Soldiers Three

Soldiers Three (1951)

Rough, Tough and Riotous!

Kiplingesque tale of British forces in 19th-century India.

Date of release
1951-04-01
TMDB
4.5 / 10 (8)
Runtime
1h 32m
Genres
Adventure, Comedy, War
Director
Tay Garnett

Casting

Interesting facts

  • Based on: Soldiers Three
  • Filmed in: California

Soldiers Three is a 1951 American adventure film directed by Tay Garnett and based upon several short stories by Rudyard Kipling featuring the same trio of British soldiers, portrayed in the film by Stewart Granger, Robert Newton and Cyril Cusack.

Production

In 1934, it was announced that Gaumont British would produce a film based on the Rudyard Kipling story collection titled Soldiers Three. A film crew was sent to India under Geoffrey Barkas to shoot second-unit footage. A script had been written based on Kipling's stories "The Courting of Dinah Shadd" and "The Storming of Lung Tung Pen" and involved a climax written by Kipling involving a battle at the Khyber Pass.

Michael Balcon of Gaumont next sought to secure a cast. He visited Hollywood and expressed interest in Pat O'Brien for the lead role. Richard Dix, Maureen O'Sullivan and C. Aubrey Smith were all mentioned as possible stars. Gordon Harker was also announced as a lead. Smith travelled to England to make the film but instead appeared in The Tunnel. Soldiers Three was postponed.

Gaumont insisted that it would produce the film and announced that Victor McLaglen would star and that Raoul Walsh would direct. Walsh was interested in directing two versions, one for England and one for the United States without British dialect. Walsh left for England to begin preproduction and Charles Bickford was announced as a costar. However, Gaumont never produced the film.

In early 1938, MGM announced its plans to produce the film along with another Kipling adaptation, Kim. A script was written by Vincent Lawrence and Grover Jones, but filming was postponed. The project was reactivated after World War II with a script rewritten by Marguerite Roberts and with Pandro S. Berman as producer.

In May 1950, it was announced that the film would be one of the first starring Stewart Granger under his new seven-year contract with MGM. The initial cast was slated to include Granger, Gene Kelly and Walter Pidgeon. Granger was to play Irishman Terence Mulvaney, with the other lead characters named Ortheris and Learoyd. Tay Garnett signed to direct. Kelly eventually withdrew and David Niven, Robert Newton and Cyril Cusack signed to star.

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