The Four Feathers (1929)(DVD-R + Storm Over the Nile (1955) on DVD

Get the original film, The Four Feathers (1929), and the remake, Storm Over the Nile (1955), for 20% off their individual prices!

THE FOUR FEATHERS (1929)

Starring Richard Arlen, Fay Wray, Clive Brook, William Powell, Noah Beery
Directed by Merian C. Cooper, Lothar Mendes, Ernest B. Schoedsack

Print: black/white
Runtime: 80 min.
Genre: adventure
Print Quality: B

This was the third screen version of A.E.W. Mason's oft-filmed novel
about one soldier's triumph over cowardice and was the last rendering
during the silent era. Here, Richard Arlen stars as Harry Faversham, the
British officer who resigns rather than fight against rebels in Egypt. When
four of his former colleagues present him with feathers signifying their
belief that he's a coward, Faversham has a change of heart, and posing
as an Arab, he goes on a potentially deadly mission to rescue captured
British forces. Fay Wray also appears as Ethne Eustance. Wray and
directors Merian C. Cooper and Ernest B. Schoedsack would reunite four
years later for another classic tale of adventure, King Kong.

STORM OVER THE NILE (1955)

Starring Anthony Steel, Laurence Harvey, James Robertson Justice, Mary Ure, Geoffrey
Keen, Ian Carmichael, Christopher Lee
Directed by Zoltan Korda, Terence Young

Print: color
Runtime: 107 min.
Genre: adventure
Print Quality: B

This fourth film version of A.E.W. Mason's adventure yarn The Four Feathers relies heavily
on stock footage from the more famous 1939 adaptation (both were produced by Alexander
Korda and co-directed by Korda's brother Zoltan). Anthony Steel stars as 19th century
British officer Harry Faversham, who begs off from serving with Kitchener's forces in the
Sudan, preferring to stay in London with fiancee Mary Burroughs (Mary Ure). Almost
immediately, Faversham receives the traditional 'white feather' of cowardice from his three
closest friends-and then is handed a fourth feather by Mary. Determined to prove that he is
not a coward, Faversham heads off to the Sudan to fight shoulder-to-shoulder with his
comrades. He also intends to return those dreaded feather to his three former friends, even
resorting to native disguise at one point to do so. Laurence Harvey essays the old Ralph
Richardson role of John Durrance, who is blinded by the sun and thus unaware of
Faversham's true identity, while James Robertson Justice fills the shoes of Four Feathers'
crusty C. Aubrey Smith ('War was war in my day, sir!')