Alexander Korda spared no expense in this production, shooting in Technicolor and doing most of the exteriors on location in the Sudan.

Brother Vincent Korda was again assigned art direction/production design duties. The direction was again entrusted to brother Zoltan, fresh off the success of the earlier picture The Drum (1938) and another, Elephant Boy (1937), that had also starred Sabu (both films made the Indian actor an international star).

Alexander Korda decided not to direct The Four Feathers because his last two directorial efforts, The Private Life of Don Juan (1934), Douglas Fairbanks's last movie, and the critically acclaimed Rembrandt (1936), had not been commercial successes. He had also lost considerable money on the aborted I, Claudius, directed by Josef von Sternberg and starring Charles Laughton, a film that was well into production when it was abandoned. On top of that, the pressure of running the large, recently purchased Denham Studios made it all the more appealing to turn to a proven success like Mason's story and to concentrate on producing while brother Zoltan directed.

Korda was wise to stick with a team that had proven very effective at high-quality collaboration on previous projects. Georges Perinal, a master of color who had lensed Rembrandt, The Drum, and other films for Korda, was assigned the cinematography, with exterior location work again going to Osmond Borradaile. Film editor Henry Cornelius was also a London Films regular, and fellow Hungarian Miklos Rozsa, who had composed music for five previous Korda productions, was set to do the score. Writers Lajos Biro and Arthur Wimperis were part of the team responsible for Korda's last big hit, The Drum, which was also based on an A.E.W. Mason book (it was released in the U.S. as Drums).

Korda also tapped actors with whom he had previously worked, including John Clements (roles in four earlier films) and Ralph Richardson (an alum of five pictures). New to the team was C. Aubrey Smith, who had already established himself in Hollywood and England as the epitome of the old-guard British upper crust, therefore perfect for the overblown Gen. Burroughs. .

The action scenes, photographed by Osmond Borradaile, were not only filmed where the historical battles had actually taken place but also included among the many extras people who had witnessed or participated in the fighting more than 40 years earlier. These battle scenes further benefited from Zoltan Korda's expertise at large-scale action and his early experience as a cavalry officer.

The sailing ships pulled by hordes of Sudanese along the Nile were constructed specially for the production in exact period detail at great cost.

For historical accuracy, Korda hired a military technical adviser, Brigadier Hector Campbell, and had him drill the actors and extras exactly the same as soldiers would have been in the period of the film's setting.

Although he was a stickler for historical fidelity, Korda was not above stretching the truth for the sake of spectacle. As shooting was about to begin on the lavish ballroom scene, he went into a fit over the fact that the officers were all clad in blue uniforms. The picture's military adviser, Brigadier Hector Campbell, informed him that this was the proper dress for a private party in the late 1800s. "But this is Technicolor!" Korda roared, and the uniforms were changed to bright red.

The Korda brothers had a working relationship and method that sometimes agitated their English cast and crew, who were not used to sudden, loud arguments conducted in Hungarian and halting English peppered with expletives. John Clements recalled sitting in Alexander's office discussing a point of production when suddenly the three brothers broke into a violent screaming match. "Zolly [Zoltan] started picking things up off the table and throwing them on the floor, and I really thought they were going to kill each other," Clements said. Just as suddenly as it began, however, the fight stopped "and everybody embraced, including me, and we all had a nice cup of tea, and that was that."

by Rob Nixon