Dad's Movies: "Beau Geste" (1939)

My latest:  Beau Geste (1939)

1939 was quite the year for Hollywood movies, wasn't it? Go do a search if you forget how many landmark films were released that year. I would also consider that year to be the end of an era. The coming of World War 2 would change the movie business (and everything else!)  in both style and substance.

Beau Geste is a well-known film and one of those famous ones that somehow slipped through the cracks. I see from the above link that it's a straight-up remake of a silent era version, based on a 1924 novel. The story is, at least with its character writing, somewhat unusual. Three orphaned brothers (and a non-related sister, with whom one of the brothers has a relationship as an adult!) have a close relationship growing up under the care of their adopted mother but a scandal compels the brothers to leave home as young adults. They all end up in the French Foreign Legion (which seemed like an action Boys Club where guys would go to be "manly", at least that is how it was portrayed in old movies) where two of them find themselves under the heel of a thuggish commander. I won't spoil the rest since the movie is definitely worth watching.

Parts of the film may come off as a bit old fashioned but it moves along at a good clip, pacing-wise and the leads are are likable. The most dated aspects of the film really are the way that the Legion soldiers are the assumed tools of the European colonial system, fighting those pesky Arabs.

All in all, I liked this one and will revisit it again.