The Real Glory

A handful of American army officers in the Philippines attempt to train the natives to fight against Muslim radicals. The Real Glory is tremendously entertaining. Gary Cooper is an actor I don't really care for, but he's quite good here. The action scenes are spectacular and it's a handsomely made production. David Niven and Broderick Crawford are excellent in supporting parts, and Reginald Owen was good as the commanding officer who is slowly going blind. Recommended. First time viewing. 3.5/5

Adventure and military movie set after the US capture of the Philippine Island during the Spanish-American War (1898) , set in 1906 the Island of Mindanao, there takes place an uprising of Moro tribesmen spreading terror and massacre . After most of islands are evacuated only a small group of Army officers is left to lead the Filipino soldiers against rebels . Along the way a sympathetic trumvirate : Gary Cooper , Broderick Crawford , David Niven attempt to save Philippine patriots from savage insurgents at a fort . Love and danger, the two strongest challenges to a soldier's heart . With the savage rhythm of jungle drums beating in his brain , a devil-may-care soldier faces the crises of his life beside the girl he loves. Always outnumbered never outfought . With the screen's most romantic adventurer ¡. An overwhelming and adventurous movie with mighty thrills and particularly fine interpretation from Gary Cooper and Broderick Crawford. Henry Hathaway and producers attempted to make a similar film to "Lives of a Bengal Lancer" 1935 but set in Philippines , copying likeness elements as terror of the fanatic Muslims to be wrapped in pig skin , and equally starred by a trío of brave soldiers . It includes an enjoyable relationship among three protagonists : Gary Cooper/David Niven/Broderick Crawford Including an exciting and breathtaking finale when Cooper comes to rescue of the heavily besieged fort . Gary Cooper is nice , as always, as a heroic doctor called Bill Canavan who is not afraid to fight . Support cast is frankly good such as : Andrea Leeds , Vladimir Sokoloff, Reginald Owen , Kay Johnson, Russell Hicks, among others. This moving and patriotic film was initially titled Revolt of Manilla, Black of Manilla, and The Last Frontier. It was shot on various locations in California : Chatworth, Kernville, Point Magu and Hunt Salto Canyon. The picture released thru United Artists was well directed with dash by Henry Hathaway. He was a good professional with a long career of spendour in Hollywood , as he directed all kinds of genres with penchant for Western : "When West was young, Man of the Forest, Go West Young Man, Brigham Young, Gundown ,North to Alaska, Sony of Kathy Elder, How the West was won, Nevada Smith, Five Card Stud, True Grit, Shoot out" and Adventure movie : " The lives of a Bengal Lancer, Souls at Sea , The Racers , Legend of the Lost , Sundown, Spawn of the North, Prince Valiant, Circus World, The Last Safari and this The Real Glory" . The yarn will appeal to adventure films enthusiasts and Gary Cooper fans .

I had no idea what to expect from THE REAL GLORY, a 1930s adventure film set in the Philippines but shot in California. It stars Gary Cooper in a role long before HIGH NOON, and he plays one of many officers stationed in the Philippines and attempting to stifle an uprising by Muslim rebels. The film is directed by Hollywood director Henry Hathaway, who directed a lot of good stuff over a long career including John Wayne's TRUE GRIT. The tale starts off a little slow but it turns out that it's merely taking time to get to know the characters before involving them in an action-packed tale. Indeed, THE REAL GLORY gets better and better as it goes on, turning into a pulp story full of outlandish incident and heroism. Things culminate in an incredible siege climax which is one of the best-directed I've seen from the era. It's edge of the seat stuff, full of violence, stunts, and general excitement, ending the movie on a real high. Cooper is a solid and likable lead and given fine support from the likes of a youthful David Niven and Broderick Crawford. Even Andrea Leeds isn't out of place as the token female. Watch out for Japanese actor Tetsu Komai who made a career of playing villainous Oriental types in the 1930s.

