Saturday Night Cinema: The Real Glory

In light of the bloody Islamic war being waged in the Philippines, tonight’s Saturday Night feature is The Real Glory, a 1939 Samuel Goldwyn Productions action film starring quintessential American hero and Ayn Rand archetype Gary Cooper, David Niven and Andrea Leeds. Released in the weeks immediately following Nazi Germany’s invasion of Poland. the film is set against the backdrop of the Muslim Moro “Rebellion” during the American occupation of the Philippines at the beginning of the twentieth century.

The Spanish-American war is over, but Muslims in the Philippines (Moros) want the Yanks out, too. This is the second part of the Philippine-American war, the fight against the Moros. A small American contingent tries to train the Filipinos to defend themselves against jihadis in 1906 Philippines.

There’s a scene in the movie about the US fight against the Moro jihadists in the Philippines and the effect of pigskin on morale. Sewing Muslim Jihadis into pigskins or hanging them in pigskins or burying them in pigskins appeared to have been practiced by the US in the Philippines and the British in India.

1906.  Moro (Muslims) attack a Filipino village.  They drag the women away and kill the men .

Manila.  Headquarters. Philippine Constabulary.  American military men discuss the matter of the Moros in Mysang.  Colonel Hatch who is giving the briefing says that to take the American troops out of Mysang now would be a big mistake.  The bandit Alipang is on the march taking village after village.  As soon as the American troops leave, his thousands of bandits will swoop down on Mysang. The superior officer says he has no choice.  His orders are that the Americans are to pull out.   The colonel will just have to teach the Filipino villagers how to fight to protect themselves, but the colonel thinks it’s an impossible task to accomplish.  They are going to make Mysang the test for moving out the troops and having the Filipinos replace them.  They are sending five men to help Colonel Hatch prepare the native forces to defend themselves.

The American troops get into boat to leave the village of Mysang.  Capt. Steve Hartley comes to see Col. Hatch to tell him that they will all be killed by Alipang and the united Moro tribes once the Americans troops are all gone.  The men will be killed and the women sold into slavery.

Video thanks to Daniel C.

NY Times review 1939:

A Whopping Picture Is ‘The Real Glory’ With Gary Cooper, at the Rivoli-

Considering there were nationalistic insurrections in the Philippines long before the Spanish-American War, Samuel Goldwyn may have let himself in for a bit of mild chaffing for his pretense, in “The Real Glory,” at the Rivoli, that the history of the Philippines as a nation and as a people dates from 1906 when the native constabulary found the courage to crush the Moro brigands led by an apocryphal Mohammedan called Alipang. Still, it’s a good story, false or true, and it has been made into a whopping adventure film with more action, suspense and melodrama than even a juramentado could shake his bolo at.

Henry Hathaway (of “The Lives of a Bengal Lancer,” Hathaways) is chiefly responsible for it, we suspect, for Mr. Hathaway always has been one for direct action, honest blood-letting and fine big splashes of villainy. He directs with all the bugles blowing; the drums rolling and a tall man like Gary Cooper on a parapet heaving sticks of dynamite down on the attackers. And when there isn’t a big fight scene on the day’s schedule, he likes to taper off with such small encounters as that, say, between a burly Moro with a four-foot machete and a slight little Mindanaon with an empty rifle. There’s hardly ever a neutral corner on his screen.

The peculiar plot he is spading happens, of course, to he perfect for his free-swinging style. In 1906, so runs it, the American army of occupation abandoned Mindinao, leaving five officers behind to recruit and train a native constabulary against the fierce bolo-men of Alipang. The recruits had no taste for battle, especially after two of the officers had been cut down by the juramentados—these being the messenger boys of destruction sent out from time to time by Alipang. But Mr. Cooper, as the army surgeon, found a way to stiffen their spines, and a cholera outbreak, created by the Moros’ damming of the river, did the rest.

Mr. Hathaway couldn’t have found a more appropriate cast. Mr. Cooper as the grimly grinning war machine, Andrea Leeds as the captain’s daughter, Reginald Owen as the commanding officer barking to conceal his growing blindness, David Niven as the waggish lieutenant, Broderick Crawford as the burly chap with a love of orchids, Tetsu Komai as Alipang, Vladimir Sokoloff as the treacherous Datu—how else could it have been cast? So, if it’s an adventure film you want, uncomplicated by small talk and unconditionally guaranteed to build up your blood pressure, the Rivoli’s the place to find it.
THE REAL GLORY, screen play by Jo Swerling and Robert R. Presnell from the novel by Charles L. Clifford; directed by Henry Hathaway; produced by Samuel Goldwyn and released by United Artists. At the Rivoli.
Doctor Canavan . . . . . Gary Cooper
Linda Hartley . . . . . Andrea Leeds
Lieutenant McCool . . . . . David Niven
Captain Hartley . . . . . Reginald Owen
Lieutenant Larson . . . . . Broderick Crawford
Mrs. Manning . . . . . Kay Johnson
Captain Manning . . . . . Russell Hicks
The Datu . . . . . Vladimir Sokoloff
Miguel . . . . . Benny Inocencio
Lieutenant Yabo . . . . . Ruby Robles
Alipang . . . . . Tetsu Komai
Colonel Hatch . . . . . Roy Gordon
General . . . . . Henry Kolker