Beau Geste (1939 film)

Beau Geste is a 1939 Paramount Pictures action/adventure motion picture starring Gary Cooper, Ray Milland, Robert Preston, Brian Donlevy, and Susan Hayward.

Directed and produced by William A. Wellman, the screenplay was adapted by Robert Carson, based on the 1924 novel of the same title by P. C. Wren. The music score was by Alfred Newman and cinematography was by Theodor Sparkuhl and Archie Stout.

The film is a virtual scene-for-scene remake of the 1926 silent version of the same title starring Ronald Colman. This is probably the best known adaptation.

Beau Geste is the first movie that features as many as four Academy Award winners for Best Actor/Best Actress in a Leading Role (Cooper, Milland, Hayward, and Broderick Crawford) prior to any of them receiving the award.

Plot

The film opens up with a company of French Foreign Legionaries approaching a fort. From a distance it is perceived to be occupied, but upon closer inspection the bodies representing are found to be dead, only mounted for deception. However, a lone shot is fired from inside and two people investigate. They separate and one goes missing. The second man finds two bodies that are not staged like the rest and a death note on one of the bodies admitting to the stealing of a valuable sapphire called the "Blue Water". After the second man leaves the fort to inform his superior, the fort is suddenly set on fire.

Beau Geste

Beau Geste is a 1924 adventure novel by P. C. Wren. It has been adapted for the screen several times.

Plot summary

Michael "Beau" Geste is the protagonist. The main narrator (among others), by contrast, is his younger brother John. The three Geste brothers are a metaphor for the British upper class values of a time gone by, and "the decent thing to do" is, in fact, the leitmotif of the novel. The Geste brothers are orphans and have been brought up by their aunt at Brandon Abbas. The rest of Beau's band are mainly Isobel and Claudia (only daughter of Lady Patricia, and in a way, also reason enough for Michael to join the French Foreign Legion), and Lady Patricia's relative Augustus (always considered "the heir" of Sir Hector Brandon).

When a precious jewel known as the "Blue Water" goes missing, suspicion falls on the young people, and Beau leaves Britain to join the French Foreign Legion, followed by his brothers, Digby (his twin) and John. There, after some adventure and separation from Digby, the sadistic Sergeant Major Lejaune gets command of the little garrison at Fort Zinderneuf in French North Africa, and only an attack by Tuaregs prevents a mutiny and mass desertion (only the Geste brothers and a few loyals are against the plot). Throughout the book and adventures, Beau's behaviour is true to France and the Legion, and he dies at his post. At Brandon Abbas, the last survivor of the three brothers, John, is welcomed by their aunt and his fiancée Isobel, and the reason for the jewel theft is revealed to have been a matter of honour, and to have been the only "decent thing" possible.

Beau Geste (disambiguation)

Beau Geste is a 1924 adventure novel by P. C. Wren.

Beau Geste may also refer to:

Beau Geste (1926 film)

Beau Geste (1926) is a silent film, based on the novel Beau Geste by P. C. Wren. This version starred Ronald Colman as the title character.

Synopsis

The plot concerns a valuable gem, which one of the Geste brothers, Beau, is thought to have stolen from his adoptive family.

Cast

References

See also

External links