Product Details

• Actors: Gary Cooper, Ray Milland, Robert Preston
• Directors: William A. Wellman
• Format: Color, Dolby, DVD, Full Screen, NTSC, Original recording remastered, Silent, Subtitled
• Language: English
• Subtitles: English, French, Spanish
• Region: Region 1 (U.S. and Canada only. Read more about DVD formats.)
  
• Aspect Ratio: 1.33:1
• Number of discs: 1
• Rating: NR (Not Rated)
• Studio: Universal Studios
• DVD Release Date: July 7, 2009
• Run Time: 112 minutes
• Average Customer Review: 5.0 out of 5 stars  See all reviews (7 customer reviews)
• ASIN: B0024FADBU
• Amazon.com Sales Rank: #4,695 in Movies & TV (See Bestsellers in Movies & TV)

  Popular in these categories: (What's this?)

  #7 in	Movies & TV > Classics > Classic Stars > Cooper, Gary
  #38 in	Movies & TV > Action & Adventure > Classics
  #72 in	Movies & TV > Drama > Military & War

Editorial Reviews

Product Description

Academy Award winners Gary Cooper and Ray Milland star along with Robert Preston in the epic adventure Beau Geste. When three brothers join the Foreign Legion to escape a troubled past, they find themselves trapped under the command of a sadistic sergeant deep in the scorching Sahara. Now the brothers must fight for their lives as they plot mutiny against tyranny and defend a desert fortress against a brutal enemy. Nominated for 2 Academy Awards, Beau Geste has been universally acclaimed by generations of critics and audiences alike as a true motion picture classic.

Customer Reviews

Most Helpful Customer Reviews

15 of 17 people found the following review helpful:

5.0 out of 5 stars French Foreign Legion vs. Arabs...!!!....(1939 Version in B&W), April 17, 2009

By	Seen Them All "Ace Movie Critic !!" (SoCal Desert) - See all my reviews

Absolutely the definitive film version of the book by the same name. When their parents die the 3 Geste boys (Beau, Digby, & John) are adopted by a wealthy family. When a valuable diamond disappears the boys join the Foreign Legion and fight the Arabs in North Africa. Part mystery, part action adventure/war movie this movie is well worth viewing. Very good performances by Gary Cooper (Beau), Robert Preston (Digby), Ray Milland (John), and Brian Donlevy (Markoff the Sgt.). Good supporting cast....LOTS of action and suspense.....5 STAR CLASSIC...!!

16 of 20 people found the following review helpful:

5.0 out of 5 stars Best Geste (forget the reste!), May 3, 2009

By	Annie Van Auken (Planet Earth) - See all my reviews (TOP 50 REVIEWER)    (REAL NAME)

Since 1926, there have been three Beau Geste films, plus one TV miniseries and a Marty Feldman spoof called THE LAST REMAKE OF BEAU GESTE (1977). It's not as amusing as the latter, yet the 1939 PARAMOUNT edition of "Beau" is far and away the finest of the lot.

William Wellman's picture (loosely based on the 1924 P.C. Wren novel) is in part a who-dun-it but primarily an adventure yarn. The story begins with all the men stationed at a desert fort lying dead from combat. A letter confessing to a crime is found on the body of one of them.

Flashback to Michael ("Beau") and his brothers as children (Beau is portrayed by 12-year-old Donald O'Connor). The three orphaned Gestes and Isabel Rivers were adopted when very young by the boys' aunt, Lady Patricia Brandon. They all live at Brandon Abbas with Aunt Pat and her son Augustus.

In raising the four adoptees, Aunt Pat exhausts her estate's finances. To pay debts she determines to sell a family heirloom, the Blue Water sapphire but first Pat shows it to all for the last time. The lights suddenly go out and when they're restored, it's discovered that Lady Brandon's precious gem has vanished. Suspicion falls on the three Gestes, so the young men join the French Foreign Legion to escape accusations or embarrassment.

The Saharan portion of this film is the lion's share. We meet several members of the Gestes' outpost. Later attacks by Arabs make it clear that their fort is doomed-- the only question is when all will die. The Legionnaires' valiant struggle against daunting odds is one you won't soon forget. A great cast, story and cinematography make this Beau Geste a genuine classic, and one of the best films of that superlative year of 1939.


