I almost always love seeing classic old movies I've never seen before, like all the Hitchcock films I've watched for the first time in the last year. Even films that aren't exactly my type, like 'Now, Voyager,' have their interests which I find enjoyable. But I must say I think I've finally stumbled across a cinema classic that I found boring, confusing, and just plain goofy- 'Beau Geste.' What was I expecting? Well, an exciting drama having to do with the French Foreign Legion, I suppose. As I read the cast members, my interest increased. Gary Cooper, Ray Milland, and Robert Preston are the three brothers whose lives are chronicled. A very young Susan Hayward plays Milland's love interest (she has almost nothing to do except play piano and look pretty.) Broderick Crawford is not immediately recognizable to those only familiar with his much later 'Highway Patrol' series. And Charles Barton of all people plays one of the soldiers. (Who? you ask. Charles Barton, the principal director of the Abbott & Costello films.) 'Beau Geste' certainly starts off strikingly enough. A Foreign Legion detachment arrives to reinforce one of its forts in the Sahara Desert. There they find the entire company dead from an attack by Arabs, yet their corpses are propped up at their posts to give the impression of the base still being defended. It is a grisly and spooky scene and, as it turns out, actually the movie's ending, as the rest is a flashback leading up to it. We meet the Geste brothers, Beau, John, and Digby, as children, with their constant companion, Isobel. Then we see them as young adults, though frankly the brothers don't seem to have grown up much. As I said, 'goofy' is good way to describe them. There is some intrigue over a family jewel, a huge sapphire, that ultimately turns out to be a red herring of sorts. The brothers all join the Foreign Legion; Beau is ultimately killed, then Digby, leaving John to return home and (we assume) marry Isobel. Along the way they have to deal with a sadistic sergeant, Markoff (Brian Donlevy) and a weaselly fellow soldier (J. Carroll Naish), both of whom suspect Beau has the sapphire and conspire to steal it from him. At one point, Markoff appears ready to execute almost the entire company for mutiny when, luckily, the Arabs attack. I couldn't help wondering why nobody killed Markoff when they got their rifles back. There is much silly banter back and forth between the brothers, a lot of venomous spouting-off from Markoff, and the occasional exciting battle scene. But in the end, it really doesn't add up to much and the film peters out to a brief final scene that seems more of a shrug than a climax. 'Beau Geste' is definitely no 'grand gesture.'
Review of Beau Geste
