Beau Geste

This is why we go to the movies. Great story telling, great characters, great actors, great directing, suspense, a certain pace and so on... a perfect movie. Why, oh why they don´t make movies like this anymore? Why are we treated to flicks like "King Arthur"? Have we lost it?

It´s all about adventure. Suspense, thrill, wit....Well, they would nowadays add some cruelties and that would be okay but it still would be superior to 99,9% of recent Hollywood flics.

Come back Capra, Hawks, Frankenheimer, Zinnemann, Ford, Hitchcock, Lang et al. - please come back

10/10

The addition of sound, and a sharper focus, only serves to make this version of "Beau Geste" (1926) seem older, and less European; specifically, the lack of consideration for the change in technology, from silent to sound, does not make this an improvement over the original silent film. And, the ages in the cast do not add up. Still, it's a good adventure story, and a fine Hollywood production. Despite showing the obvious "generation gap", Gary Cooper (Beau), Ray Milland (John), Robert Preston (Digby) are valiant as the brothers Geste, who join the French Foreign Legion for honor and gratitude.

Brian Donlevy's sadistic "Sergeant Markov" (nee "Lejaune"), who promises his men, "I make soldiers out of scum like you and I don't do it gently!" was duly nominated for a "Best Supporting Actor" Oscar. A future nominated J. Carrol Naish (as Rasinoff) is also quite nasty. Donald O'Connor (young Beau) and the opening segments help get the film off to a great start. You'll have to decide whether or not the film proves the Arabian proverb: "The love of a man for a woman waxes and wanes like the moon, but the love of brother for brother is steadfast as the stars and endures like the word of the prophet."

******* Beau Geste (8/2/39) William A. Wellman ~ Gary Cooper, Ray Milland, Brian Donlevy, Robert Preston

I know this, along with Sherlock Holmes, is one of the most filmed stories ever, but the 1939 version must stand out as the best. The mood and atmosphere of the desert is captured brilliantly, the photography is excellent as is the cast. Gary Cooper fits the role of Beau exactly as one would have imagined him, while the brothers played by Ray Milland and Robert Preston are spot on. Of course Brian Donlevy was at his best in this film as the vicious Sergeant, and it is one of the few times when I have thought he acted well. Susan Hayward's role was minor, but of course she was a virtual unknown at that time. It was good to see Donald O'Connor as a young Beau, as well as stalwarts like Albert Dekker and J. Carrol Naish. The opening scene is quite remarkable even by todays standards.

Three brothers join the Foreign Legion following the mysterious disappearance of a valuable sapphire.

This movie came out the same year (1939) as that other masterpiece of colonial adventure, The Four Feathers. Both make first-rate use of family bonds and family honor to create a strong emotional context to all the colorful combat. Those bonds really work here, establishing a strong sense of one for all and all for one. Plus the fact that the brothers have been adopted by the kindly Lady Brandon (Thatcher) not only lends poignancy, but makes the central twist work really well.

As good as Cooper-Milland-Foster are, it's really Donlevy's movie. His cruel martinet has stayed with me over the decades—the military haircut, the perfectly squared shoulders, the command voice. He not only commands his legionnaires, he commands the movie, as well. And, when he falls, I still have mixed emotions, despite his many acts of cruelty. It's a crackling good story, but it's his imposing presence that makes the adventure memorable. No wonder Donlevy was Oscar-nominated, a near-perfect blend of character and actor.

Two minor reservations. Cooper's fine in Beau's role, more animated than usual. However, at nearly forty, he appears a shade too old for the youthful part. Also, I've never been able to reconcile to the relative ease with which the mutiny is put down. There's like five guys with guns facing a hundred guys who stand to be executed for their planned mutiny, yet they meekly give up, especially after Schwartz (the great Albert Dekker) has so powerfully roused them to action. To me, director Wellman's staging here is less than convincing.

Nonetheless, the mix of mystery, emotion and action remains superbly entertaining, and is ironically, one of the few movies that actually lives up to its title.

People who know Julien Duvivier's "la bandera"(1935) will find analogies between the two movies.In both of them, the legion is an escape from law.The approach is different however:in "la bandera",the hero and his mates are simple,crude people.In Wellmann's work,they are distinguished,"noblesse oblige" characters.Wellman's movie has a romantic flavor,which is totally absent in Duvivier's pessimistic story.

It seems that "beau geste" has worn well,better than Duvivier's dated saga.Both movies have the same flaw:the Tuaregs are the "villains",we absolutely know nothing about them.In Duvivier's movie,we don't even see them,and they are always referred to as "the bastards" (sic)They seem reduced to attacking baddies,an entity whose humanity is denied. Wellmann's superiority lies in the fact that he plays the game of adventure ,now matter how unlikely it is while Duvivier has "realist" ambitions.

Wellmann smartly blends a whodunit with pure adventure elements.The solution of the mystery,which we learn at the very end of the movie is very unexpected and gives the movie some kind of Hustonian touch (and in 1939,Huston had yet to make a movie!)

As for the directing is concerned,the last third of the movie shines.If the legion routine life scenes inside the fort are inferior to those of Duvivier,on the other hand its finale is more moving and more astonishing.The sergeant,using dead bodies as scarecrows ,is almost surrealist and might have influenced the conclusion of Anthony Mann's "Cid".A scene we saw at the beginning ,"the Viking funeral" finds an absolutely brilliant explanation .While John (Ray Milland) is preparing the "ceremony" in a fort full of dead bodies,we don't realize.It's only when he explains to his brother (yes,there was a dog at his feet)that we understand.

A very fine cast,including Susan Hayward on the threshold of a brilliant career (it's her second movie).The title is justified too.Because "Beau Geste" means in French "Beautiful gesture".

NB: A trip to Norway taught me this:the Vikings were buried in the ground on their boats.