Via Starwars.com:

Perhaps the first modern action/adventure movie, Gunga Din is a classic black-and-white film directed by George Stevens that came out in 1939. It stars Douglas Fairbanks, Jr., Victor McLaglan, and Cary Grant as a trio of sergeants in the British Army during the 19th century occupation of India. They’re fun loving in their adventures and never want to see the group broken up, so when one of them decides he’s retiring to get married, the other two do their best to rope him into one last mission. Nothing goes according to plan and they find themselves battling the bloodthirsty hordes of Thugee cultists.

In all of their fighting, they’re still left for dead and the only person who can help them is a lowly water-bearer, discounted by everyone else. Gunga Din rises to the occasion, giving his life to save everyone else and stop the Thugee.

The film traces a few lines directly to Star Wars, but the most obvious comes by way of Indiana Jones and the Temple of Doom. The action/adventure tone of the Indy films seem to be a modern perfection of the formula begun with Gunga Din.Temple of Doom borrows many story elements, including the crazed Kali blood-cults, and is a perfect unofficial sequel to the ’39 film. Thanks to the Lost Missions of The Clone Wars, we’re given “The Disappeared,” a two-part story that casts Jar Jar as Willie Scott and Mace Windu as Indiana Jones as they battle cultists looking to pull the life force out of their hapless victims. There are otherIndiana Jones homages through the episodes, but the cultists can be traced directly back to Gunga Din.

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