Micitype Pretty Good

Moustroll Good movie but grossly overrated

Griff Lees Very good movie overall, highly recommended. Most of the negative reviews don't have any merit and are all pollitically based. Give this movie a chance at least, and it might give you a different perspective.

Janae Milner Easily the biggest piece of Right wing non sense propaganda I ever saw.

Leofwine_draca Zoltan Korda's remake of his own FOUR FEATHERS from 1939 drafts in a new director in the form of Terence Young and an all-star cast of British acting faces of the 1950s for a story which is hugely derivative and indeed exactly the same as the earlier tale. Further similarities between the two films are exacerbated by the liberal use of footage stolen from THE FOUR FEATHERS, which is of course the far superior (and bigger budget) film of the two, leaving this somewhat superfluous.Still, the cast alone salvages this story and makes it worth a watch. The tale is wide-reaching and fast-paced, and thoroughly interesting in its depiction of a long-vanished British Empire and the sway it once held over the known world. I found Anthony Steel a bit staid in the lead role, but the supporting players are very good. Laurence Harvey has the most characterisation and is thus the most interesting, but Ian Carmichael and Ronald Lewis make their mark too. James Robertson Justice is a scene-stealer and the likes of Geoffrey Keen and Michael Hordern add quality while Christopher Lee, Roger Delgado, and Ferdy Mayne don boot polish to play the natives.

jakob13 In our times of seemingly endless war against ISIS and the collapse of the left over scars of European colonialism, and the big game of influence among foreign and regional powers, here's a tonic to brace up sagging spirits and wash away the feeling of gloom and doom and impotence to do anything against Islamic terrorism. 'Storm over the Nile' is a film for you then. A credible remake of 'Four Feathers', it has all the dash and stiff upper lip of those who won wars on the playing fields of Eton, perhaps. We are in the Anglo Egyptian time of the Mahdi the secret imam who has claimed the mantle of the prophet in the Sudan. Already his forces fired up by the tenets of militant Islam had beheaded 'Chinese' Gordon, the British general sent in not by the UK but by Egypt to blunt the Mahdi's thrust and destroy his hold in an age of expanding European land grab in Africa. But he didn't count on Lord Kitchner and the British army and here with Harry Fathersham, receipt of a white feather for cowardice. The film is shot in brilliant color with long and close shots. The costumes are lavish in military and upper class garb. You will see a parade of British stars mostly long forgotten but in the UK and the Commonwealth: Anthony Steele, Maria Ure, Laurence Harvey, James Robertson Justice, Ian Carmichael and Christopher Lee. The atmospherics are there, too. Will you tremble with excitement as the black flag of fundamentalism is lowered and the Union Jack raised/ In any case, it less than two hours of mindless and feel good entertainment.

bkoganbing If you're going to clone something in Hollywood, clone something good which is what Storm Over The Nile is. It is yet another remake of the famous novel The Four Feathers. The same treatment was afforded Dawn Patrol by Warner Brothers back in the Thirties when the first version with Douglas Fairbanks, Jr. was cloned into the second with Errol Flynn.The script from the classic British production from 1939 was used as well as all the battle sequences. That was a wise thing because in 1939 the British controlled the Sudan and were able to film their action sequences on the very spot where these things occurred back in the late 19th century. Not to mention that it certainly saved big time on the budget. Anthony Steel plays our protagonist Harry Fevasham who questions his own courage when he's about to be shipped into action in the Sudan. Steel is from a military family and there are reasons of tradition and obligations that force him into that life. His brother officers brand him a coward and send him a white feather as the symbol of same.Some time later Steel goes to the Sudan and lives as an Arab tribesman and in that role performs some truly heroic feats. Best as always is his saving Laurence Harvey who is one of his accusers who is now blind as a result of prolonged exposure to the desert sun. Harvey's role was done in 1939 by Ralph Richardson.James Robertson Justice is also in the cast playing a really good John Bull type character. He's the father of Mary Ure who was supposed to marry Steel before his resignation and the feathers. JRJ always adds a lot to any film he's ever in.The Four Feathers with its story about a man questioning his courage and finding out truly if he has the right stuff is in the British culture very much akin to The Red Badge Of Courage. That has only had one film adaption whereas The Four Feathers has had many. Beau Bridges did one in the Seventies and the late Heath Ledger starred as Harry Fevasham in the latest screen version.But only the 1939 and 1955 can boast actual on scene location shooting. And unless the Sudan changes radically were not likely to see another.

JoeytheBrit Being something of a pacifist, Harry Faversham (Anthony Steele) has the misfortune to be born into a staunchly military family with all the expectations of an overbearing father (Michael Hordern) weighing down on his shoulders. Harry toes the line to please his dad, but when the old boy pops his clogs, he swiftly resigns his commission. As a consequence, he receives a white feather (the symbol of cowardice) from each of his best friends (Laurence Harvey, Ronald Lewis, and an out-of-place Ian Carmichael) on the eve of their departure to war in the Sudan. Harry awards himself a symbolic feather on behalf of his fiancée (Mary Ure) whose disappointment is clear. Harry determines to make his former friends take back their feathers, which is the signal for much derring-do to begin (hurrah!).The tale of the four feathers is the epitome of the schoolboy adventure yarn with heroic soldiers blinded in battle, heroic soldiers captured by the fuzzie-wuzzies (not nice, I can tell you!), heroic cowards braving forehead-branding and boot polish to go deep under cover in darkest Africa, and pompous old boors endlessly recounting their role in the battle of Balaclava back in the Crimean. It should really be boredom-proof, but the sad truth is that this version comes perilously close to inducing that state at times. The film is practically a word-for-word remake of the 1939 version – and even makes scandalously wholesale use of the earlier version's battle scenes – which means it probably came across as a bit staid back in 1955, but looks positively creaky today.Anthony Steel isn't a particularly convincing hero: at thirty-five he's playing a twenty-five year old who somehow looks forty-five, but the problem is more in the lack of sympathy Steel creates for his character. His Harry Faversham is the sort that sits in the corner and speaks when he's spoken too, and is therefore a little too bland to be a dashing hero, despite his acts of heroism. And exactly what sort of reaction did he expect to receive when he resigned his commission? Doesn't trotting off to the desert to regain his honour in the eyes of his friends and fiancée simply negate the strength of character required to resign in the first place? A young Laurence Harvey fares better as Faversham's upper-crust chum who suffers sun blindness when hiding from the fuzzies, and would arguably have been better suited to the leading man role. Ronald Lewis has practically nothing to do, while Ian Carmichael, on the cusp of his comedy career, comes off as a plummy-voiced twit.The film isn't awful by any standards, but it really could have benefited from fifteen minutes being pruned from its running time, and a little more fire in young Faversham's belly.