...bigotry, both racism and religious bigotry. You bet, all Filipinos are simple minded, superstitious, gullible, fearful, and just loved the American invaders. You bet, all Muslims are sinister, savage, violent, bloodthirsty, and treacherous. They, living in the Philippines for centuries before it was called that, keep getting referred to as "invaders" while the invading US troops are not. What's really amusing is that these rebels in the jungle are all built like body builders, while the farmers are all skinny, older, frail men. I wonder where they got the actor playing a suicide attacker, because he was half a foot taller than the one playing the US officer. Circus performer? Mr. Philippines Weight Lifting competition? It's almost as unbelievable as Niven's veddy British accent while playing an American. Or a US army doctor going on guerilla and scouting expeditions on his own, and outfighting whole rebel units. This film even fails as an action film. The middle third is very slow, Cooper searching for a cure for a plague. Another long segment is surviving a drought. The love story makes up more tedious slow parts. The action scenes are perhaps ten minutes total. They are unintentionally funny. The rebel leader goes back and forth between English and the local language when speaking to other rebels. US troops also build rafts in the middle of a battle, literally in seconds, with no tools in sight. US troops then stand straight up on the rafts while going through the rapids. Filipino rebels, with a life time in the area, quickly fall down. See it as either a crazy example of bad colonial nostalgia, or unintentional comedy.

This is a very enjoyable adventure that clearly influenced Raiders of the Lost Ark and the other Indiana Jones films. It is expertly directed by the unfairly forgotten Henry Hathaway and Gary Cooper is excellent in the lead role as a doctor assigned to help train Phillipine natives against the dangerous Moro tribesman who regularly invade their villages. I must point out that another user comment, by one "skt171," attempts to make an analogy between this film and our current situation in Iraq. The analogy is correct, but not in the way the poster intended. This film is now widely considered both "historically and politically dubious," a fact pointed out by the well-respected Time Out Film Guide. For this reason, it is hard for me to take the poster's assertions seriously, particularly when he tries to point out how our media would have "ruined" our successful intervention in Phillipine affairs as it (presumably) is ruining our involvement in Iraq. Except for one problem...our involvement in the Philippines was neither as noble nor as successful as this film depicts. One other interesting point: this film is being shown repeatedly on the Fox Movie Channel prior to an important election in which Iraq is perhaps the most pressing issue. In fact, they are "celebrating" the legacy of studio-system "product" (their term, not mine) Henry Hathaway all month. Hathaway, of course, made MANY pro-war films during his career...which basically consisted of him taking whatever job the studio gave him. I can just see the Fox executives thinking to themselves, "if only movies were still like this...those Democrats wouldn't have a leg to stand on! Lets show nothing but Hathaway films until after the election." Im sure the reason for this is to prompt others to liken this inaccurate film to Iraq...it seems to have worked for skt171 (although he saw the film on VHS), thats for sure! Bottom line: enjoy this film as an adventure story. It works beautifully in this way. But look elsewhere for accurate history. And please, do not use this film as a basis for supporting our presence in Iraq, but rather as a blueprint for what a pro-Iraq War film would be like if we still lived in an era when movies were allowed to function as a propaganda arm of the US Government's military policy.

The USA didn't have much of a foreign colonialist period. Like Germany, we came rather late to the game. Besides which Americans were busy colonizing their own interior. But in the mid- to late 1930s stories of colonial adventures abroad seemed to become suddenly popular in Hollywood, or at least simplified and romanticized versions of same. Gary Cooper was in a surprising number of them. Usually they're a lot of nonsensical fun. Discounting American Westerns, there were "Gunga Din," "Lives of a Bengal Lancer," "Beau Geste," "Morroco," "The Charge of the Light Brigade," others whose names escape me, and this one, "The Real Glory." It takes place in the land of the Moros (Filipino Moslems) who resent the Westernization of their cobbled-together country by first Spain, then, after the Spanish-American war, the Americans. That war is still being fought. But, not to worry, everything in the movie turns out alright in the end -- well, almost. Gary Cooper, David Niven, and Broderick Crawford are Army lieutenants stationed at an undermanned fort surrounded by jungle and enemies. If you think of this as a rather typical situation for this sort of action movie, you're probably on the right track. It usually leads to a heroic defense of the fort by our side. And it gives the writers a chance to have hordes of evildoers charging the fort to be mowed down in rows like wheat by a motorized reaper. There must be at least one heroic sacrifice too, of a secondary character. Sometimes there's just one (Gunga Din) and sometimes, as here, both Niven and Crawford are given a chance to make the supreme sacrifice. Of the two sacrifices, Crawford's is the more supreme. A harmless, doltish officer who is devoted to growing orchids, he is captured by the Moros, his head smeared with honey, and then he is buried up to his neck in an ant hill. Those Moros were pitiless cookies. If I'm not mistaken the Colt Model 1911 .45 caliber automatic, a veritable cannon at the time, was developed partly because smaller caliber pistols were thought unable to stop a charging Moro. The rafting scenes were done, it appears, in the lower reaches of the Kern River. This is a dangerous area to raft or inner-tube in. It's the only rushing water for ten thousand miles around Bakersfield, California, and is a popular bathing spot in the summer, even though a few rafters and tubers usually are lost. It's interesting too in that it is the only known home of the Kern Valley salamander (Batrachoseps simatus), and only for a stretch of a few miles along the bank -- and only the northern bank. I think I like Gunga Din better because there is more slapstick, more laughs all around, and because the characters are a little better developed. But "The Real Glory" is nothing to be ashamed of. An enjoyable romp by stars wearing colorful uniforms in an exotic location and involved in a conflict nobody ever heard of.

