he stands up to the Sergeant-M ajor and is whipped for it. The story introduces brother Beau, played quite straightforwardly by Guy Stockwell as a new man in the Legion, one who is rapidly accepted as a natural leader by the hard-bitten others. Or in the case of Sergeant Major D'Agineau, he is a sadistic monster but a damned good soldier. Its theme is "do what you have promised, whatever it takes." Here any man who has some self-control or who is honest, gets respect even if he lacks several other qualities. This is a film not about characters in a noir situation as the earlier version was, but more about characters under stress. This makes it difficult to compare the fast-paced and well-acted color version about two brothers who join the Foreign Legion with its earlier and more-pretentious counterpart. The 1939 B/W version of "Beau Geste" retained from the meandering novel by Percial Christopher Wren all the childhood scenes that set up the later activities of the four children involved vis a vis a jewel theft, plus the departure of several, and their later adventures in the French Foreign Legion.
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