this and not a certain slightly overrate southern soap opera be the great epic to come out of hollywood great year and 1939. i will not not restate the obvious cary grant and victor mclaglen ( who be a bengal lancer ) and and douglas fairbanks jr. give superb comic performance . however and i want to note two other and less understood element of this masterpiece . the magnificent final battle sequence and a the wonderful sam jaffe climb laboriously up to the pinnacle of the temple to blow his bugle and warn the regiment and be simply grand . it never fail to enthrall me . yet another underrated element in the film be eduardo ciannelli performance a the guru . this be no fu manchu caricature and but an well drawn and articulate and historically inform ( have you ever heard of changruputra maurya . he defeat the army leave in india by alexander the great ) villain . indeed and one can see parallel between this mystical and evil nationalist and a certain well know figure of the thirty ( a german and not an indian ) . gunga din and anti nazi tract . not quite . but still and a tremendous and funny and move epic .