Beau Geste

OK, so, it's not a classic, nor is it a masterpiece, but let's be fair here: it' entertaining and in my own personal opinion, underrated. Some historic inaccuracies are indeed blatant, but hey, it's an adventure movie, not a historic one. If you wish to watch a history based one look elsewhere, but if you like to see Telly Savalas in his heyday, and as usual rather strong and harsh performance, then this movie is really made for us.

Strangely, when I watched the movie (made one year earlier than the "Dirty Dozen"), I couldn't help thinking at parallelisms with Lee Marvin's depiction of. Major Reisman, who was indeed a tough cookie and a S. O. B., just as the character Savalas plays in this one.

One cannot but wonder how Telly Savalas finally got to play Major Wright in the last two sequels to the original "Dirty Dozen" bunch. Probably because someone may have seen his role in this movie.

The rest of the cast does a competent and convincing job, and even Leslie Nielsen (who went in his later days to play. Frank Drebin in the successful Comedy series "The Naked Gun" among others), did depict the Commander of the Foreign Legion's Regiment with distinctiveness.

But as said, if you expected a faithful retelling of the original story you came to the wrong place. This take is quite different and depicts probably a bit better, without romantic interludes, the harsh and cruel realities that made out the Foreign Legion.

One could consider it a forerunner to the later produced "March or Die" (1977), starring Gene Hackman, Terence Hill and Catherine Deneuve, but as stated, without any female participation.

As such I consider it a discreet movie that should be left as a solo effort, without comparing it to any other similarly titled film.

In my view, the only mistake the producers and director made, was indeed to name it "Beau Geste". They could easily have changed the names in it and titled it "The hard life of the Legionnaires", which would indeed have had more honesty in it. Another title that comes to mind could have been "Lost in a Dream of Freedom".

But whatever other title would have been given to it, it would certainly have attracted audiences of the time to go and watch it.

Sometimes it is the wrong choices that make some movies appear as either bad pictures, or as poor productions, when in reality there a many other worse examples, both in story telling, as well as in performance.

This indeed is a worthy movie to be watched as it is, since if one forgets for a moment the so called realism, and tries to take in the moral values that it attempts to convey, one might find that this film actually succeeded in its projection of this message.

I for one enjoyed it as one of the better small movies made in the mid-sixties, particularly for the interaction among all the characters, which came through as honest without all the "schmaltz" (sweetness) that similar movies try to infuse in such stories.

Try to watch it in this spirit, forgetting both the title and its original source and you will see that in the end you will be satisfied by it.

An adventure and thrilling movie about the reckless legend of the foreign legion battling in the Morocco desert. Adventure movie about the Foreign legion in a remote location in North Africa . At the begining contains a memorable opening with an impregnable fort , an outpost named Zinderneuf , garrisoned by corpses and the high adventure tone carries on from there . As an army of the French Foreign Legion crosses the desert to the relief of a far Fort , at a desert oasis. The major approaches the men on the walls and hails them, but they do not respond. He realizes that they are all dead, some shot in the head. He sends his bugler into the fort, but the man does not return. Entering the fort, he finds no life . Earlier and flashback , "Beau" Geste (Guy Stockwell) leaves his country in disgrace , enlists French army and joins the infamous Foreign Legion fighting Berber and Tuareg tribes . Shortly after , at assembly, Sgt. Dagineau (Telly Savalas) addresses several recruits , including Boldini (Mauro) , who is known to the Sergent from a prior enlistment , Krauss (Leo Gordon) , Rostov (Michael Constantine) , Beau , among others . Later on , Beau is reunited with his brother (Doug McClure) in North Africa, both of whom face off desert wars and a despictable sergeant . As they they confront greater danger from their own psychotic commander (Telly Savalas) than from the rebellious Arabs . After that, the regiment of legionnaries under command of a lieiutenant (Leslie Nielsen) and a first sergeant , become involved into an ambush in the sunny desert by the nasty Tuaregs .The World's Immortal Adventure! . Thundering drama ! Again ...the three Gestes face a thousand dangers of the Sahara for each other. Hard lives, quick deaths, undying courage! .Two against the world...brothers and soldiers all!

