BEAU GESTE Movie Review
1939 William A. Wellman
Novelist Percival Christopher Wren (1885–1941) is one of the founders of the war-as-grand-adventure school of fiction. Though director William Wellman has worked with more serious war themes in his career, he does a fine job of bringing Wren's juvenile heroics to the screen. In this case, he has a top-notch ensemble cast to work with. Together, they create one of Hollywood's most enduring and memorable genres. The mention of the three words “French Foreign Legion” is enough to conjure up the necessary images of sand, khaki uniforms, kepi caps, rifles, oasis, more sand, lonely fort, a lot more sand.
Though the entire premise of the film—not to mention the plot, acting style, and point of view—are so completely dated that younger viewers will laugh themselves silly. They'll also find that the film is enjoyable for precisely the same reasons. The first half is slow because it's setting up a complex narrative structure built on three layers of flashbacks. In the film's “present,” the Legionnaires at Fort Zinderneuf have already been attacked and seem to have been massacred. But how? Under what circumstances? At least one of the dead men may have killed one of his comrades. The newly arrived reinforcements have no idea how it happened. And what about the mysterious disappearance among their own ranks?
Then the first flashback takes us to the three Geste brothers as children in an idyllic English manor house, where they play involved make-believe games under the leadership of the eldest, Beau. After tossing in assorted complications involving their guardian, Lady Brandon (Heather Thatcher), household finances, and a fabulous but cursed sapphire called “Blue Water,” we flash forward a few years. Beau (Gary Cooper), John (Ray Milland), and Digby (Robert Preston) join the Foreign Legion. The reasons why are too baroque, unrealistic, and embarrassing to explain. They just do, all right?
They find all the adventure and high-flown rhetoric they could want. As Maj. Beaujolais (James Stephenson) tells the new recruits, “We're here on the desert as guardians of 20 millions of natives. They look to us for the protection and justice that is the tradition of the Foreign Legion. Yours is a high duty and a hard one. The odds are great. It is our allegiance to France and our debt to civilization to uphold that tradition.” The doughty brothers also meet the sadistic Sgt. Markoff (Brian Donlevy).
To reveal anything more would spoil the fun, because the plot is nothing if not surprising. It charges right along from one preposterous turn to another that's even more ridiculous, and soon the craziness of it all becomes quite reasonable. Much of the film's success is due to two people who seldom receive the credit they deserve in the collaborative effort of filmmaking: art directors Hans Dreier and Robert Odell, who created the grand sets for Fort Zinderneuf. They gave the film that indelible look that's been copied so many times since.
Of course, an ensemble cast filled with familiar faces and voices deserves credit for handling the material with absolute conviction. Donald O'Connor is the young Beau; a lovely Susan Hayward appears briefly as Isobel, the love interest. J. Carrol Naish, Broderick Crawford, and Albert Dekker show up as fellow Legionnaires. All of them are excellent, particularly Gary Cooper. But the film belongs to Donlevy, who received a Supporting Actor nomination. He provides most of the gleefully villainous energy that drives the story. About 30 years later, Lee Van Cleef would take a similar approach to a similar role in The Good, the Bad and the Ugly.
The result of their efforts is an unashamed appeal to the 12-year-old adventurer in all of us.
Cast: Gary Cooper (Michael “Beau” Geste), Ray Milland (John Geste), Robert Preston (Digby Geste), Brian Donlevy (Sgt. Markoff), Donald O'Connor (Beau at age 12), J. Carrol Naish (Rasinoff), Susan Hayward (Isobel Rivers), James Stephenson (Maj. Henri de Beaujo-lais), Albert Dekker (Schwartz), Broderick Crawford (Hank Miller), Charles T. Barton (Buddy McMonigal), Heather Thatcher (Lady Patricia Brandon), James Burke (Lt. Dufour), G.P. Huntley Jr. (Augustus Brandon), Harold Huber (Voisin), Harvey Stephens (Lt. Martin), Stanley Andrews (Maris), Harry Woods (Renoir), Arthur Aylesworth (Renault), Henry Kleinbach Brandon (Renouf), Nestor Paiva (Cpl. Golas), George Chandler (Cordier), George Regas (Arab Scout); Written by: Robert Carson; Cinematography by: Theodor Sparkuhl, Louis Clyde Stouman, Archie Stout; Music by: Alfred Newman. Producer: William A. Wellman, Paramount Pictures. Awards: Nominations: Academy Awards '39: Best Interior Decoration, Best Supporting Actor (Donlevy). Running Time: 114 minutes. Format: VHS, Beta.