The Black Watch (1929) DVD

Good quality disc at low price promptly shipped!

An interesting film from a historical standpoint. An early sound film and John Ford's first sound film. It is surprisingly slow moving. The story - a British officer infiltrating a group of native rebels in the days of the Raj - is incredibly corny and melodramatic. Out of the need to show off the process of sound on film, the film is filled with music: bagpipes playing, choruses singing, etc. On the plus side, the visuals show Ford's usual aplomb, the black & white cinematography is gorgeous, there is the unusual sound of Victor McLaughlin speaking with an upper-class British accent, and a very young and lovely Myrna Loy in her early phase in which she played exotic temptresses before she established herself as a pert and witty socialite.

I ordered this in an attempt to upgrade the copy of the film I already had. My copy was of poor video quality and poor sound. The Zeus copy was amazingly better: the video quality is clean and crisp and the sound is excellent. The only negative is that it comes with French subtitles burned into it--but the improvement in quality in video and sound more than compensates for having to ignore the subtitles. I am very, very happy with this print.

This film is unfairly dismissed by effete critics who cannot grasp the mastery of both Ford and McLaglen for the male bonding and sardonic humor of military life. McLaglen was the real thing, son of an Anglican Bishop, who lied about his age to service as one of the Life Guards at Windsor Castle, then in WWI as Provost Marshal of Baghdad in the Mesopo- tamian campaign. In his voice, demeanor and ability to sit a horse as if man and animal were one like a centaur, you get the authentic image of the old British Army between the wars. It was a logical evolution for both men from this to The Lost Patrol, and Ford's later wonderful Cavalry Trilogy. To say that Black Watch was the inspiration for the insipid King of the Khyber Rifles with Tyrone Power is to contrast a tall cooler topped with an umbrella by the Beverly Hills pool with a real soldier's pint of ale.