Entertaining , rousing Legion/Arab adventure set in Morocco where our starring Guy Stockwell is mistreated , wounded and along the way fighting Tuaregs and a ruthless sergeant . Being freely based on Christopher Wren novel screen-written by director Douglas Heyes himself . It contains up-roaring adventures , thrills , noisy action, battles and an exciting competition . This retelling leaves out one of the brothers , usually 3 , in the story of Beau Geste and how his attempt to save the family honor , equally the theft jewel issue is abandoned . Even their names aren't adequate " "Beau Geste" is a nickname given to Beau Graves -Guy Stockwell- by his commanding officer -Leslie Nielsen- , and Beau's brother -Doug McClure- is named John . The highlight climax at the fort littered with dead man from the classic movies 1926 , 1939 to today gave rise to a thousand comedy skilts . Universal International Picture intended making a lavish production, it had schemed to use a star-studded British cast , but it was eventually considered to be too an expensive, large-scale production so instead was shot on a medium budget on the studio backlot at Universal City Plaza, Universal City, California, and in the Yuma desert , Arizona, USA . Guy Stockwell gives an acceptable acting in his ordinary style as the brave legionnaire . He is suitable strong in his usual gentle and taciturn as Beau , eldest of two brothers who join the Legion. Stockwell starred some adventure movie as The war lord , Sword of Zorro and The king's pirate along with Doug McClure ; as well as other genres as Western : Gatlin gun , Plainsman and warlike : Tobruk . But is really Telly Savalas who leaves one of his most memorable screen portrayals , providing the most lasting impression as the sadistic and violent first sergeant .This is an inferior version , though being professionally directed by Douglas Heyes . Douglas was a craftsman who directed a lot of episodes of notorious TV series , such as : Rin-Tin-Tin: Hero of the West , Highwayman ,City of Angels , McCloud , Cimarron , Cheyenne, Alias Smith and Jones, The Virginian , Baretta , Switch , Outlaws , Maverick , The Bold Ones: The Lawyers , The Americans , Laramie , 77 Sunset Strip , Conflict , Colt 45 , Markhan , The naked city , among others . And occassionally directing a few films such as : Powder Keg , Kitten with a whip ,The Lonely Profession and this Beau Geste .

There are several versions about this novel written by PC Wren dealing with heroism in the Foreign Legion and it was a much-copied epic : The first rendition 1926 by Herbert Brenon with Ronald Colman , Neal Hamilton , Ralph Forbes , Alice Joyce , Noah Beery . The finest of various screen versions , considered to be a true classic Hollywood adventure in which Geste takes the blame for a jewel theft was made in 1939 by William A Wellman with Gary Cooper , Ray Milland , Robert Preston , Donald O'Connor, Susan Hayward and Brian Donlevy as a scarred sergeant . And the others were made as The Last remake of Beau Gest (1977) , hilarious retelling by Marty Feldman , Michael York , Ann-Margret , Peter Ustinov , James Earl Jones ,Trevor Howard ....

Very odd that, as of this date, this very watchable film was never released on tape or DVD, despite other Universal films from the same time period being released directly by Universal or licensed to other companies, particularly Good Times. There's a great supporting cast of mostly actors more familiar from television than from films, so one gets the impression that it's more of a made-for-TV film rather than a theatrical release; however, the action and scope is much larger than the TV movie fare of that time. The film has two nice battle scenes, one occurring at the mid-way point, and the extended climatic siege. It's a little jarring to deal with the constant shifting from the interior filmed fort scenes to the exterior filmed scenes of the Tauregs attacking, but that's my only complaint. The battle itself is well staged and exciting. It's interesting to note that Dougles Heyes, the director, used this same exact story regarding the letter threat against Dagineau in one of the episodes of "Rin-tin-tin" which he directed in the fifties. There, the threat was against Lt. Masters, who a trooper believed caused his brother's death in an Indian battle and wanted Masters to pay. Considering that RTT was a Columbia product and this Beau Geste was Universal, it's surprising some kind of copyright infringement was not noted. All-in-all, this is the kind of film that stands up to repeated viewings if one allows some time to pass in between.

This one always used to appeared in the TV Guide as "a surprisingly good version". That's understandable, given the casting of Telly Savalas and Doug McClure. It's easy to dismiss it outright based on their reputations, but this movie was made when both were doing movies, before their TV careers, well before Telly started sucking lollipops and saying "who loves ya, baby?", and before Doug's string of truly awful B (or C) movies. Guy Stockwell is fine as the stalwart elder brother, and Leslie Neilsen a surprise as the drunken commanding officer. The plot is straightforward and serviceable, the action is exciting, the set pieces and themes well handled. I saw this movie first as a young man, and was taken by the action. I saw it again when I was a little older, and came to appreciate Telly Savalas' performance (indeed, it's about the only performance from him that I liked). I would watch it any time it was on. I tried the original, 1939 version, but found it too slow and talky for my tastes, like a great many old classics. Having never read the book, I was unoffended by the changes made to the story line. On its own merits, it's a good actioner. I admit I played "Beau Geste" with my Airfix soldiers in the sandbox, pitting the Bedouins against the Legionaries. It was one of those movies that left an indelible impact on my young mind. I wish it would get more consideration than it gets, because I would like for it to come on once in a while still, or be made available on VHS, if not DVD.

Leslie Nielsen, in one of his few serious actor parts, dies off too quickly in this color extravaganza, leaving Telly to rampage and wreak sadistic treatment on those under his command. Dean Stockwell and Doug McClure, "Americans", try to do their parts well, but, they just didn't strike me as the best choices, at the time, for their roles. The color treatment, uniforms, and action sequences are reminiscent of other blazing gun battle scene loaded movies, but nothing sterling or Oscar-winning here, except, maybe, Savalas, as the contemptible despot. Movie length could also have been better, too much was left out, even for an adapted story from Hollywood. Still, I would like to see this again in widescreen DVD, or even VHS. But, where would I find a good original copy ? It seems to have disappeared from the face of the earth, if it ever existed at all !