Beau Geste

Three brothers, Beau, John and Digby Geste, grow up together in the household of Lady Brandon, where the family sapphire known as Blue Water goes missing. Each brother believes another is responsible, and all three leave England for the French Foreign Legion rather than let the matter be settled at home. In North Africa they fall under Sergeant Markoff, whose harsh discipline and interest in the missing jewel turn the Legion into another kind of trap. When Arab fighters attack the desert fort where the brothers are posted, the men must set aside their private suspicions and fight to survive.

William A. Wellman directed and produced this 1939 Paramount production from a screenplay by Robert Carson, based on P. C. Wren's novel. It was the eighth of the sixteen features Wellman directed in chronological order, arriving between Nothing Sacred in 1937 and The Ox-Bow Incident in 1943. Gary Cooper, Ray Milland and Robert Preston play the brothers, with Brian Donlevy as Markoff, Susan Hayward as Isobel Rivers and J. Carrol Naish among a credited cast of forty-eight.

On IMDb the film holds 7.5 from about 7,100 votes, and on TMDB 7 from roughly 113 votes. A critics' rating of 8.4 from twelve reviews places professional assessment higher than the broader audience scores.