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Soldiers Three is a harmless comedy about three british soldiers serving in India (played by Stewart Granger, Robert Newton and Cyril Cusack). The three are great friends after spending 18 years in the army together. Now the colonel (Walter Pidgeon) has had enough of the unruly fellow, and wants to separate them by making one of them (Granger) a sergeant. Of course, sergeants and soldiers cant get along with each other so Granger tries to get degraded to a soldier again...

Gargantuan thrill ride it ain't, you might think. Indeed its nothing special or exciting. Its merely a standard Hollywood studio film of its day, but of course, the standard Hollywood films in 1951 were much more enjoyable than now 50 years later. (at least in my opinion) So this might be worth your time on a lazy tuesday afternoon (If you are not working), just to see a few likable actors like Stewart Granger and David Niven (playing a british officer, a role he fits more than well)

In part because of the varying reviews here, I just watched this movie. I found this harmless service comedy to be better than I expected, with some great moments. In particular, I enjoyed Stewart Granger as Private Archibald Ackroyd. This movie was filmed not long after he (and his bare chest) stormed the box office in King Solomon's Mines, so it seems odd to me that he was placed in such an obviously low-budget affair as Soldiers Three. In an interview he gave in 1991, just two years before his death at age 80, Jimmy Granger ridiculed this film, but then he ridiculed almost all of his cinema work. Still, he gives a good performance in Soldiers Three as an 18-year veteran of the Colonial Service, rather proud of being labeled "The Queen's Hard Bargain," along with his mates Dennis and Bill. One wishes Granger would have been offered -- or would have accepted -- more character parts. As in The Woman Hater, he is sharp, his timing spot on, and he puts on a passable Cockney accent (coached by Claude Rains, he once reported). Robert Newton as the dimwitted Bill Sykes became less annoying when I realized that he is credited with "inventing" the pirate accent (actually, Yarmouth) when he played Long John Silver in Treasure Island just a year before Soldiers Three. Cyril Cusack, as Irish volunteer Dennis Malloy, gives a solid performance as usual. Of the others in this film, the only one who seems truly out of place is Walter Pidgeon as Colonel Brunswick. He does not seem to know what to do or how to do it, so he bluffs and puffs his lines to perfectly cast "stuffed shirts" David Niven, Frank Allenby, and Robert Coote. I would recommend giving Soldiers Three the once over and in so doing, forget about Gung Din -- and historic reality -- and just enjoy it for what it is.

Other posters complained that in Soldiers Three Granger imitates Cary Grant in Gunga Din. I'm a fan of Gunga Din but hadn't really thought of comparing the actors as I watched Soldiers Three. Instead I found myself admiring, and frequently amused by, Granger's comic abilities--of which he showed flashes in other movies but of course he was better known as a romantic swashbuckler or, later, a western hero comfortable with the ladies.

Another complaint is that the film is a Hollywood potboiler, but what's surprising is how much British comic style survives in this production from the West Coast of North America. The comic pace may seem "lazy," but it's familiar even now in the Brit-coms that play Saturday nights on PBS. Granger's timing and interplay with Sykes and Cusack are admittedly unspectacular but nonetheless well-practiced in technique and pleasantly warm with human feeling.

As a final recommendation, the story, characters, and dialogue may be closer to authentic Kipling than Gunga Din, whose screenplay was a free expansion of a not-very-long poem that contributes little to the film with the same title. Long ago I read Kipling's Plain Tales from the Hills partly about English servicemen in India and introducing the characters of Soldiers Three. I think there were later stories collected under the title Soldiers Three. Anyway the plain and humane style remind me of those early stories by Kipling, which gambol between stereotypes and humanity. Kipling's Anglo-Indian writings benefit from his youth and early journalistic career primarily in what is now Pakistan. The film of Soldiers Three seems true to this author's spirit.

