Gunga Davis Jr.

Sergeants 3 (EC; United Artists), the latest fresh-air outing for Frank Sinatra's gnat pack, may have come to pass like this: the Clan members had all been to the penny-fights and Aldershot it, and they were lying around Palm Springs or Vegas talking of gin and beer. Someone turned on the box, and there, on the Old Old Show, was the 1939 rouser Gunga Din, with Gary Grant, Victor McLaglen and Douglas Fairbanks Jr. Wouldn't it be a gas, someone else inquired, to remake Gunga Din with Sammy Davis Jr. as the water boy?

Not really, as it turns out. The Khyber Pass becomes old West Injun country, British regimentals become U.S. cavalrymen, and Gunga Din's tame elephant becomes Sammy Davis' big white mule. But Sinatra is no Grant, Dean Martin no McLaglen, and Peter Lawford, a man who looks undressed when not surrounded by a drawing room, is assuredly no Fairbanks. The Clansmen loaf kiddingly through their parts, acquiring suntans. No one, of course, bothers to look bothered as the hostiles approach. Such expressions as are evident reflect the sudsy affability of a pipe fitters' picnic (Hey, get a load of Dino on a horse!).

Perceptive viewers will realize that Sinatra and his cube scout troupe are pioneering in a new art form: the $4,000,000 home movie.

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