Another Classic Film Alert!

[Watchdog]

Tonight at 9:30 on TCM...Beau Geste, from 1939.

If you've never seen this one, you're in for a treat. It's a genuine adventure classic, based on the 1924 novel by Christopher Wren. It's the kind of adventure story a lot of us liked to read when we were boys.

Starring Gary Cooper, Robert Preston, and Ray Milland as three brothers who end up joining the French Foreign Legion after the mysterious theft of a family jewel.

Brian Donlevy plays the sadistic Sergeant Markoff in a performance that goes beyond his limitations as just another B-movie player. He was nominated for Best Supporting Actor for his portrayal of Markoff, but was beaten out by Thomas Mitchell in his role as the doctor in Stagecoach.

Broderick Crawford has a small role in the film, years before he achieved fame as Willie Stark in All the King's Men and Chief Dan Mathews in the television series Highway Patrol.

The plot has several interesting twists and turns, and I won't give them away here. Far as I'm concerned, for adventure stories, the film ranks right up there with Gunga Din from that same year.

What's that old expression? Oh, yeah..."They don't make 'em like this any more." So if you can stay awake, you don't want to miss this one.

[ame]https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=H4qZljsdKlA[/ame]

 

[dockmurgw]

There's a reason they are called classics. Glad you posted this, I'll be tuning in tonight. The French part reminds me of another favorite of mine that I have been waiting for on TCM, Paths of Glory with Kirk Douglas. So many great classics, so little time.

 

[Golddollar]

I'm taking your suggestion.

 

[Walter Rego]

"Laugh you human jackal !" A great film. Watch for what looks like Smith & Wesson M&P's instead of French Mle. 1892's in their holsters.

 

[ACORN]

Setting my DVR as I type

 

[Watchdog]

Just sort of a side note here. I mentioned earlier that Beau Geste (in my opinion) ranks right up there with Gunga Din from the same year...1939.

1939 is always referred to as Hollywood's Golden Year now. There were so many great classic films made that year, it almost defies belief. And 1939 really capped off Hollywood's Golden Age...the thirties. I'd personally extend that Golden Age back a few years into the silent era, but I'm not a professional critic.

But 1939...for filmmaking it was just one classic after another, though a lot of them weren't considered classics at the time. The Roaring Twenties was thought to be just another Cagney gangster film. Son of Frankenstein was the sequel to the sequel to 1931's Frankenstein...just another Universal horror flick trying to cash in on a dying genre. How could James Stewart have possibly lost the Best Actor Academy Award for Mr. Smith Goes to Washington? Just watch Goodbye Mr. Chips and you'll see why. Oh, and Gone With the Wind was looking like a financial boondoggle of the first order.

Anyway, just look at this list. Or this one. Films like these could never be made all in one year now (though some of them did begin production the previous year). And frankly, it's a damn good thing! Some films are missing from the list (my opinion again), but Beau Geste is on both of them.

 

[UncleEd]

IIRC Donald (Singing in the Rain costar) O'Connor
plays Cooper as a boy.

Heck, I was fascinated by the "play" ships that fired
real bullets.

I believe Gunga Din as well as Beau Geste and
Bogart's Sahare were all filmed in the desert
of southeastern California. No doubt a dozen
or more others were filmed there as well.

But one film from 1939 was made in a perfectly
magical place: Oz