The 1951 film "Soldiers Three" is a service comedy loosely based on several stories written by British writer Rudyard Kipling. Archibald Ackroyd, Dennis Malloy, and Bill Sykes are three private soldiers in the British Army in British India in the late Victorian period of the 1880's or 1890's. They are good soldiers in battle but if stationed in garrisons become bored and get into trouble. At one point the soldiers are at a stationary camp and are bored. They would like to go to the nearby town and visit a pub but have no money. Ackroyd and Malloy discover that Sykes has been hiding a silver rupee in his shoe and, with the rupee, leave the post and head to town. The rupee is portrayed by an actual rupee or a prop coin. It is hard to tell which due to the size of the coin in the film.

The first scene is set in London in 1918, near the end of World War One.

At an officers club are several young officers.

The officers ask a retired general named Brunswick about his time in India.

The general tells the officers that he owes his rank to "three of the most unmitigated scoundrels, the most undisciplined rascals who ever soldiered for the Crown." The general continues "Not worth a lead coin as private citizens, but each of them worth five men in a fight." The film then moves back in time to the late 1800's in British India. Colonel Brunswick commands a regiment and his aide or assistant is Captain Pindenny.

The three private soldiers have been in the army for 17 to 18 years and are currently with an infantry regiment stationed at a post. They go into town to a pub where the waitress flirts with them. She then flirts with two soldiers from a Scottish regiment and the men get into a brawl.

The waitress is wearing a necklace of coins. The regiment is ordered to move to a camp in the mountains. The men march to the new camp.

At rest, the three soldiers have their boots and socks off so that an officer can inspect their feet for blisters.

The men complain about their lack of money. "Well, there's one comfort - there ain't a rupee between us." An officer appears and sees a round mark on Sykes foot. He asks Sykes "What kind of blister is that?" Sykes replies "'Tis a birthmark, sir." The officer counters with "Your mother must have been frightened by a banker." Ackroyd and Malloy see the mark, "The imprint of a rupee off a dirty foot", grab Sykes' socks, and find the silver rupee.

The rupee is shown a couple of times and two images have been merged below.

A British silver rupee was worth around 40 US cents at the time.

A British India Queen Victoria rupee:

Silver, 30.0 mm, 11.50 gm

Later the men go into town with their rupee, Ackroyd now carrying it.

Ackroyd enters a dice game and wins enough money for drinks. Later, drunk, they return to the post. Ackroyd is called into the Colonel's office and is first reprimanded and then promoted to sergeant, a promotion which he does not want. Colonel Brunswick's regiment is put under the command of a Colonel Groat, an officer whom Brunswick considers unqualified. It is possible that Colonel Groat is named after a "groat", an old English coin worth four pence. Sergeant Ackroyd loses his two friends due to his promotion.

Ackroyd is able to regain his buddies. Some Indians appear with a herd of cows.

The cattle driver use the cows as a distraction to steal some rifles. Captain Pindenny and some soldiers are sent to retrieve the rifles from a local gun dealer. While swimming across a river all of the soldiers lose their clothes except for Ackroyd who was able to keep his pants. Ackroyd visits a girlfriend named Crenshaw.

Crenshaw gives him some women's underwear for the soldiers. The soldiers retrieve the rifles and return to the post "out of uniform."

Things turn more serious when the regiment is sent to occupy an abandoned fort. The goal is to lure the violent Manik Rao's soldiers into a battle.

The soldiers occupy the fort but some of Rao's men are able to enter the fort and hide there. At night Rao's men emerge from their hiding places.

The British soldiers lock themselves into a room and Rao threatens to explode a bomb unless the soldiers surrender. A British officer accompanied by the non-violent Govind Lal meets with Rao.

The meeting accomplishes nothing. The British regiment arrives and attacks the fort.

Ackroyd, who was outside the fort during the battle, enters the fort, finds Manik Rao, and throws him into a well. The British use explosives to blow open the fort's gate.

The British win the battle. The two Colonels, Groat and Brunswick, meet.

They come up with a story which makes both officers look good. Subsequently Colonel Brunswick is promoted to General and Ackroyd is demoted to private.

Stewart Granger as Archibald Ackroyd
Robert Newton as Bill Sykes
Cyril Cusack as Dennis Malloy
Walter Pidgeon as Colonel Brunswick
David Niven as Captain Pindenny
Greta Gynt as Crenshaw (Ackroyd's girlfriend)
Frank Allenby as Colonel Groat
Robert Coote as Major Mercer
Michael Ansara as Manik Rao
Movita Castaneda as Pub waitress
Director: Tay Garnett
Writers: Malcolm Stuart Boylan, Marguerite Roberts, Tom Reed, based on stories by Rudyard Kipling