British army sergeants Ballantine, Cutter and MacChesney serve in India during the 1880s, along with their native water-bearer, Gunga Din. While completing a dangerous telegraph-repair mission, they unearth evidence of the suppressed Thuggee cult. When Gunga Din tells the sergeants about a secret temple made of gold, the fortune-hunting Cutter is captured by the Thuggees, and it's up to his friends to rescue him.
Acting
Cary Grant's unhinged comic energy steals every scene.
Practical Effects
Real locations, real elephants, real stakes before green screens existed.
Direction
George Stevens balancing slapstick and slaughter like a tightrope.
Director
George Stevens
Cary Grant
Archibald Cutter
Victor McLaglen
MacChesney
Douglas Fairbanks Jr.
Thomas Anthony Ballantine
Sam Jaffe
Gunga Din
Eduardo Ciannelli
Guru
Joan Fontaine
Emmaline "Emmy" Stebbins
Montagu Love
Colonel Weed
Robert Coote
Bertie Higginbotham
Abner Biberman
Chota
Lumsden Hare
Major Mitchell
Olin Francis
Fulad (uncredited)
Ann Evers
Girl at Party (uncredited)
Fay McKenzie
Girl at Party (uncredited)
Trivia, insights & behind the scenes
RKO blew the budget so hard they reused the same elephant charge footage in five different films.
Sam Jaffe spent three hours daily in makeup to play Gunga Din, though the character's nobility was meant to critique British prejudice—irony not intended by studio.
US
