Shari, la hechicera

THE BLACK WATCH (1929) is John Ford's first full fledged sound picture. Previous efforts featured music, sound effects and some muffled voice overs. Here the dialog is clearly heard and sound effects do not trample over it. FOX had long been using 'sound on film' recording by Western Electric Sound System for their 'Movietone News'. This not only gave them practical experience in managing sound, but the system was simpler and better then its competitors such as WARNER BROTHERS' 'Vitaphone'.

THE NUTS; Early in World War One (WWI) The Black Watch a Scottish Regiment is committed to the front. Captain King is detached under special orders to go back to India to quell a possible revolt near the Khyber Pass. Since it must be kept a secret, Captain King leaves under a cloud of suspicion and is considered a "shirker". King preservers and succeeds in his duty returning in honor to the regiment. For details watch the movie, it is worth watching, nuff said.

Though the film is fairly pedestrian, John Ford gives it his usual panache. The Ford touches are particularly evident in his attention to the details of military traditions. If you did not know that it was Ford film you would have come to that determination in the first ten (10) minutes. The principals, Victor McLaglen (King) and Myrna Loy (Yasmani) and other actors handle their roles well enough for the time. You could see though they were getting used to the idea of sound dialog rather then the pantomime of the Silent Film. It is especially interesting to see Ms. Loy in her early erotic period before she became best friend and wife over at M.G.M. Film was later remade in 1953 in WideScreen as KING OF THE KHYBER RIFLES starring Tyrone Power. Rating IMDb Six******Stars.

Victor McLaglen stars as Captain Donald King, a member of a Scots regiment of His Majesty's Armed Forces during WW1. While his company receives orders to ship out to the front, King is given a different assignment, He is to go undercover to India, where he will pretend to be a drunk who gets chased out of the service so that he can infiltrate a gang of Muslim rebels who worship a woman named Yasmani (Myrna Loy) as a goddess. Naturally things get further complicated when King falls for Yasmani. Also featuring Randolph Scott and John Wayne as extras.

This was director Ford's first sound movie, and it shows. For the first 45 minutes or so, I was prepared to call this one a complete turkey, just horrible in nearly every way, but by the end I thought pretty much the same thing, except it plunged into pure camp, and Ford manages to shoot some visually interesting shots when the action moves to "The Cave of the Echoes". McLaglen and Loy are awful, and you would never know from this that either would be capable of acting their way out of a paper bag.

Ford certainly hadn't grasped sound acting, and virtually everyone is terrible, drawing lines out to ludicrous length and over emoting like the worst silent film ham. Loy looks great, and she has a lengthy scene in a white, virtually see-through shirt. I was left wondering what kind of East Indian Muslims also worshiped random white ladies as goddesses, but that train of thought led nowhere. The fiery, shadowy Cave interiors are atmospheric, and the scene where McLaglen is "forced" to wrestle the Muslim champion is amusing, as I would think it was harder to stop Victor McLaglen from wrestling random guys on the set every day. 5/10 on its merit as a dramatic film, 7/10 on a so good it's bad scale, I split the difference.

By 1929 standards, "The Black Watch" is a decent film. When seen today, however, it seems very stilted and slow. But you cannot fault the movie for being so static and stagey, as in 1929 filmmakers were still struggling to integrate sound into movies...and it took them another year or two to get it right. In this case, it was the first sound film of John Ford...and it shows.

When the story begins, the officers of a Scottish Highlands regiment are having a party and toasting to their success in WWI...which has just begun. They see it as a chance for glory and fun and all that rot, but John Ford filmed this section with great sentimentality...as if to glorify the godawful mess that the war would soon become.

During this party, Captain Donald Gordon King (Victor McLaglen) is called to talk to his commander. He's ordered to go to India for an undercover mission instead of just getting his head blown off in France with his friends. And, because the film shows such patriotism and gung ho attitudes, Donald is sad to not get into the action!

Once in India, he's expected to insinuate himself into the inner circle around a strange and charismatic woman named Yasmani (Mynra Loy) who is plotting a rebellion in British India. To do this, he is publicly disgraced and runs to Yasmani's camp...hoping that she and her men won't realize the whole disgraced thing is a sham. What's next? See the film and find out for yourself.

Technically, this is a very good film. The cinematography is exceptional and the sound for 1929 is excellent. The sets also are pretty amazing.

On the other hand, the film has a few deficits. None of the 'Indians' in the movie look the least bit Indian...with the likes of Walter Long and Myrna Loy playing natives!! Such silly casting wasn't unusual back in the day and Hollywood was still trying to figure out what to do with Loy...even casting her as a Chinese lady in "The Mask of Fu Manchu" only a few years later. In addition, although the sound quality is good, the acting combined with the sound isn't so hot. It's incredibly stilted and the acting stagy as well...not unusual for 1929 but obvious by the standards even of 1930-1932. Some scenes look as if they were from a silent movie, stylistically speaking. This is especially true when the Captain was pitching woo with Yasmani....the acting of both (particularly Loy) was truly awful!! As a result, the scope and excitement that should be in the story are sadly lacking at times. Overall, well worth seeing but probably a bit of a disappointment for Ford fans. My score of 4 might seem a bit high, but it is watchable and I tend to cut the films of 1927-29 some slack because of changing technologies and styles.

Is it because it's the beginning of the talkies that both McLaglen's and Myrna Loy's playing are almost ridiculous ?One should forgive the actress for her part of an Indian Joan Of Ark -but a maid who is fond of men,we are told- is not exactly what you call the part of her life.All that takes place in a pasteboard India looks like a poor man's "lifes of a Bengal Lancer"(which would appear six years later):even two names (Mohammed Khan and McGregor) are used in both movies.

On the other hand ,all that takes place in Scotland shows John Ford's touch :the manly camaraderie, the brothers in arm singing "Auld Lang Syne" before leaving for France (WW1),the officer wrongly accused of cowardice -his superior warns him:"you will be a pariah"-;and more prosaically ,the missus ' piece of advice to the private about his privates and the soldier confessing later that at least at war he was left alone.

The scene of the crystal ball almost predates the one in Mankiewicz's "Cleopatra" when Julius Cesar is murdered.

Released in 1929, THE BLACK WATCH is an entertaining flick shot in black & white, and John Ford's first all-talkie film. It's based on the 1916 novel 'King of the Khyber Rifles' by Talbot Mundy.

Captain Donald King (McLaglen) goes undercover and leaves his regiment (Black Watch) to put down a rebellion in India at the at the start of WWI. There he finds the beautiful princess Yasmani (Loy) who plans to send her minions to attack British forces at the Khyber Pass.

As we would expect from a Ford movie it has a good look, especially the outdoor scenes. The Cave of Echoes scenes are well crafted with fine visuals and sound effects.

The problem the movie has is it's dialogue in many scenes, Myrna Loy's in particular, is stilted and stagy , as if they thought the mics couldn't keep up with their voices. Still, a good movie.