The Charge of the Light Brigade

For the filming of the climactic charge, one hundred twenty-five horses were trip-wired. Of those, twenty-five were killed outright or had to be put down afterward. The resulting public furor caused the US Congress to pass laws to protect animals used in motion pictures. Star Errol Flynn, a horseman, was so outraged by the number of horses injured and killed during the charge, and by director Michael Curtiz's seeming indifference to the carnage, that at one point as he was arguing with Curtiz about it, he could contain himself no more and actually physically attacked him. They were pulled apart before any serious damage was done, but it put a permanent freeze on their relationship; even though they made subsequent films together, they despised each other and would speak only when necessary on the set.

After the massacre, Flynn sympathetically listens to Major Singh crying over the body of his murdered son Prema who is clearly wiggling his toes in the foreground of the scene.

Opening credits: This production has its basis in history. The historical basis, however, has been fictionized for the purposes of this picture and the names of many characters, many characters themselves, the story, incidents and institutions, are fictitious. With the exception of known historical characters, whose actual names are herein used, no identification with actual persons, living or dead, is intended or should be inferred.

Also available in a computer colorized version.

Featured in Hollywood and the Stars: The Swashbucklers (1964)