THE REAL GLORY 1939
This Samuel Goldwyn Production is about a series of battles during the Moro war in the Philippines. This armed conflict took place from 1903 to 1913. The film stars, Gary Cooper, David Niven, Broderick Crawford, Andrea Leeds, Reginald Owen, Russell Hicks and Vladimir Sokoloff.
The film is set on the Philippines island of Mindanao. The US Army is pulling out and leaving the local militia and Police force in charge. The locals are sure that once the US Army leaves, the Moro guerrillas will swoop in and kill all the men, then sell the women and children into slavery. The Army leaves several men to help train the locals to defend themselves. (Cooper, Niven, Crawford, Owen, Hicks)
The Moro leader, Tetsu Komai, tries to draw the American led militia out into the jungle where they plan on slaughtering them. When this does not work, Komai, with help from his inside man, Vladimir Sokoloff, send in several suicide types to kill the American commanding officer. This they succeed in doing, but this also fails to bring out the Constabulary.
Now the Moro types dam up the river and stop the flow of fresh water to the village. There is soon a cholera problem and people start to die. The Army doctor, Gary Cooper does what he can. The man in charge now, Reginald Owen, is afraid to do anything about the problem. He is going blind from an old wound. Needless to say he is keeping this info from Cooper and the rest.
Owen finally orders one of the men, Broderick Crawford, to take a detachment of militia and destroy the dam. The problem here is that the Moro leader is kept up to date on the intelligence front by inside man, Sokoloff. Broderick and his men are massacred with only a single survivor. The situation now is desperate in the village from lack of fresh water, as well as the disease problem.
Now Sokoloff steps up and offers to lead another detachment up a secret trail to the dam. Owen falls for the ploy and leads off most of the militia garrison. They also take along a healthy amount of dynamite. Cooper, left in command of the village, now discover Sokoloff's duplicity. He puts David Niven in charge, grabs up a shotgun and takes off to warn Owen.
While Owen is being led up and down various jungle paths, the Moros have massed for an attack on the now depleted garrison. Cooper manages to reach Owen and fill him in on Sokoloff. After disposing of the swine Sokoloff, Cooper and the rest destroy the dam, build some rafts, and return to the village.
Meanwhile, back at the ranch, er, I mean the village, there is a full-fledged battle going on. The Moros, using freshly captured rifles, are getting the upper hand. Inside the barricades, Niven and the remaining militia are putting up a stubborn bit of resistance, but they are outnumbered and losing ground.
Just as it looks like the Moro bunch will be victorious, Cooper and the boys arrive. They take the Moros in the flank and soon have them on the run with heavy casualties. The Moro leader, Komai, is killed by one of the Philippine Militia officers, Rudy Robles. The threat to the village and its people is ended.
There is a side plot where Reginald Owen's daughter, Andrea Leeds, falls for the dashing doctor, Cooper.
This one comes off like a version of Gunga Din with plenty of action and derring do. The director was Henry Hathaway, who had worked with Cooper on, THE LIVES OF A BENGAL LANCER. Hathaway cranked out more than a few decent films during his career. These include, SOULS AT SEA, SPAWN OF THE NORTH, WING AND PRAYER, THE BLACK ROSE, RAWHIDE, KISS OF DEATH, NIAGARA, THE SONS OF KATIE ELDER and TRUE GRIT.
Helping out behind the camera was Rudolph Mate. The 5 time Oscar nominated cinematographer (Gilda, Sahara) would become a director himself. He would crank out a series of well-respected westerns and film noir like, DOA, UNION STATION, BRANDED, THE VIOLENT MEN, SIEGE AT RED RIVER, THE FAR HORIZONS, and THE RAWHIDE YEARS.