Product Details

• Format: NTSC
• Original language: Arabic, English

Amazon.com essential video
Gary Cooper plays the oldest of three brothers who join the French Foreign Legion to cover a mysterious theft, and are soon caught up in high adventures. The opening scene in a fort full of corpses sticks in the memory forever, and Brian Donlevy's role as a sadistic sergeant makes a striking impression as well. Director William Wellman (Wings), a veteran pilot of World War I, drew--as he often did--upon the authenticity of his own experiences in battle to give this film a measure of reality. --Tom Keogh

Customer Reviews

The best foreign legion film ever made
"Beau Geste" is a magnificent adventure story for any age group and the 1939 version, Mr. Maltin's opinion not withstanding, is probably the best version of this tale I have ever seen. The cast is top-notch and the action never wavers. This is a film that I grew up with and it is one that can withstand the years. Above all, it is so much better than the 1966 version--please see this incredible film!

Great!
This is one of the best adventure movies I've ever seen. The characters are interesting and the story is terrific, with some surprising twists. Recent-day movies are pathetic in comparison with this one.

Classic melodrama
Beau Geste, a melodramatic 1939 period piece depicts the comradery of three brothers during Victorian times. It falls short of a 5 star rating as it lacks the high degree of drama seen in similar type classics such as Gunga Din and Four Feathers.

The wholesome Gary Cooper along with Robert Preston and Ray Milland play three brothers, Beau, Digby and John Geste, adopted into the affluent baronial lifestyle of English Lord and Lady Brandon. When the lord threatens to sell the family's most precious possession, the Blue Water, a huge cerulean sapphire, to finance his gambling, one of the brothers absconds with it. In a chivalrous gesture the three brothers flee and enlist in the French Foreign Legion and get shipped to North Africa.

While in the foreign legion they are cruelly commanded by star of the movie Brian Donlevy, who plays the facially scarred, sadistic heavy Sergeant Markoff. The brothers strive to survive the elements, the Arabs and Markoff while they protect the secret of the prized sapphire.

The flick is hopelessly dated but still remains hugely entertaining to a classic movie buff. A youthful and ravishing Susan Hayward plays Milland's love interest, Isobel Rivers, a ward of Lady Brandon in one of her earliest starring roles.