I had long been curious about this film as it took place in my parents' homeland of the Philippines during the years of the early 20th century when the U.S. had occupied it with some Army posts there for the purpose of teaching the natives to defend themselves against invading Moros. Though the disclaimer at the end says the movie is entirely fictional, it's safe to assume that the part of many of the country's citizens suffering from cholera has some basis in fact as that disease is common in many Asian countries. Anyway, Gary Cooper plays a military doctor who is in charge of treating many of the natives during the American occupation but decides to help many of them prepare for the eventual battle despite his captain's orders not to bother. Also on hand to offer support are fellow officers played by David Niven and Broderick Crawford who provide some amusing turns before things turn serious for both of them and Andrea Leeds who is charming as the leading lady who provides the buffer between Cooper and her stubborn captain father played by Reginald Owen. And leave it to veteran director Henry Hathaway to provide the rousing finish one usually expects from many of these '30s adventure movies. So on that note, The Real Glory is recommended.

The uprising is or was real. The doctor played by Cooper, was a real person forced to take over a military barracks because he was the highest ranking officer left after a Muslim Suicide attack as I recall.. The movie is a diagram of how to treat Muslim terrorists and should be watched by those in today's world who want to stop terror. Cooper uses their religion in order to fight them. Watch the movie for how this works. The characters are developed well, and while the story might seem like a rehash of another movie, it is a fairly representative movie of a real life hero. Not Gary Coopers finest work, but is a good movie and will give insight into Muslim Fundamentalist mindset.

Back in 1999 I made a long planned journey to the Far East and the Phillipines was one of the stops. I learned two things there and they are key to understanding The Real Glory. The first is they are very proud of the fact they are the only Christian nation in the Far East. The second is that they gained their independence in 1898, but suffered American occupation until 1946. The southern Phillipines are where the Moslem Moros reside and if we hadn't been there, they would still have a lovely religious war with the Christian northern islands. But we were also occupiers and it is part of an occupying army that new American officers Gary Cooper, David Niven, and Broderick Crawford arrive at a post in one of those southern Moslem dominated islands. The events in this film take place in 1906, four years after the Filipino resistance was crushed. Our three American officers are assigned to a place where the local Osama is running roughshod over the populace and waging a nasty, brutal war on the Americans with tactics not unlike we see in Iraq and Afghanistan. I can't say too much more about the plot of this film, it gets down right silly at times. But someone should screen this for this president and the one who'll succeed him. If the key to installing fear in Moslem hearts is as simple as Gary Cooper discovers, we'll beat them without any further ado. Maybe one day someone will make a good film about the Phillipine resistance and our occupation. There's quite a story there, at different points in time, America is shown in a good or bad light. It's sad that this is the only film I can think of about the USA in the Phillipines.

Can you imagine a love triangle, where a woman has to choose between Gary Cooper, David Niven, and Broderick Crawford? Of course, everyone in their right mind would choose David Niven in a heartbeat, but when Broderick breeds and names a unique species of flowers after his love interest, it's pretty cute. Unfortunately, the best part of The Real Glory is the beginning romance with the three men trying to court Andrea Leeds. Then, the war starts, and it goes downhill. Gary Cooper, the biggest star of the three at the time, soars to take up the most screen time, and the plot is hardly interesting. I like Gary Cooper in a couple of movies, but when he's cast as in a strong, decisive role, he just isn't convincing. This is far from the best war movie you'll see in your lifetime, so unless you're a total Gary Cooper fan, I suggest you skip it and find a better one.