Sabu in The Drum

"The Drum" is an exciting boy's own adventure yarn for big boysand little boys.India, around the turn of last century when it was under Britishrule, was the setting for many exciting adventure movies and afew of those that come to mind are:"The North-West Frontier""Kim""King of the Khyber Rifles""Elephant Boy""The Jungle Book""The Drum", an Alexander Korda production made in 1938 is noexception.It stars that charming young Indian actor Sabu who at the time was14 years of age and was virtually at the peak of his acting career.Other notable character actors include:Raymond MasseyRoger LiveseyValerie HobsonFrancis L. SullivanThe movie is set in a province on India's north-west frontier.Prince Azim (Sabu) is the young son of the Raj and is heir tothe throne. The Raj has signed a treaty with the British forhis kingdom's protection from outside attacks by rebels whowant the British out.However, the Raj also has problems from within mainly fromPrince Ghul (Raymond Massey) who plots the Raj's downfall sothat he can assume power and in so doing deprive Prince Azimof his rightful inheritance. The Raj is slain but Prince Azimescapes death and is forced into hiding by those loyal to himuntil he can return and claim the throne with the help of hisfriend Captain Carruthers (Roger Livesey) and the British army."The Drum" is an opulent technicolor epic that fires theimagination and ones sense of adventure. The battle scenes areimpressive as is the drum roll by the massed drummers.Grand entertainment.

The Director, Zoltan Korda produced a classic movie during the 1930s that stars Sabu, "In The Drum" equal to the magnificence of the Jungle Book. As a young boy, I viewed this movie the first time. Although fiction, this DVD serves as a historical novel about the Era of the British Raj, the British known as Sahibs, The settings of Peshawar, the tribal territory of 12 tribes, the Northwest Frontier, Tokot the capitol of one of the frontiers, and the Northwest Frontier. Although the viewing quality of the film had problem episodes, it had the effect of the dreams of my youth about India, and Afghanistan known as the graveyard of Empires. The military conflicts are similar in our present age, but the difference is the United Nations and other Nations are not empires, and face the same similar problems as the past. The movie is a reminder of works by Rudyard Kipling and I am so pleased to have The Drum in my DVD collection. For the boy in any one - young or old, this DVD is a return to a past era that can help to understand the present and worthy of family viewing. Well done Korda - a producer from that culture can create what other may overlook. Worthy of the 5-star rating!

9/27/10 Update: I just received the fce release of this film The Drum (1938) purchased from Amazon. While not up to Criterion standards, the video quality is noticeably better than this PRS release. It's also less expensive. In spite of what the product listing says, however, the DVD has the the 93 minute version of the film.Original Review:The drum was one of my favorite films as a kid, but I've not watched it for many years. I was very pleasantly surprised by how well the film has held it. I would certainly rank it among the best of the British Army in India films made from the 1930s though the 1950s.Unfortunately, the quality of the PRS DVD release is extremely poor. The problem seems to be in the process of transferring the film to DVD; the print of the film from which the DVD was scanned is decent quality for a Technicolor film that is more than 70 years old.Virtually every image on the DVD contains significant numbers of very distracting video artifacts, the more movement there is in the scene, the more artifacts there are. (The artifacts are similar to what you get if you to enlarge a JPEG image much above its original size.) I'm not a DVD expert, but the problem seems to be excessive digital compression.One can only hope that some other company will produce a decent quality DVD of the film at some point, ideally the full 104 minute original release. (The PRS version is 92 minutes.)

I am a sucker for movies set in India under the Raj. "Gunga Din", "Lives of a Bengal Lancer" and, of course, "The Drum". First saw it on TV probably 35 years ago and always remembered it. Rented it on VHS a couple of times in the Mesozoic Era. Now, at last, glorious DVD. It has everything--spectacle, romance, danger (Raymond Massey as an especially nasty villain) and dollops of derring-do. Great fun all around

You odious bastards, once again you have substituted a copy for the original film. The quality is hideous. You make no mention of the fact that you are substituting a poor quality copy for the original high quality that the producers delivered. Shame on you for your total lack of quality control.

Image quality fair as it is taken directly from an unrestored original print of the film. Some trailers, introduction, and bios on the actors and Korda Brothers would have been nice. The story is still magic and a priceless record of the martial music of the now disbanded Gordon Highlanders.