Sous deux drapeaux

Ah, the bygone glories of the French Foreign Legion story. Almost everyone knows BEAU GESTE, from the 1939 version starring Gary Cooper. This was a lesser brother. Great actors, great direction, great cinematography and a script full of -- nowadays -- laughable bits. Claudette Colbert plays Cigarette, the Daughter of the Legion. Ronald Colman, plays the legionnaire who is trying to forget, and a young Rosalind Russell -- what a looker! -- play Lady Venezia Cunningham with a posh accent. What can you expect from a movie in which Ronald Colman is torn between Cigarette, daughter of the Legion and Lady Venezia Cunningham with the Production Code in full force? Well, this one. An amusing way to spend a couple of hours, if you are prepared not to take things too seriously. Or you could look at the Laurel & Hardy BEAU HUNKS.

Unfortunately, Ouida's great classical novel of dishonor, exile, love, war and sacrifice in Algeria with the French foreign legion has not been awarded with that great film script it deserves. A deep tragedy of human greatness has been transformed into a rather superficial Hollywood romance entertainment, where even Ronald Colman makes a rather poor figure, far from the sadly noble hero of the original. Nevertheless, it's a Frank Lloyd film, who also made "Cavalcade" and "Mutiny on the Bounty", and there are great moments, especially of the desert scenery. Claudette Colbert as Cigarette is the real star of the film, though, but then she is also the most memorable character in the novel. Rosalind Russell is good enough and adds some heart-warming romance, while the worst failure of the film is the alteration of the grim reality of the French foreign legion with a sinister discipline worse than that of the 'Bounty' into some loose barrack ballads with plenty of brandy. The grim nature of the colonel in the novel is deleted, and Victor McLaglen is only Victor McLaglen, whom you can't take seriously. It's a good enough entertainment but not more than that, while the novel is so much more.

During the 1930s and 40s, there were a bunch of movies that glorified the French Foreign Legion and featured them as the good guys. Considering the films were made here in the States, it does seem odd that these colonials were talked about at all as well as glorified...but there was apparently some sort of romantic notion of bravery and chivalry associated with this army. Films such as "Beau Hunks", "Beau Geste", "Under Two Flags" and "Abbott & Costello in the Foreign Legion" are just a few of the many such films of the era about this outfit.

This film is set in North Africa and you must ignore that the natives are sometimes referred to as Arabs...they are most likely Libyans, Algerians, Tunesians or, perhaps, Moroccans--all North African countries occupied by the French at that time. The commanding officer, the Major (Victor McLaglen), has a bit of an infatuation with a girl oddly named 'Cigarette' (Claudette Colbert) and after a while, so does Sergeant Victor (Ronald Colman). But when a British lady (Rosalind Russell) shows up in the middle of this desert town, Victor is smitten and now has TWO ladies who think he's their boyfriend. Amidst these smoldering passions is an uprising (what else?!) among the natives and it's up to the Legion to kick butt and restore the peace.

While the cast is quite nice in this one, the film itself is only ordinary. I think much of the problem is that "Beau Geste" came out about the same time and was simply a much more exciting and interesting movie. It's watchable and mildly interesting but not much more.

FYI--It is interesting to see Claudette Colbert playing a French lady and using a French accent, as she was born and lived in France until she was a young girl. I assume her family must have spoken French at home and approximating the French accent must have been pretty natural for her.

Under Two Flags was the last of a series of films that Ronald Colman did for the newly formed 20th Century pictures which only lasted about two or three years before it merged with Fox to form that colossus of a studio that Darryl Zanuck ran. This film was in fact done under the banner of the new colossus.

Having starred in the silent version of Beau Geste, Colman certainly had the Foreign Legion credentials cinema wise. But Under Two Flags drags in spots the way Beau Geste never does. In fact the first half of the film deals with a romantic triangle between Legionaire sergeant Colman and the two women who love him, camp follower Claudette Colbert and British aristocrat Rosalind Russell. And there's Colman's commanding officer Victor McLaglen who is jealous over the fact that Colman has Colbert panting over him while she won't give McLaglen the time of day.

Another component of the Colman/McLaglen rivalry is that McLaglen is a professional soldier up from the ranks and Colman while a good sergeant is clearly upper crust. But back in those days one joined the Foreign Legion to get away from problems in civilian life wherever you came from. In fact where Under Two Flags is most similar to Beau Geste is why Colman joined the Legion. It's a plot device lifted from Beau Geste and one typical of those romantic days before World War I.

With Colbert and Russell in the film this will not be a male bonding adventure film. Russell as she did in her early films played aristocratic women of class. This was way before her gift for comedy was discovered and utilized. As for Colbert this film belongs more to her than anyone else. This was the most atypical part for her I've ever seen her do, but she does it superbly. Claudette was clearly poaching on Marlene Dietrich's territory as the camp following daughter of the legion that Marlene did so well in Morocco.

I don't think fans of romance and fans of adventure were completely satisfied with Under Two Flags. The genres didn't quite blend together successfully for a great film. Still Under Two Flags has its moments for everyone.

A French foreign legion adventure with the starring cast of Ronald Coleman, Claudette Colbert, Victor MacLaglen & Rosalind Russell caught up in a love quadrangle. Nigel Bruce is 6th billed as Captain Menzies and adds some nice moments of bufoonery.