Tom Jones Meets Goldfinger

Since Tennyson first immortalized their suicidal attack, The Charge of the Light Brigade has been the inspiration for four blood-and-thunder films. Now Director Tony Richardson is trotting out a fifth version. Unable to shoot at Balaclava, actual site of the 1854 battle in the Crimea (it is now a Russian missile base), he set up his cameras in a suitably barren valley in Turkey, 30 miles from Ankara. There, for the past two months, he has led his all-star cast --David Hemmings, Vanessa Redgrave, Trevor Howard, Lawrence Harvey and John Gielgud--through mishap and mayhem. With one of the largest budgets ($5.5 million) ever expended on a British film, Charge promises to be a charge to end all charges.

Described by the producer as "a cross between Tom Jones and Goldfinger," the new picture is a bitter, debunking black epic. It is based on Historian Cecil Woodham-Smith's book The Reason Why, a cold indictment of the military caste system that produced such rank incompetents as Lord Raglan (played by Gielgud), the general who gave the fateful order. At the time, he was so confused that he thought he was fighting the French. Another fact that the film exploits is the bravery--and arrogance--of Lord Cardigan (Howard), the general who led the charge. He penetrated the first lines of defense only to be confronted by a Russian officer (Harvey), whom he had known in London before the war. Looking disdainfully at the Cossacks, he sniffed that "it is impossible for a gentleman to fight among common soldiers." And back he trotted through the valley, trampling on the body of his aide, Captain Nolan (Hemmings).

For the battle scenes, Richardson enlisted 600 horses, 727 cavalrymen and 3,000 infantrymen, compliments of the Turkish Chief of Staff. Trouble was, most of the horses were aged mounts purchased from the U.S. Army when it disbanded its cavalry. When it came time to film the 1-c--mile charge, many of the horses could barely finish. As for the soldiers, they just kept smiling broadly--at the camera. And when they were called upon to fall in battle, they spoiled everything by rolling on the ground and laughing.

There were other problems. To begin with, Richardson's Woodfall Productions had to negotiate individual contracts amounting to $35,800 with each of 749 villagers who owned portions of the 3,000 acres in the valley. Then, since the valley floor was marshy, the company had to hire the Turkish National Waterworks to drain it at a cost of $40,000. And so it went, through unseasonable cold spells and rainstorms that flattened tents and scuttled beach scenes on the Black Sea. Then, two weeks ago, just when the cast thought they had survived the worst, the country was rocked by one of the most severe earthquakes in its history. The company survived, but all are anxiously waiting the day next week when the Light Brigade will withdraw to England.

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