Gunga Din (film)

Gunga Din
Theatrical release poster
Directed byGeorge Stevens
Written byJoel Sayre
Fred Guiol
Story byBen Hecht
Charles MacArthur
Based on"Gunga Din"
Barrack Room Ballads
by Rudyard Kipling
Produced byGeorge Stevens
StarringCary Grant
Victor McLaglen
Douglas Fairbanks Jr.
Sam Jaffe
Eduardo Ciannelli
Joan Fontaine
CinematographyJoseph H. August
Edited byHenry Berman
Music byAlfred Newman
Production
company
Distributed byRKO Radio Pictures
Release date
  • February 17, 1939 (1939-02-17) (U.S.)
Running time
117 minutes
CountryUnited States
LanguagesEnglish
Hindi
Budget$1,915,000[1]
Box office$2,807,000[1]
1939 magazine ad

Gunga Din is a 1939 American adventure film from RKO Radio Pictures directed by George Stevens and starring Cary Grant, Victor McLaglen, and Douglas Fairbanks Jr., loosely based on the 1890 poem of the same name by Rudyard Kipling combined with elements of his 1888 short story collection Soldiers Three. The film is about three British sergeants and Gunga Din, their native bhisti (water bearer), who fight the Thuggee, an Indian murder cult, in colonial British India.

The supporting cast features Joan Fontaine, Eduardo Ciannelli, and in the title role, Sam Jaffe. The epic film was written by Joel Sayre and Fred Guiol from a storyline by Ben Hecht and Charles MacArthur, with uncredited contributions by Lester Cohen, John Colton, William Faulkner, Vincent Lawrence, Dudley Nichols, and Anthony Veiller.

In 1999, Gunga Din was deemed "culturally, historically, or aesthetically significant" by the United States Library of Congress and selected for preservation in the National Film Registry.[2][3]

  1. ^ a b Richard Jewel, 'RKO Film Grosses: 1931–1951', Historical Journal of Film, Radio and Television, Vol 14 No 1, 1994 p57
  2. ^ "Preserving the Silver Screen (December 1999) - Library of Congress Information Bulletin". www.loc.gov. Retrieved 2020-10-13.
  3. ^ "Complete National Film Registry Listing". Library of Congress. Retrieved 2020-10-13.