Brothers Beau, John and Digby Geste join the Foreign Legion, where they fall under the rule of tyrannical Sergeant Markoff. Beau and John are assigned to Fort Zinderneuf, where Markoff tries to break their spirit, aware of a dark family secret concerning a fabulous jewel one of them carries. As tensions rise, Arabs attack the fort and rivalries must be thrown aside in a desperate battle for life.
Acting
Brian Donlevy's Markoff: villainy so thick you could cut it with a bayonet.
Production
Those desert fort sets? Built from scratch in the California sun.
Direction
Wellman's siege sequences still clench your gut 85 years later.
Director
William A. Wellman
Gary Cooper
Beau Geste
Ray Milland
John Geste
Robert Preston
Digby Geste
Brian Donlevy
Sergeant Markoff
Susan Hayward
Isobel Rivers
J. Carrol Naish
Rasinoff
Albert Dekker
Schwartz
Broderick Crawford
Hank Miller
Charles Barton
Buddy McMonigal
James Stephenson
Major Henri de Beaujolais
Heather Thatcher
Lady Patricia Brandon
James Burke
Lieutenant Dufour
G.P. Huntley
Augustus Brandon
Harold Huber
Voisin
Donald O'Connor
Beau Geste (as a Child)
Trivia, insights & behind the scenes
Cooper insisted on doing his own riding stunts, which nearly killed him when a horse bolted into a cactus patch.
This was the third adaptation of P.C. Wren's novel in twelve years—Hollywood was absolutely obsessed with Legionnaire suffering during the Depression era.
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