Balaclava (film)

Balaclava
Balaclava
	Balaclava at the Royal Alexandra Theatre in Toronto, Canada, after its release as a talkie
Directed by	Maurice Elvey; Milton Rosmer
Written by	Boyd Cable; Gareth Gundrey; W. P. Lipscomb; Angus MacPhail; Milton Rosmer; Robert Stevenson
Based on	"The Charge of the Light Brigade"; by Alfred, Lord Tennyson
Produced by	Michael Balcon
Starring	Cyril McLaglen; Benita Hume; Alf Goddard; Miles Mander
Cinematography	Percy Strong; James Wilson
Edited by	Ian Dalrymple
Music by	Louis Levy
Production; company	Gainsborough Pictures
Distributed by	Woolf & Freedman Film Service
Release date	6 June 1928 (UK);
Country	United Kingdom
Languages	Silent Version (1928); Sound Version (1930); (English Intertitles)

Balaclava is a 1928 British silent and sound war film directed by Maurice Elvey and Milton Rosmer and starring Cyril McLaglen, Benita Hume, Alf Goddard, Harold Huth, and Wally Patch.^[1] It was made by Gainsborough Pictures with David Lean working as a production assistant. The charge sequences were filmed on the Long Valley in Aldershot in Hampshire. Although the sound version had no audible dialogue, it featured a synchronized musical score with sound effects. The sound version was released in the United States under the title Jaws Of Hell.

Plot

A British army officer is cashiered, and re-enlists as a private to take part in the Crimean War. He succeeds in capturing a top Russian spy. The film climaxes with the Charge of the Light Brigade.^[2]

Cast

Cyril McLaglen as John Kennedy
Benita Hume as Jean McDonald
Alf Goddard as Nobby
Miles Mander as Captain Gardner
J. Fisher White as Lord Raglan
Henry Mollison as Prisoner's Friend
Betty Bolton as Natasha
Robert Holmes as Father Nikolai
Harold Huth as Captain Nolan, Adjutant
Wally Patch as Trooper Strang
H. St. Barbe West as Prosecutor
Boris Ranevsky as Tsar
Wallace Bosco as Lord Palmerston
Marian Drada as Queen Victoria

Production

Portions of Balaclava were reshot under the direction of Milton Rosmer with dialogue written by Robert Stevenson and it was re-released as a sound film which featured a synchronized musical soundtrack with sound effects in April 1930.^[3]^[4]