The Four Feathers is a 1939 British Technicolor adventure film directed by Zoltan Korda, starring John Clements, Ralph Richardson, June Duprez, and C. Aubrey Smith.

In 1895, the Royal North Surrey Regiment is called to active service to join the army of Sir Herbert Kitchener in the Mahdist War against the forces of the Khalifa.

Forced into an army career by family tradition and fearful he might prove a coward in battle, Lieutenant Harry Faversham resigns his commission on the eve of its departure.

As a result, his three friends and fellow officers, Captain John Durrance and Lieutenants Burroughs and Willoughby, show their contempt by each sending him a white feather—signifying cowardice—attached to a calling card.

Harry confides in an old mentor and former surgeon in his father's regiment, Dr. Sutton, that he now realises he did act out of cowardice and must attempt to redeem himself.

Still playing the addled Sangali, Faversham surreptitiously gives them hope of escape and passes them a file, but arouses the suspicions of the guards.

He dictates a letter to Ethne, releasing her from their engagement on the fake pretext of going to Germany for a prolonged course of treatment to restore his eyesight.

[5] Forty soldiers of the 1st Battalion, the East Surrey Regiment, were used in period uniforms for scenes in which they withstood the Dervish advance en masse.

[8][9][10] Critic Michael Sragow praises the "film's gritty magic", calling it "next to Lawrence of Arabia (1962), the most harrowingly beautiful of all desert spectaculars.