Huston's narrative is both an ironic parable about the motives and methods of imperialism and a series of gags about civilization and barbarism. When savages in war masks are hit by bullets, the image is a sick-joke history of colonialism, and when the vulgarian heroes try to civilize the tribes they conquer, they obviously have not much more than their own military conditioning to draw upon. Danny and Peachy are British primitives who seek to turn the savages into Englishmen by drilling them in discipline and respect for authority. Danny becomes as sanctimonious about that mission as Victoria herself, and is baffled when the natives show ingratitude...

Connerv's Danny has a beatific, innocent joy in his crazy goal even when he's half frozen en route; few actors are as unself-consciously silly as Connery is willing to be—as he enjoys being. Danny's fatuity is sumptuous as he throws himself into his first, half-embarrassed lofty gestures. Connery plays this role without his usual hairpieces, and, undisguised—bare-domed—he seems larger, more free; if baldness ever needed redeeming, he's done it for all time. Came has the Bogart role, which means he's Huston's protagonist; Peachy is the smarter of the two, the wise-guy realist, loyal to Danny even when he's depressed by Danny's childishness. We see through Peaehy's sane, saddened eyes the danger in Danny's believing himself a man of destiny, and Caine manages this with the modesty of a first-rate actor. He stays in character so convincingly that he's able to bring off the difficult last scene, rounding out the story conception, when it becomes apparent that Peachy has "gone native."