I just got to see this fine film. A powerful cast of stars and thrilling R. Kipling action that shows film on a large piece of Hollywood film location history. This film centers around a Victorian time Kibber Pass English fort which is actually a well used fort location in Simi Valley/Chatsworth area. The real British Army officer during WW2s, David Niven is fun. A real interesting part is that leading-man, Stuart Granger, does fine performing as a lowly private and lower class in this comedy. The fort was part of the Corriganville Theme park in the 60's & 70's and was closed after a severe hillside fire. The area is now a Simi Valley public park that holds only the cement and brick remnants to remind film lovers of it's previous use in grand films like this one, John Ford's films featuring US Cavalry forts, Weismuller's Tarzan jungle streams, Gene Kelly Three Mustketeers, and the Lone Ranger and Roy Roger's TV shows.

This fort was moved from Corriganville in the late 60's and re-assembled in the Acton California Vasquez Rocks public park. The fort still was used there for mostly TV shows that required military bases like Robert Conrad's Wild, Wild, West and the original series of Star Trek. I have picture of myself on the forts ramparts in 1964. The fort was removed due to safety and insurance concerns because of it's extreme age.

Based on another Rudyard Kipling story, the parallels between this and the better known Gunga Din film are too obvious to ignore. Once again Kipling has three protagonists soldiers as heroes who are three of the most undisciplined soldiers in the Indian army. But are three of the best fighters. Unlike Gunga Din where the heroes are sergeants, these three guys are from the ranks and have been there for many years.

Stewart Granger, Cyril Cusack, and Robert Newton are our three privates and they get into all kinds of jackpots. Their colonel is Walter Pidgeon and this whole film is a flashback offered at a club by retired General Pidgeon. After one incident too many he and his adjutant David Niven have the idea to promote one of them to break up the team. It works to some degree.

But when Cusack and Newton and many more of their comrades get into a nasty jackpot trying to capture a rebel tribe leader the old team comes together. In fact the rescue of the group by Granger bears a lot of similarity to the climax of Gunga Din. Only this one is played for far more laughs.

This military comedy cried for the rough house traditions set by John Ford. Although director Tay Garnett did any number of good action films, the whole military tradition and the comedy would have really been perfected had Ford been at the helm. Irishman Ford did quite well with the British army in India with Wee Willie Winkie.

Still Soldiers Three is worthwhile if you're a fan of the three leads.

The cast tries hard to make a go of this entry into the British Raj in India genre, a genre which is still far and away dominated by RKO's Gunga Din released in 1939. Mostly it's a futile effort. The film comes up short on many levels. The screenplay isn't in the same league as the RKO classic and Stewart Granger, Robert Newton and Cyril Cusack are a pale shadow of Cary Grant, Victor McLaglen and Douglas Fairbanks Jr. Granger forces the issue constantly, trying to ape Cary Grant's performance in Gunga Din and it comes off primarily grating though he does have a few amusing moments.

The humor between the three is passable enough but Newton and Cusack just don't offer much chemistry or star power, and the script rarely gives them anything to do but banter at Granger and each other and down pints. David Niven, wasted in the role of a superior officer, would have been way better served to have been cast as one of the threesome instead of Cusack. Walter Pigeon, too, gives one of his clunkiest performances as the Colonel, much consternated British bluster is attempted but fails to be very humorous or believable.

The best sequence in the film is the brawl in the tavern with the Scottish soldiers, which is very much reminiscent of Gunga Din's opening, and the battle at the end is well staged and action packed, it just takes about 70 mostly wasted minutes to get there.

Overall the picture is not unentertaining, it has its moments but it's barely half the adventure masterpiece Gunga Din is.

Others have said this has similarities to Gunga Din, which isn't surprising, since they were both by Rudyard Kipling. Always stories of adventures in far off exotic lands. This one opens with General Brunswick (Walter Pidgeon) reminiscing about his days as a colonel. Due to his height and stately voice, he was always given the role of admiral, senator, or grandfather. His soldiers are played by David Niven, Stewart Granger, Robert Newton, and Cyril Cusack. Niven received an Oscar for "Separate Tables", but is probably best known for "Around the World in Eighty Days" or "Pink Panther". We tag along as they have their trials and tribulations, fights, and comical adventures during their military maneuvers. Pretty light fare, and certainly not the epic that Gunga Din turned out to be. All in good fun, but mostly silly, unlikely adventures. Filming locations show Utah and California. Strong performances by Pidgeon and Niven, but the story isn't one of his best. Story has no plot holes, it just kind of plods along, and we get to the end. If you're looking for a good R Kipling story to watch, see "Gunga Din" instead- that one has Cary Grant!

