![]() Macefield then burns Geoffery's letter in which he admits his guilt, and takes full responsibilty for the charge. Macefield sends troops to support the fighting and Sebastopol is taken. The sacrifice of Geoffrey and the six hundered Lancers, however, is not in vain. In the battle, the Kahn shoots and mortally wounds Geoffrey, but even as he is dying, he impales the evil prince. Geoffrey, spurred by his anger over the Chukoti massacre, rewrites the orders and leads a death charge against the Khan's stronghold near Balaklava. Meanwhile, the Kahn has joined with the Russians, and Sir Charles Macefield, commander of the British forces in the Crimea, sends orders with Geoffrey to Warrenton not to attack the Kahn. Geoffrey gallantly accepts his personal defeat and protects Perry by sending him away from the ensuing battle. Elsa and Geoffrey escape, and she finally convinces him that she truly loves Perry. The Khan raids the fort, slaughtering the inhabitants, including Colonel Campbell. When he orders Campbell's troops to march to Lohara on maneuvers, he leaves Chukoti vulnerable. There, Benjamin Warrenton is in command and is unaware that Surat Khan has been gathering forces at the border. Perry, meanwhile, has been sent a few miles away to Lohara. Before they can settle their differences, Geoffrey is sent to Tartar, where he bravely outwits border tribesmen, and then to Chukoti where Colonel Campbell and Elsa are stationed. Geoffrey refuses to believe Perry's revelation, and the brothers quarrel bitterly. While Geoffrey has been away, Elsa has fallen in love with his younger brother, Perry. Geoffrey reports to Calcutta, where his fiancée, Elsa Campbell, is staying with her father, the colonel. Geoffrey recognizes the Khan's displeasure, but wins his personal loyalty when he saves the Khan's life during a leopard hunt. Animal lovers be warned, however: several horses were killed during the climactic charge, a fact that compelled Hollywood (under the auspices of the ASPCA) to install safer and more stringent standards concerning the treatment of animals.Major Geoffrey Vickers of the 27th Bengal Lancers, and Sir Humphrey Harcourt, an English diplomat, visit the Amir Surat Khan of Suristan to tell him that funds previously guaranteed from the British government have been discontinued. Its dozens of historical inaccuracies aside, The Charge of the Light Brigade is rousing entertainment. As passages from the Tennyson poem are superimposed on the action, Flynn leads a suicidal charge against the Russians he manages to kill the treacherous Gordon before being slain himself. Thirsting for revenge, Flynn falsifies an official order so that he and the Light Brigade can battle Gordon and his allies at Balaclava (thus are Britons Lord Cardigan and Lord Ragan, the actual instigators of the doomed charge, exonerated). Flynn and his fellow Light Brigade lancers are then transferred to the Crimea-where, as luck would have it, Gordon is now ensconced with the Russians. Gordon supervises the slaughter of every man, woman and child at the fort, then leaves India in the company of his Russian advisors. ![]() Ordered on maneuvers, Flynn is unable to bring rescue troops to the besieged fort commanded by De Havilland's father. Henry Gordon, angered that the British government has cut off his subsidy, stages a revolt against the English settlements. Errol Flynn and Patric Knowles are cast as cavalry officers who are also brothers both love Olivia De Havilland, but it is Knowles who wins out (this should tip us off that the rest of the film is pure fantasy). Reflecting the popularity of 1935's Lives of A Bengal Lancer, the film uses the climactic charge as the culmination of events which begin in British India. Of the many film versions of Alfred Lord Tennyson's narrative poem, 1936's Charge of the Light Brigade has the least relationship to the facts concerning the famous 19th century British military blunder in the Crimea.
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