The Legion of Missing Men

"The Legion of Missing Men" is a low budget B-movie from Monogram and it's about the French Foreign Legion. Oddly, like so many movies of the era, it's a bit confusing today why so many American films were pro-Colonialism like this one.

Bob Carter (Ralph Forbes) is an excellent soldier in the Legion. Unfortunately, his moronic brother Don (Ben Alexander) joins up and is a complete idiot. He seems only interested in a cabaret singer and has zero common sense. First, he slugs his Sergeant. Second, he then runs away and seeks to hide with the enemy! Bob and his friends find themselves in hot water when they try to rescue this brainless fool from himself.

Don Carter's character is just too stupid to believe...and this is the main problem with this movie. Additionally, Bob isn't exactly an Einstein either!! Had these characters been written better, the plot might have been more believable. As it it, this and a few poor actors sink this one and make it, at best, a silly time-passer.

What a disappointing picture! Just look at those credits! Well, I'll admit the cast isn't much, except for Ralph Forbes (who is great in small doses like "The Hound of the Baskervilles") and Ben Alexander's legions of fans, although even Dragnet die-hards will find little to cheer about here. However, I must admit I really enjoyed Hala Linda's performance (and I loved her songs). And this "Missing Men" is her only movie too! But I expect a a fair degree of excitement from a classy director like Hamilton "Charlie Chan" MacFadden; and for the first ten minutes or so of fast action and multiple camera angles with scores of extras, it looks like he's going to deliver. But then the boring part of the "Beau Geste"-derived screenplay (unaccountably hashed up by three of the best writers in Hollywood's ten-thrills-a-second business) takes over. And while all this tedious brothers-falling-out stuff is flat-footedly proceeding, what is Charles Hutchison doing? Lightning Hutch himself! Presumably he was hired just for the strength of his name. The action spots at the beginning and end of the picture feature only a small amount of stunt work. Nothing to get too excited or wide-eyed about—which is a fair description of the whole movie itself.

Sample dialogue: (Heroine)"You are clean and fine! So different from the others who come here." And (Sheik) "How many men did you lose?" — (Henchman) "As many as the fingers of two hands twice!"

Ralph Forbes shleps the Beau Geste Banner in this cheaply made and poorly produced Foreign Legion flick. There's fighting around the Vasquez Rocks, there's Hala Linda as a sexy singer/spy for him and screen brother Ben Alexander -- try reconciling those accents -- to fight over. Paul Hurst is pretty good as the big friendly, deadly guy, but the rest of the movie is poor, mostly because so little attention is spent to getting the actors to speak their lines well -- Colonel Frank Leigh briefs his officers like he's reading his lines off a badly scrawled black board -- and you can tell that Miss Linda is lip-syncing her songs because her mouth doesn't match the lines.

Monogram could turn out a good movie in this period, but apparently neither producer Isaac Chadwick nor director Hamilton McFadden were up to the money or skill. Cameraman Marcel Le Picard offers some beautiful outdoors compositions in the scenes quite obviously shot wild. The interiors never exceed minimal competence, though. This is a Poverty Row cowboy flick with different costumes, and not worth your time unless you are a Jimmy Aubrey fan; he's present in a small role.

One would think that a film that depicts the French Foreign Legion and their violent struggle with desert brigands in Morocco would be rousing entertainment. Unfortunately, there are only two significant scenes of action in the film. The bulk is taken up with boring dialogue, singing, and stock footage.

It is not unreasonable to expect some adventure in an adventure or war film. "The Legion of Missing Men" fails on this count. While I would normally grant some leeway to a poverty-stricken studio like Monogram, the problems aren't with the budget. In my opinion, they reside mostly with the screenplay and director. The film is only a little more than an hour, but feels substantially longer. Unless you are a foreign legion film fanatic, this is one to miss.

Ralph forbes is bob carter. When his brother don joins the foreign legion, it's the beginning of troubles for them both. When they visit the local cafe, hala the singer starts trouble for don. When he refuses to listen to friendly warnings, he's under arrest. And that's just the start of his troubles. Now the battalion is up against the local sheik. It's an okay tale, and it moves right along, at sixty two minutes. The sound and picture quality are both pretty rough. I recognize the location vasquez rocks, northeast of los angeles. Directed by hamilton macfadden for monogram pictures. This appears to be the only role that hala linda had. Forbes, who had started in silent films, died young at 46.