...bigotry, both racism and religious bigotry.

You bet, all Filipinos are simple minded, superstitious, gullible, fearful, and just loved the American invaders.

You bet, all Muslims are sinister, savage, violent, bloodthirsty, and treacherous. They, living in the Philippines for centuries before it was called that, keep getting referred to as "invaders" while the invading US troops are not.

What's really amusing is that these rebels in the jungle are all built like body builders, while the farmers are all skinny, older, frail men. I wonder where they got the actor playing a suicide attacker, because he was half a foot taller than the one playing the US officer. Circus performer? Mr. Philippines Weight Lifting competition?

It's almost as unbelievable as Niven's veddy British accent while playing an American. Or a US army doctor going on guerilla and scouting expeditions on his own, and outfighting whole rebel units.

This film even fails as an action film. The middle third is very slow, Cooper searching for a cure for a plague. Another long segment is surviving a drought. The love story makes up more tedious slow parts.

The action scenes are perhaps ten minutes total. They are unintentionally funny. The rebel leader goes back and forth between English and the local language when speaking to other rebels.

US troops also build rafts in the middle of a battle, literally in seconds, with no tools in sight. US troops then stand straight up on the rafts while going through the rapids. Filipino rebels, with a life time in the area, quickly fall down.

See it as either a crazy example of bad colonial nostalgia, or unintentional comedy.

The film comes to life in some brief flashes of proto-Indiana Jones action. Otherwise, it's a standard melodrama of an occupying fort holding on in hostile country. The unusual setting in the Philippines circa 1910 is under-utilized. For all the difference it makes, the film could easily have been set in the British Raj- or, with only a little rewriting, in a post-Civil War U.S. frontier fort.

I had no idea what to expect from THE REAL GLORY, a 1930s adventure film set in the Philippines but shot in California. It stars Gary Cooper in a role long before HIGH NOON, and he plays one of many officers stationed in the Philippines and attempting to stifle an uprising by Muslim rebels. The film is directed by Hollywood director Henry Hathaway, who directed a lot of good stuff over a long career including John Wayne's TRUE GRIT. The tale starts off a little slow but it turns out that it's merely taking time to get to know the characters before involving them in an action-packed tale. Indeed, THE REAL GLORY gets better and better as it goes on, turning into a pulp story full of outlandish incident and heroism.

Things culminate in an incredible siege climax which is one of the best-directed I've seen from the era. It's edge of the seat stuff, full of violence, stunts, and general excitement, ending the movie on a real high. Cooper is a solid and likable lead and given fine support from the likes of a youthful David Niven and Broderick Crawford. Even Andrea Leeds isn't out of place as the token female. Watch out for Japanese actor Tetsu Komai who made a career of playing villainous Oriental types in the 1930s.