Plot
Bob Carter is a professional soldier of fortune whose expertise is in the use of the machine gun. He has plied his trade for Sun Yat-Sen in the Xinhai Revolution, the Mexican Revolution and with the Spanish in the Rif War for de Rivera. Now he is content to be a Legionnaire in the 20th Marching Company of the 3rd Foreign Infantry Regiment with his comrades in arms the American Muggsy and the Englishman Bilgey.
Bob's world changes in a variety of ways. First half his company is lost in attacks by Shiek Ibrahim-Ul-Ahmed's insurgents who capture the company's cargo of crated machine guns and ammunition. Fortunately for the Legion, the weapons are disassembled and none of the Shiek's band has the knowledge to get them into working order.
Granted leave in the town of Zabala, Bob is romantically pursued by Nina De Bernay, a French nightclub singer. Nina entertains the Legion but is romantically pursued herself by Bob's Sergeant Garcia; however Bob believes Nina to be his Sergeant's woman and does not pursue her.
Arriving with a draft of replacements for the 20th Company is Bob's own younger brother Don who admires Bob's carefree action packed international lifestyle. Initially upset that Don has thrown away his university education and business potential away, Bob soon resigns himself to his brother's company. Problems arise when Nina, who can not have Bob and doesn't like Sgt Garcia makes a play for Don. Immature and oblivious to local custom and military discipline, Don strikes Sergeant Garcia who gleefully has him arrested and vows to send him to the dreaded Penal Battalion.
Bob breaks the chain of command to appeal directly to his Regimental Commander to avoid ruining Don's life and the Colonel allows Don's release. Unknown to all, Nina uses her friendship with Shiek Ibrahim-Ul-Ahmed to have two of his men free Don and smuggle him to a port where he may leave French North Africa and desert the Legion.
Bob and his two friends Muggsy and Bilgey desert themselves to bring Don back. They track and ambush the party killing one of the Arabs, however the survivor brings reinforcements who capture the Legionnaires. The Shiek initially treats his captives kindly; in order to obtain information. He then uses the opportunity to have Don teach his men how to assemble and use the Hotchkiss M1914 machine guns that they captured from the Legion. This is beyond Don's knowledge but the Shiek knows of Bob's expertise and tortures Don until Bob performs these duties. Bob agrees when Don is released. Bob has his party assemble the weapons but modify all but two of the machine guns by filing the extractors down so they will break after a few rounds are fired and jam the weapons.
Meanwhile Nina arrives and sees that the Shiek has not got Don out of the country and instead plans to wipe out the French. Though trusted by the Shiek, Nina proves herself loyal to France by escaping and warning the Legion of the Shiek's proposed attack on a strategic French fort. The Shiek plans his assault with fire support from the two machine guns manned by the legionnaires who are offered their freedom to switch sides. To ensure their loyalty they are covered by the two other machine guns that Bob has sabotaged.
As the fort is attacked, the four disgraced Legionnaires turn their machine guns on the Shiek and his horde of insurgents.
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For centuries, Spain recruited foreign soldiers to its army, forming the foreign regiments such as the Regiment of Hibernia. However, the specific unit of the Spanish Army and Spain's Rapid Reaction Force, now known as the Spanish Legion, and informally known as the Tercio or the Tercios, is a 20th-century creation. It was raised in the 1920s to serve as part of Spain's Army of Africa. The unit, which was established in January 1920 as the Spanish equivalent of the French Foreign Legion, was initially known as the Tercio de Extranjeros, the name under which it began fighting in the Rif War of 1921–1926.
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Beau Geste is a 1966 adventure film based on the 1924 novel by P. C. Wren filmed by Universal Pictures in Technicolor and Techniscope near Yuma, Arizona and directed by Douglas Heyes. This is the least faithful of the various film adaptations of the original novel. In this version, there are only two brothers, rather than three, and there are no sequences showing Beau's life prior to his joining the Legion.
Renegades is a 1930 American pre-Code film directed by Victor Fleming for Fox Film. It stars Warner Baxter, Myrna Loy, and Noah Beery. Jules Furthman based his script on André Armandy's novel Le Renégat. Fleming shot in the Mojave Desert where the extreme heat proved a severe impediment to the production. Bela Lugosi has a relatively small role as the Marabout, a Rif sheik whom Loy's character manipulates, but his character is important to the story. An uncredited Victor Jory in his film debut plays a Legion officer. Critics mostly acclaimed the film as "a great action picture" and "a box office hit" that had to be held over.
The 1st Foreign Regiment is a depot regiment of the Foreign Legion in the French Army. It is located at Aubagne.
The 13th Demi-Brigade of Foreign Legion, was created in 1940 and was the main unit of the 1st Free French Division, Free French Forces (FFL). From the coast of Norway to Bir Hakeim, to Africa then the Alsace, while passing by Syria and Italy, the 13th Demi-Brigade would be part of most of the major campaigns of the French Army during the Second World War.
March or Die is a 1977 British war drama film directed by Dick Richards and starring Gene Hackman, Terence Hill, Catherine Deneuve, Max von Sydow and Sir Ian Holm.
Legionnaire is a 1998 American drama war film directed by Peter MacDonald and starring Jean-Claude Van Damme as a 1920s boxer who wins a fight after having been hired by gangsters to lose it, then flees to join the French Foreign Legion. The cast includes Adewale Akinnuoye-Agbaje, Daniel Caltagirone, Nicholas Farrell and Steven Berkoff. The film was filmed in Tangier and Ouarzazate, Morocco.
Abbott and Costello in the Foreign Legion is a black and white 1950 American comedy film directed by Charles Lamont and starring the comedy team of Abbott and Costello.
Roy D'Arcy was an American film actor of the silent film and early sound period of the 1930s noted for his portrayal of flamboyant villains. He appeared in 50 different films between 1925 and 1939, such as The Temptress in 1926 with actresses such as Greta Garbo.
La Bandera is a 1935 French drama film directed by Julien Duvivier and starring Annabella, Jean Gabin and Robert Le Vigan. It was based on the 1931 novel La Bandera by Pierre Mac Orlan. After committing a brutal murder in Paris, a Frenchman flees to Barcelona where he enlists in the Spanish Foreign Legion. He is sent to fight in Morocco where he unexpectedly bonds with his comrades and marries a local woman before his past begins to catch up with him. Like Duvivier's other works of the period, the film is infused with poetic realism.
Andrew Miller was a United States Army soldier and a recipient of the United States military's highest decoration, the Medal of Honor, for his actions in World War II.
A Yank in Libya is a 1942 American war thriller film directed by Albert Herman and starring H. B. Warner, Walter Woolf King, Parkyarkarkus and Joan Woodbury.
Les Morfalous is a 1984 French adventure film, starring Jean-Paul Belmondo and directed by Henri Verneuil, featuring the French Foreign Legion during the Second World War.
Beau Ideal is a 1931 American pre-Code adventure film directed by Herbert Brenon and released by RKO Radio Pictures. The film was based on the 1927 adventure novel Beau Ideal by P. C. Wren, the third novel in a series of five novels based around the same characters. Brenon had directed the first in the series, Beau Geste, which was a very successful silent film in 1926. The screenplay was adapted from Wren's novel by Paul Schofield, who had also written the screenplay for the 1926 Beau Geste, with contributions from Elizabeth Meehan and Marie Halvey.
Candelario Garcia, Jr. was a United States Army veteran of the Vietnam War, and a recipient of the Medal of Honor.
