The Real Glory (1939)

In 1906, a medical doctor (Gary Cooper) arrives in a war torn outpost in the Philippines. A Moro chieftain (Tetsu Komai) is terrorizing the local villagers but the instead of fighting the Moro terrorists, the U.S. Army intends to train the local villagers to fight their own battle. Based on the novel by Charles L. Clifford and directed by Henry Hathaway (TRUE GRIT), the film attempts to be a stirring war adventure and while it's really quite a decent film, it's not very fresh. It's formulaic right down to the little Moro boy (Benny Inocencio) who risks his life for the Yankees, the Cholera epidemic, the commander (Reginald Owen) going blind and keeping it secret and the feisty heroine bandaging the casualties while the men fight. The film is actually rather similar to the same year's GUNGA DIN but with Moros replacing the Thuggees and without the laughs. It's the kind of film that you probably already know if you're partial to (or not) going in. With David Niven, Broderick Crawford, Andrea Leeds (STAGE DOOR),  Kay Johnson and Vladimir Sokoloff.