Amid the hazardous mountains of northwestern India, a boy prince becomes the difference between success and massacre for the British in 1938's The Drum. Starring the always charismatic Sabu, as well as Roger Livesey, the film was directed by Zoltan Korda who brings real suspense both to its scenes of dialogue between strategising men and to its surprisingly violent action sequences.
Valerie Hobson is also in the film, playing the wife of Livesey's Captain Carruthers. Her character's pretty resourceful and assertive compared to women in other, similar movies of the time. In one scene, Prince Azim (Sabu) flees to her when being pursued by an assassin and she calmly goes to a desk drawer, pulls out a pistol, and aims it at the assailant.
But Sabu and Livesey are the real stars here. Livesey is wonderfully subtle in his scenes with British brass or Indian royalty, and you can see on his face decisions and assessments without these things being projected to the other players. It helps Korda create the atmosphere of mistrust and danger as one group of leaders is assassinated and another quietly takes over without the knowledge of the British. Until, that is, Prince Azim manages to sneak a visit to a boy he'd befriended amongst the Scottish regimental band.
Sabu's not quite the rousing, charming rogue he'll be in The Thief of Bagdad or The Jungle Book yet. But he comes across as a sweet, very gentle-hearted lad whose speech is oddly soothing.
The Drum is available on The Criterion Channel.
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