Legião Sinistra

1948 and US agent Whit Corbett is given a mission to track down Nazi war criminal Martin Brunner . It is believed Brunner has fled to French Indo-China to join the French Foreign Legion . The French meanwhile have a problem in the country where the Viet Mink are waging a war of national liberation

In order to get the best out of this film it's necessary to suspend all disbelief . We're given a short history lesson on the Nuremberg War Crimes Trial where 30 Nazis were found guilty of crimes against humanity - all except one Martin Brunner who has disappeared from the surface of the planet and the entire resources of American , British and French intelligence have no luck in finding . Their task isn't helped by the fact he hasn't been photographed since 1935 and as agent Corbett finds out there's a good reason : " After Hitler and Himmler Reicher was the third highest ranking Nazi . All this leads to a couple of serious questions

1 ) Have the allies tried looking in South America where all the real life Nazis like Josef Mengele and Adolph Eichmann were hiding

2 ) Hitler and Himmler or indeed any other Nazi didn't mind being photographed so why is Brunner different ? No doubt he looked in to a crystal ball and saw he'd be a fugitive so decided to forsake any photo opportunities . Either that or the film wouldn't have worked but you do get the impression the producers could have come up with a better way round this plot point

As it stands the film plays out almost as much as you expect it with the American good guy and a Nazi bad guy who conveniently has met Brunner joining the Legion at exactly the same time . It does play up to the myth that erstwhile Nazis joined the Legion to escape from war crimes . There is some truth in this but the truth of this myth in painfully over stated such as in novels The Devil's Guard by George Robert Elford which purports to be a true story but was very quickly debunked . Perhaps ROGUES REGIMENT is the one piece of fiction that started off the myth ?

An uneasy mix of war movie and film noir with a political slant it's not a very good film in its own right but one thing that is fascinating is the politics . The French are fighting the native population and they're portrayed as being communist stooges . There's also a scene where a French officer studies a wall chart on Viet Minh tactics but later on there's a scene where a Viet Minh leader states that " My friends ? Huh The Viet Minh are not such easily fooled , we may free our selves from [ our French masters ] only to be devoured by the red ones " and this astonishing and prescient line could have changed the whole course of history where Vietnam would 25 years later would have been an obscure exotic country rather than a metonym of bloody folly followed by inglorious defeat

The French are having a hard time with the Viet Minh guerrillas of Ho Chi Minh operating in the jungles in Indochina and striking whenever they can while staying hidden out of reach, creating a constant terror for the Europeans, but this film is not much about that. To combat these insidious freedom fighters France is applying the Foreign Legion, and after the war many ex-Nazis join this 'Rogues Regiment' where they can go on living in anonymity, even if they are chased all over the world. Dick Powell is assigned the mission to find a certain Nazi fugitive hiding in this army, so he joins the legion himself and finds it swarming with Nazis among the other usual delinquents. Vincent Price provides the guerrillas with weapons and ammunition and knows the wanted fugitive, having helped him to secretly join the legion, and there is an attractive night club singer Märta Torén who knows them all, whom Dick Powell falls in love with like everyone else. It's a tricky story amidst some difficult jungle fights, but finally Dick Powell gets his man, while in reality he actually got away - a certain Alois Brunner, who is here called Martin Brunner with some traits of Martin Bormann, another mystery Nazi who some believe got away. It is not a bad film, but it is not altogether outstanding either, but it is interesting for its anticipation of the Vietnam war which would go on for almost 30 years, the French giving up and leaving it to the Americans to keep up the hopeless case. Stephen McNally as Brunner is actually the most interesting character, while Dick Powell is just an ordinary tough guy and Vincent Price that ordinary crook he generally makes, while Marta Toren offers some refreshment. It is exotic and intriguing but hardly first class.

"Rogues' Regiment" is very unusual film - more ways than one. Billed an action, adventure and mystery, this is a preview look at Vietnam and the Vietnamese War. It takes place during the French Indo-China colonial period which lasted until 1954. The French pulled out of the country on May 7, 1954, after a four-month siege by communist-led rebels of the French garrison at Dien Bien Phu.

So, there's more than a little history surrounding this film. It portrays the French Foreign Legion in the Vietnam of the late 1940s. And, it shows some ambushes of French units. I know of only one other film that has scenes about the French Army and defeats in Vietnam. That is the 2002 film that starred Mel Gibson, "We Were Soldiers Once... and Young." So, considering that this movie came out in 1948, the film is somewhat prescient of the failure and withdrawal of the French in 1954, and then of the Vietnam War and American involvement a decade after that.

