Beau Geste ** (1966, Guy Stockwell, Doug McClure, Leslie Nielsen, Telly Savalas) – Classic Movie Review 5414

Beau Geste (1966): Guy Stockwell and Doug McClure star as American brothers Beau and John Geste who join the French Foreign Legion, suffer under nasty Sgt Major Dagineau (Telly Savalas), and fight rampaging Arabs in North Africa. 

Writer-director Douglas Heyes’s slack remake of Ronald Colman’s and Gary Cooper’s classic adventure movies Beau Geste (1926) and Beau Geste (1939) is a bit of a disappointment, though at least we finally have sound and colour.

Guy Stockwell and Doug McClure star as American brothers Beau and John Geste who join the French Foreign Legion, suffer under nasty commander Sergeant Major Dagineau (Telly Savalas), and fight rampaging Arabs in North Africa.

The acting is entirely competent, if uninspired, the film shot by Bud Thackery looks good in Technicolor, and there are two exciting battle sequences.

This time, weirdly, there are only two brothers, as the script dispenses with Digby Geste. It also dispenses with women, too, as it is an all male cast. Unusually, there are no female speaking parts.

Leslie Nielsen pops up as the ineffectual Lieutenant De Ruse. Also in the cast are Leon Gordon, Michael Constantine, David Mauro, Robert Wolders, Malachi Throne, Michael Carr, George Keynas, Joe De Santis, X Brands, Patrick White, Jeff Nelson, Ted Jacques, David Gross, Hal Hopper, Chuck Wood, Victor Lundin and Duane Grey.

It seems to be a cost-conscious TV movie-style cut-down of plans for a much grander version, first planned with Tony Curtis, Dean Martin and Charlton Heston then later with Richard Burton, Peter O’Toole and Albert Finney. Universal baulked at the cost of these movies and finally shot it on their own back lot with some shooting at Yuma, Arizona.

A 1982 mini-series followed and there is a there is a satirical remake as The Last Remake of Beau Geste (1977) with Michael York, Marty Feldman, Ann-Margret and Peter Ustinov.

Leslie Nielsen died on 28 November 2010, aged 84.

Victor Lundin, best known as Friday in Byron Haskin’s Robinson Crusoe on Mars (1964), died on 29 June 2013, aged 83.

© Derek Winnert 2017 Classic Movie Review 5414

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