Related item:
"Beau Geste" is also available on UNIVERSAL/MCA's bargain-priced GARY COOPER COLLECTION, along with four others: "Design for Living" (1933), "The Lives of a Bengal Lancer" (1935), "Peter Ibbetson" (1935) and "The General Died at Dawn" (1936).


Parenthetical number preceding title is a 1 to 10 viewer poll rating found at a film resource website.

(7.9) Beau Geste (1939) - Gary Cooper/Ray Milland/Robert Preston/Brian Donlevy/Susan Hayward/J. Carrol Naish/Albert Dekker/Broderick Crawford/Charles Barton/Donald O'Connor

2 of 2 people found the following review helpful:

5.0 out of 5 stars At last in a single case... one of the best action&adventure classics, October 18, 2009

By	Alejo "ADB" (Andorra) - See all my reviews

Previously available in a Gary Cooper Collection (quite irregular contents).
This is a classic of adventure... maybe even Boy's Own kind... but great as it is.
Nearly a remake shot by shot of the 1926 silent movie of the same title starring Ronald Colman (and with an excellent Lejaune played by Noah Beery... probably the best performance to date, also William Powell as Boldini and Victor McLaglen as one of the American... pals).
Not a single special digital effect in it thanks God!... and no need at all by the way.
It is a good adaptation of the novel (if not 100% accurate)... Claudia is a very interesting character unjustly forgotten.
Maybe Coop looks and sounds too American and a bit old (after all the three Geste brothers are supposed to be on their early twenties!)... but of course he was a great actor and well who cares anyway... Ray Milland and Robert Preston are great too.
The Blue Water history is well told but if you are really hooked... do read the books.
They are hard to come by nowadays... the right stuff movies were done on the golden age.

ADB

PS: As it goes the book is a real classic and here is a short review of it:

Probably the first (or one of the first ever full novels I read in my early years)... once I had broken my teeth with "JUST William" and the like... Having an Anglophile mother helped a lot.
First of all let me tell you it is very difficult to ignore the movies Hollywood has inflicted on us!... the BEST ever translation is of course a BBC series where the brothers look the age!... and Claudia finally appears as a young woman!... I have strong doubts about Gary Cooper (fine actor as he was) was well casted as BEAU... he was already too old for the part... (not forgetting his earlier cast in "MOROCCO" or even in the silent "BEAU SABREUR" which was probably much more to the point).
But let's go down to the book. It is the first book of a Trilogy of FIVE books. Do not laugh that's the truth and it took me years to get them all specially GOOD GESTES and SPANISH MAINE (DESERT HERITAGE IN THE USA). To my humble knowledge as a lover of action&adventure books only DUMAS father with his D'Artagnan saga is comparable to it.
And the result is how Percival Christopher Wren wrote the masterpiece about life in the French Foreign Legion (profiting from his experience in the ranks if it ever happened...) throwing in three brothers from upper class values about gentlemanliness and common decency (not very common standards I am afraid nowadays...)... the result is magnificent, add a plot with mystery and consistency and there you have it... the essence of A CLASSIC.
sequels:
BEAU SABREUR (collateral to it and not directly related BUT SUPERB!).
BEAU IDEAL (magnificent reverse tale of the previous one as seen from another character) Otis Vanbrugh is of course one of my favorite (UNDERRATED BY THE PUBLIC) heroes!... and 100% American by the way.
GOOD GESTES (ideally to be read about the middle of BEAU GESTE...)
SPANISH MAINE for those who wanted to know what happened to "THE ANGEL OF DEATH"...

HIGHLY RECOMMENDED READING (same as the silent movie with Ronald Colman, the last time I looked it was in YouTube in 10 parts...)


ADAPTATIONS:
* Beau Geste (1926), starring Ronald Colman, William Powell, Noah Beery
* Beau Geste (1939), with Gary Cooper, Ray Milland, Robert Preston
* Beau Geste (1966), with Guy Stockwell, Doug McClure, Telly Savalas
* Beau Geste (1982 BBC mini-series)