Through the time appears some war comedy like that,it's very unusual and quite often rare movie,it's very amusing production because it remove from the war all kind of suffering and madness and replacing for laughs an good humor,MGM wisely brings to Hollywood five top billing casting from England to make a priceless and remarkable comedy,light and easy and delightful entertainment for everyone,this title as far l know it wasn't have an official release in Brasil yet...

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First watch: 2018 / How many: 1 / Source: DVD-R / Rating: 7

Soldiers Three is a 1951 black and white war drama that is a pale imitation of Gunga Din (1939). How on earth you could try to re-make Gunga Din is questionable enough, but consider that producer Pandro Berman worked on the original. What was he thinking?

Stewart Granger, David Niven, Cyril Cusack and Robert Newton star, but none of them come anywhere near the talent on display by Cary Grant, Victor McLaglen, Douglas Fairbanks Jr., and Sam Jaffe.

Granger made far better films (King Solomon's Mines, Scaramouche) as did Newton (my favorite Long John Silver), and of course Niven who won Oscars and Golden Globes for many memorable performances.

Here is a film that should be avoided.

This lifeless adventure yarn featuring three veteran privates still suspended in adolescence doesn't have enough energy to get through the first reel. It's a second string Gunga Din that should have never been allowed off the bench.

Ackroyd, Sykes, and Malloy have spent most of their adult life as privates keeping the sun up for the Empire. Prone to mischief their frustrated commander (Walter Pidgeon) decides to break the boys up; not by court martial but instead by promoting one to the responsible rank of sergeant. Sulking like schoolboys it fractures the friendship until the mates are in harms way.

It's hard to believe director Tay Garnett yelled action in Soldiers Three because the little there is of it is abysmal. The editing is choppy, the battle scenes poorly choreographed with Garnet in some instances having his cast point and fire guns that don't discharge. The three underachieving lifers played by Stewart Granger with a poor Irish accent, Cyril Cusack's rancid pixie and the painful to watch visibly dissipating Robert Newton mooing like a cow and "Ar'ing like Long John Silver lack both chemistry and energy to summon up laughter or excitement. Pidgeon's blustery incoherent commander is no improvement while David Niven and Robert Coote are only required to display stiff upper lips. Void of both action and humor Soldiers Three is strictly third rate.

"Soldiers Three" isn't "Bataan" director Tay Garnett's finest hour. Nevertheless, the adventurous antics of the eponymous military men—Stewart Granger as Private Archibald Ackroyd, Robert Newton as Private Bill Sykes, and Cyril Cusack as Private Dennis Malloy—keep things amusing but far from spectacular. The first brawl that they embroil themselves in with their kilt-wearing compatriots is funny as is their later foray to recover rifles stolen apparently by native cattle. Our heroes lose their uniforms in a river, but they recover the rifles. Unfortunately, they return to their camp decked out in frilly feminine garments with their commander straddling a bull. Granger, Newton, and Cusack generate a palpable sense of camaraderie, while Walter Pidgeon is appropriately obtuse as their superior officer Colonel Brunswick. David Niven struggles to maintain respect as Pidgeon's subordinate officer Captain Pindenny. Although it isn't as exciting an outing as director George Stevens' classic "Gunga Din" with Cary Grant, Victor McLaglen, and Douglas Fairbanks, Jr., "Soldiers Three" qualifies as a tolerably entertaining opus. The finale in an abandoned fortress on the frontier with villainous Manik Rao (career bad guy Michael Ansara of "Guns of the Magnificent Seven") threatening to blow up 50 British soldiers who have taken refuge in a powder magazine generates moderate suspense. The film occurs in flashback with General Brunswick explaining how the three rogues helped save the British empire in India and enabled him to attain the rank of general. The acting is shamelessly over-the-top, with Granger taking top honors with Robert Newton on his heels. The physical production looks splendid, especially the long shots of the army on the march.