Charles Vanel was the patriarch of the French cinema.Only American Lilian Gish can compete with him for longevity.His career began around 1910 and ended in the eighties.Abroad,he is known for his parts in Clouzot's classics "wages of fear" and "diaboliques" .
Like in Litvak's "l'équipage" Vanel portrays a man whose wife has found a younger love.But it's not as successful.The construction of the movie is bizarre:there are three parts which do not hang well together.
Part one is a trial(a court martial) where an officer is tried for self-inflicted injury.When he is asked to swear on his "legion d'honneur" (the highest French decoration,hence the title) he is telling the truth,he breaks down.He's thrown out of the Foreign legion.
Part two is a rather tedious flashback and its connection with the two other parts is very thin.The ex-officer has sent a manuscript to a notary who begins to read it and we can follow his adventures with a fellow man (Vanel) in the desert where they fight against the rebels.Nothing here to match "Beau Geste" or Duvivier's "la Bandeira".
Part three shows the two men back in France in Camargue .There lives Vanel's wife ...And guess what will happen next?The most amazing thing is that this female character (played by Marie Bell) only appears in this final part ,after sixty-five (!) minutes whereas she heads the bill.
A movie which will seem obsolete by today's standards .
