Producer-director William A. Wellman’s film from a Robert
Carson screenplay adaptation of the P. C. Wren novel that was written in 1924
was released in 1939. According to
Wikipedia, this version is essentially a remake of the silent version done in
1926 starring Ronald Colman. Since I haven’t seen the silent one, I have no
comments about that version. There
have also been other talkie adaptations but most everyone agrees that Wellman’s
film is the standard.
The story line is basically who of the orphan Geste Brothers
will outdo whom in the goody-goody department by taking credit for a thievery which
they may or may not have committed in order to save various other people’s
honor. The story is played out in what is a fairly accurate representation of
the pre-World War I French Foreign Legion as the brothers are forced to confront
what they ran away from. (Yes, I will dangle a preposition if I want to.)
It’s an engaging morality tale (if you like black and white
movies and Gary Cooper, that is). (I
mean who couldn’t love Sergeant York,
1941!) I like to compare Beau Geste to The Four Feathers (also released in 1939) which is similar but not
as fun. I am not giving this film an A+ or A- because I haven’t seen it in
awhile and I want to make sure it has stood the test of time for me. (I
basically am reserving the right to add a plus or minus or not depending on how I feel later.)
Some other notable Wellman films which I highly recommend
are Wings (a silent film starring
Clara Bow, released in 1927 and the first film to win the Academy Award for
Best Picture), The Public Enemy
(released in 1931, starring James Cagney and Jean Harlow), The Ox-Bow Incident (starring Henry Fonda, released in 1943) and
Battleground (released in 1949 starring Van Johnson). Beau
Geste stars Gary Cooper, Ray Milland, Robert Preston, Brian Donlevy
(Academy Award Nominated Performance as Best Supporting Actor), Susan Hayward,
J. Carrol Naish, Albert Dekker, and Broderick Crawford and has music by Alfred
Newman.
Additional information can be found on Wikipedia but don’t
read their plot if you don’t want the story twists and ending spoilt for you:
Trivia: Donald
O’Connor as Beau as a child; one of four stamps issued in 1990 commemorating
four films from 1939 including Stagecoach,
The Wizard of Oz and Gone with the Wind.
A Famous Quote: “Wait
a minute. I don’t know much about
mutinies, but I do know it isn’t good form to plan them at the top of your
voice.” [Gary Cooper as Michael ‘Beau’ Geste]
Genre: Action
Adventure
Release Date: August
2, 1939
Running Time: 112
Minutes
If you are paying attention so far you may see a similarity
between this film and the number one film on my list (alphabetically, so far, Apocalypse Now) which is that they are both
adaptations. Of my top ten, six were
adapted from novels, one was ‘suggested’ by a novel and one was based on a play,
meaning only two were original screenplays (both of those were nominated for the
Best Original Screenplay Academy Award and one of them won that Oscar. Don’t feel bad for the one
that didn’t because that writer won in a different year and was nominated multiple
times.)
Anyhow, you can see how important writing is for me in
judging a film. My Dad is a writer and he introduced me to movies early on and
we bought lots of them when they first came out on VHS. I know I’m dating
myself but what do you expect from someone whose top ten list hasn’t changed
since the 1990’s? My top twenty is populated by a
lot more recent films but those reviews will come after the first ten as well as some awesome recent releases.
The next installment
in my top ten by alphabet will be The Big
Country.
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