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Gunga Din Overview:

Gunga Din (1939) was a Action - Adventure Film directed by George Stevens and produced by George Stevens.

The film was based on the poem of the same name written by Rudyard Kipling published in 1892.

SYNOPSIS

The prototypical Hollywood action adventure-buddy film is loosely based on the poem by Rudyard Kipling and adapted by MacArthur-Hecht (basing character relationships from their hit play The Front Page) and William Faulkner, who goes uncredited. Three soldier-comrades (Grant, Fairbanks, and McLaglen) help suppress a native uprising in 19th century India with the help of their intrepid waterboy, Gunga Din. Archivally restored to 117 minutes (from 96), it is also available in a less impressive colorized version.

(Source: available at Amazon AMC Classic Movie Companion).

Gunga Din was inducted into the National Film Registry in 1999.

Academy Awards 1939 --- Ceremony Number 12 (source: AMPAS)

AwardRecipientResult
Best CinematographyJoseph H. AugustNominated
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Gunga Din BlogHub Articles:

Gunga Din (1939)

By 4 Star Film Fan on Mar 7, 2014 From 4 Star Films

Starring Cary Grant, Victor MClaglen, and Douglas Fairbanks Jr. with Sam Jaffe in the title role and director George Stevens, the film follows three men in Her Majesties’ Forces. They soon have a run in with a violent cult but they narrowly come out in one piece. However, after that things qui... Read full article

Gunga Din (1939)

By 4 Star Film Fan on Mar 7, 2014 From 4 Star Films

Starring Cary Grant, Victor MClaglen, and Douglas Fairbanks Jr. with Sam Jaffe in the title role and director George Stevens, the film follows three men in Her Majesties’ Forces. They soon have a run in with a violent cult but they narrowly come out in one piece. However, after that things qui... Read full article

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Gunga Din Quotes:

Guru: Where are the stranglers?
Thuggees: [Thuggees respond in Hindi]
Guru: Give them their strangling cloths.
Thuggees: Kali.
Guru: Give them their burial picks.
Thuggees: Kali.
Guru: Swear by our mother Kali to be thrice faithful to her and to me and to our order and to all of us.
Thuggees: [Thuggees pray in Hindi]
Guru: Rise, our new-made brothers. Rise and kill. Kill, lest you be killed yourselves. Kill for the love of killing. Kill for the love of Kali. Kill! Kill! Kill!
Guru: You seem to think warfare an English invention. Have you never heard of Chandragupta Maurya? He slaughtered all the armies left in India by Alexander the Great. India was a mighty nation then while Englishmen still dwelt in caves and painted themselves blue.
Colonel Weed: [reading from the poem by the journalist, Rudyard Kipling] "Though I've belted you and flayed you / By the living God that made you / You're a better man than I am, Gunga Din."
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Gunga Din Facts
Joan Fontaine fell in love with director George Stevens during filming.
The battle between the Thuggees and the British Indian army was added when RKO considered the ending too bland.
Mention is made of Chandragupta Maurya as a significant Indian soldier. He founded the Maurya empire, unifying much of India and becoming its first emperor.
Howard Hawks was the original director, but was fired from the project after his previous film, Bringing Up Baby, was a box office bomb.
Eight make-up artists were sent to the Lone Pine set, where they worked for the six weeks of location shooting. Over 600 extras were employed in the Mount Whitney scenes.
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