(1926)
4
Michael Betzold
One of the most familiar movie clichés in the first half-century of cinema was young men running off to join the French Foreign Legion. This plot was already an evergreen when Beau Geste was first filmed in 1926. Three British brothers looking for adventure join the legion after getting mixed up in a jewel theft. They end up fighting Arab insurgents in the desert and suffering under a brutal sergeant (Noah Beery Sr.). Ronald Colman had the lead role in the film, directed by Herbert Brenon. Beau Geste is one of the best remembered films of the silent era and has been much imitated. There was a sequel in 1931, Beau Ideal, and a 1939 remake starring Gary Cooper was a huge box office hit. Yet another version was filmed in 1966, but it was much less successful.
cast-crew for Beau Geste on AllMovie
Beau Geste (1926)
