Charge of the Light Brigade, The(1936)

The film that cemented Errol Flynn’s reputation as the most dashing leading man in Hollywood, The Charge of the Light Brigade is a notoriously inaccurate recounting of a key battle in the Crimean War. It’s very loosely based on the famous poem by Alfred Lord Tennyson that recounts the battle of Balaclava, in which Russian resisters swamped the British. It depicts the charge as the outcome of an old grudge against an Indian leader who has joined the Russians. Most of the film takes place in India and involves a battle for the affections of a character played by Olivia De Havilland. An extremely popular and successful film, this 1936 Hollywood production was directed by the famed Michael Curtiz, whose second wife married Flynn. A sweeping and monumental piece of entertainment despite its inaccuracies, this Charge of the Light Brigade was superior to a 1968 British version. Curtiz would go on to direct Casablanca.

Errol Flynn, Olivia de Havilland, Patric Knowles, Henry Stephenson, Donald Crisp, Nigel Bruce

1936, B&W, 115 minutes

Features

Warner Night at the Movies 1936 short subjects gallery: ; Vintage newsreel; Oscar-wining drama short Give Me Liberty; Comedy short Shop Talk with Bob Hope; Classic cartoon Boom Boom; Trailers of the Charge of the Light Brigade and 1936’s Anthony Adverse; Subtitles: English (feature film only)