Le roman d'un spahi

Based on a novel by Pierre Loti , this movie was made in praise of the French Spahis ;from 1831 to 1962 ,they were soldiers in the cavalry units of North Africa or Senegal, supervised by French officers.

But there were natives among them ,and one of them is good friends with the hero and his sidekick ,who serves as a foil to him. Nyaor,the third "musketeer " is never ridiculous ,and his sister Patou's desperately in love with the handsome dashing Peyral. When he finally realizes that the fickle Cora (Mireille Balin , the femme fatale of "gueule d'amour" and the romantic Parisian in "Pepe Le Moko",both taking place in North Africa ) despises him and rejects the soldier for a general,he finds solace in Nyaor 's sister 's arms ; this affair is blamed by the hierarchy (Pierre Larquey tells him so ) but here lies the modernity of the movie, the young spahi defies the white society and soon Patou is pregnant by him .The end of the novel was sweetened , for the child is not yet born when the tragedy strikes .

Historically ,this legionnaire movie , the remake of a silent one ,was one of the first not to consider the natives as big kids ,though Patou speaks "pidgin French" (on the other hand his brother's language is grammatically correct).