PIC of the Week - Beau Geste

PIC of the Week – Beau Geste

Article series by Ray Schillaci

There have been four remakes of Beau Geste if you include the off-beat comedy version by Marty Feldman. The story from the 1924 novel by PC Wren chronicles the lives of three English brothers who join the French Foreign Legion after the theft of a treasured jewel from the house of a relative. All three leave confessions, but only one is the culprit. If that mystery was not enough, the 1939 film (the most popular), opens with the end of the movie, the discovery of a fort filled with dead men posed as if armed and ready. Kino Lorber rolls out the Blu of this cinematic classic that is one of the greatest grand adventures ever made next to Gunga Din, released the same year.

Now, for those that have little patience for B&W films minus the wide screen and surround sound, this is one you may take exception to like Casablanca or The Grapes of Wrath. There’s an inert charm throughout the entire movie thanks to the leading men. This William A. Wellman first class production stars Gary Cooper, Ray Milland and Robert Preston.

Very hefty star power in its day and later all three would become mega stars with Gary Cooper to star in High Noon and For Whom the Bell Tolls. Milland, who started off playing debonair roles, would win the Oscar as the embattled alcoholic in The Lost Weekend, and Preston much later would land his most famous role as the titular Professor Harold Hill in The Music Man. With Beau Geste, the chemistry between these men would rarely be matched except for that of Cary Grant, Victor McLaughlin and Douglas Fairbanks Jr. in Gunga Din. In fact, these two films would make a great double bill movie night if only someone would get a restoration going on the later and present it on Blu.

Beau Geste might have been the first film to have its ending tagged at the beginning of the film, keeping the audience on edge as to how the story unfolded. Later, this technique was used by everybody from Orson Welles with Citizen Kane to Christopher Nolan’s Memento. Director William A. Wellman was an effective storyteller as he proved on such films as A Star is Born, The Ox-Bow Incident and The High and the Mighty.

Wellman transitions beautifully from the mysterious fort filled with dead men to fifteen years earlier when the Geste brothers are growing up in a well-to-do household and what leads them to join the Foreign Legion. The brothers are subjected to training by a sadistic sergeant. The sergeant learns of the stolen gem and separates the brothers.

Cooper and Milland’s characters are sent to the famed isolated fort we’ve seen in the beginning, joined by the brutal sergeant. This will lead to a mutiny by many of the men except for the two brothers. But, the sergeant discovers the plans and orders the Geste brothers to execute the perpetrators against their better principles all the while an attack is being planned by an opposing Arab army.

Kino Lorber delivers a fine Blu that holds up far better than the other DVD versions that have been out there by Universal. That being said, even with a brand new 4K Master there are the occasional, and I’m taking in mere seconds here and there, nicks, scratches, and marks. But, for the most part, the print has excellent clarity, a sharp look, and grain quality works well giving a great filmic look.

Sound wise, this is a mono track. That is to say a DTS-HD Master Audio 2.0 that supplies a bit of a boost. At times, you may reach for the volume to turn it higher for dialogue. But, the track does add oomph to the music score. The real nice part is that all the pops, hisses, and crackles in previous versions have been eliminated.

KL have never been known for the supplements they provide with classic films. This release is no different, only providing trailers of other KL releases and a commentary track with Wellman’s son and film historian Frank Thompson, a self-professed Beau Geste fanatic who has written two books on director Wellman.

Still, for movie lovers this is a real find. Grab your popcorn, turn the lights low, crank up the sound system and enjoy one of the adventures of a lifetime. Now, if we can only get Criterion to give us a Blu of Gunga Din.

Lowest Price – $17.99 – Amazon, Target, Walmart

It should be noted that 1939 was one helluva year for movies. There has never been a year that matched it with the amount of memorable films. The list goes as follows:

– The Adventures of Huckleberry Finn
– The Adventures of Sherlock Holmes (starring Basil Rathbone)
– Babes in Arms (Mickey Rooney Nominated Best Actor)
– Beau Geste
– *Dark Victory (Bette Davis nominated Best Actress)
– Golden Boy
– *Gone With The Wind
– *Goodbye Mr. Chips
– Gulliver’s Travels
– Gunga Din
– The Hound of the Baskervilles (Basil Rathbone as Sherlock Holmes)
– The Hunchback of Notre Dame
– *Love Affair
– *Mr. Smith Goes to Washington
– *Ninotchka
– *Of Mice and Men
– Only Angels Have Wings
– The Son of Frankenstein
– *Stagecoach
– The Three Musketeers
– *The Wizard of Oz
– *Wuthering Heights