that Surat Khan is with the Russian forces and wishing to avenge the massacre at Chukoti, deliberately changes the dispatch to read <that the Light Brigade is to attack at once. He writes a note to Sir Charles, telling him what he ins done, believing he himself will be killed. He sends the note by Perry so that he will not be in the battle, keeping his promise to Elsa not to endanger the life of his brother. Sir Benjamin receives the counterfeit order with satisfaction, he and all his men wishing to be avenged on Surat Khan.» Then comes the famous charge ot the Light Brigade which Tennyson immortalized in his poem. Officers and men are mowed down by Russian cannon in “The Valley of Death,” but Vickers manages to get over the ramparts where he meets Surat Khan and impales him on his lance just before he himself is killed. The mad charge is not in vain, however, for Sir Charles orders other troops to support the Lancers and after a gallant fight, Sebastopol is taken. Sir Charles, under fire from home for sacrificing his men, drops Vickers’ incriminating contession into the fire and accepts the blame himself.