The Real Glory, which is being shown on Amazon Prime, is ( along with North West Mounted Police) is one of the least shown Gary Cooper non-pre code films, so see it if you can. I happen to love this film. Of course, I admit to being extremely biased. Why? Because I am a hard core Gary Cooper action film fan. I will say if you do not like Cooper and ( or) are politically "Woke" you will not like this movie. The scene about threat to put the Islamic fanatic in a pig skin comes to mind. The story is about Post-Spanish-American War American soldiers training local Philippine soldiers against Islamic insurgents. By the way this problem continues on to this day. Besides Double Oscar Winner Cooper ( Dr. Bill Canavan), the film also contains two other Oscar Winners: David Niven ( Lt. McCool) and Broderick Crawford (Lt. Larsen), so the cast is excellent. There is also the ( usually) required love interest Linda Hartley ( Andrea Leeds), who is the daughter of the Base Captain. Steve Hartley (Reginald Owen). I will say Linda does help fighting the enemy, so she is more then just a love interest. Her father is interesting because he is actually going blind , and makes things difficult for Canavan, would prefer to die then live ( forgetting the fact that he does have something to live for ( his daughter Linda)). There is one other very interesting character which is.a teenager named Miguel ( called Mike by Canavan). He is actually Muslim ( which is why he is feared by other natives), but because he is treated with kindness and decency by Canavan, he is very devoted to Canavan, and plays a large role in helping prevent Canavan's death ( including warning him of a tiger trap that would have killed him), then later on he the only survivor of an ambush that killed Larsen ( amongst others) he is able to warn Canavan who then stops another ambush ( which saves Captain Hartley and others). Spoilers Ahead: There is an excellent battle scene ( with the Americans and Filipinos against.the insurgents led by the Datu), What really works well is it was a Filipino who killed the Datu ( not Canavan or McCool ( he was killed earlier)), and the scene of Canavan blowing up a dam ( that not only made it easier to stop the Datu, but provided fresh water after a Cholera outbreak). The only survivors of the Americans were Canavan, the Hartley's ( usually the father would die, so that was a nice unexpected twist), and a local Priest Padre Rafael. In the final scene you see Canavan and the Hartley's going away on a ship, and they are bringing Miguel with them ( often these characters are killed off ( to get an audience reaction)) or remain behind as a leader of the locals ( that turned out to be the Filipino who killed the Datu)). Instead, Miguel will be starting a new life in America. Of course, Canavan ends up with Linda as well. Once again a must for Cooper fans and an easy 10/10 stars from me.
Review of The Real Glory