But for its prophetic historical notes, the plot of this film is about an American undercover sergeant joining the French forces in Indo-China in the hopes of discovering the last notorious Nazi official from World War II, to bring him to justice. In this film, the character is Martin Brunner who is disguised as another legionnaire, Carl Reicher. Dick Powell plays the American, Whit Corbett.

Another historical aside is that from well before WW II Germans had been joining the French Foreign Legion, and many of the NCOs at the time of the war were German. The Nazis had tried to infiltrate the legion with recruits, and the French discovered the plot. Even after France's defeat, the Legion operated as the Free French and worked to purge itself of any Nazis. So, now, in the post-war period, former German soldiers who weren't Nazis were joining the French legion in Indo-China. But that made it a logical place for Nazis as well who fled Germany to hide out for several years.

Another element of this film is that an arms smuggling operation existed that supplied the Vietnamese with weapons of war. The bad guy playing the part of Mark Van Ratten here is Vincent Price. Märta Torén plays Lili Maubert, who is an undercover contact for Corbett But she's also an acquaintance of Van Ratten. This film has some interesting twists. Considering that it was all shot in California and on Universal studio lots, the film does well in looking like Vietnam.

The cast all give good performances. Torén was a Swedish actress who was being billed as the next Ingrid Berman. She is 21 at the time of this movie and she would make some good films. But just nine years later she would die of a brain hemorrhage in her native Stockholm, Sweden. Here are some favorite lines form this film.

Lily Maubert, "What does Col. Mauclaire think?" Whit Corbett, "Same as you do - that I'm fishing for whales with a bat pin. But he'll help with the bait."

Lily Maubert, "I wish I could help you too." Whit Corbett, "You're doing that, just letting me look at you."

Whit Corbett, "You know, this is my last job for the Army. In another three months, my time will be up and I'll be going home - to a place called Nebraska. I've got a farm there - a hay farm. It's very quiet and might even be a little dull, after what we've been doing. But it's also a wonderful life in another way. And, for excitement, we can always drive the jeep up to Omaha.

Lily Maubert, "Are you making love to me?" Whit Corbett, "I'm trying to. Why, does it amuse you?" Lily, "No, no, it doesn't. I think I like it very much - if you mean it."

Lily Maubert, "What is hay?" Whit Corbett, "Hay? That's the stuff you make when the sun shines."

The film follows undercover agent Dick Powell (Whit) as he tracks down fictitious Nazi Martin Brunner as portrayed by Stephen McNally (Reicher) in the French Foreign Legion in Indo-China. I assume that McNally's character is based on real life high ranking Nazi Alois Brunner and the story is a fictionalized interpretation of where real life Brunner may have gone. Incidentally, the real Brunner never got caught. Can Dick Powell track down and capture McNally, or does this story foretell the actual truth of how Brunner may have evaded his searchers?

The film begins in a documentary style with clips from the Nazi war trials before it turns its attention to the plight of one particular high-ranking Nazi who has evaded capture. We follow the leads that place him in Indo-China, and that's where we meet our cast, all of whom give good performances. My favourites are McNally and Carol Thurston, who plays devious Vincent Price's (Van Ratten) servant girl, Li-Ho-Kay. Oh yeah, she's handy with a knife.

The film seems to tie itself up rather too neatly but it is an interesting journey - there is suitable tension throughout the film as well as intrigue as to what will happen. We are taken into the world of the Vietnamese freedom fighters, who, as a separate issue, win a victory in the end, a few years later.

I will remind Stephen Mc Nally's character here, where he shines as the villain, Nazi on the run. This is a great B movie, or a minor grade A picture, you can choose. It is convincing, rather fast paced, with plenty of suspense and action. I like that the screenplay focuses much of Mc Nally's role, more than I would have thought in the first place. Dick Powell is of course the hero, the good guy, I would not have imagined him as the Nazi war criminal.... This is one best example of what Robert Florey was able to do for the US film industry in those forties decade. Such a shame that he left the movie business to go to TV one, but with success, I admit. It also evokes the War in Indochia for French, but in a quite different way to David Butler and his JUMP INTO HELL.