UNDER TWO FLAGS (1936)

Director Frank Lloyd segued directly from the ocean waters of MUTINY ON THE BOUNTY/’35 to the oceans of sand in this less acclaimed, but zippy French Foreign Legion nonsense. Ronald Colman (whose BEAU GESTE/’26 remains best of all Desert Fortress adventures*) once again hides an English gentry past under dashing uniform, now entangled not by brotherly love, but by an old-fashioned love rectangle. His new commander, Major Victor McLaglen, only has eyes for Claudette Colbert’s local café gal ‘Cigarette’*, but once she lays eyes on Colman, all bets are off. He likes the attention, but class will tell when he meets uppercrust Rosalind Russell back at the fort. If only he weren’t a wanted man back in England. Meanwhile, Arabs are massing for an attack, and Colman is sent to certain death by a jealous McLaglen only to survive! And just as the dust starts to settle, they’re surrounded by the enemy and nothing but spectacular heroism by Colman & Colbert can save the day . . . but at a sacrifice. Probably the biggest release on the first year schedule of the newly combined 20th/Fox, the film now survives only in a truncated re-release. But with Lloyd, who tended to land on the prestigious/stodgy side of things, a couple of lost reels maybe isn’t such a bad thing. While those big battle scenes and hordes of horsemen loom even larger, and look perfectly splendid. Along with some unusually inventive studio fakery, this is loads of fun, with star power galore from team Colbert/Colman.

DOUBLE-BILL: *Currently, no good editions of Colman’s silent BEAU GESTE available. (A real loss; Colman's personal favorite; with excellent elements for a proper restoration out there.) Bill Wellman’s 1939 BEAU GESTE remake is fine (if you haven’t seen the original), but his other 1939 film, THE LIGHT THAT FAILED, which also features Colman riding into battle, is better.

ATTENTION MUST BE PAID: Born in Paris, Colbert’s French came in handy when Simone Simon was fired from what was planned as a splashy Hollywood debut. And you can bet it cost producer Darryl F. Zanuck a pretty penny to borrow Paramount’s top star for the part as a last minute replacement.