BEAU GESTE SEQUEL

Rotorua Morning Post, Volume 1, Issue 153, 20 February 1932, Page 7

BEAU GESTE SEQUEL

HERBERT BRENON'S GREAT LEGION PICTURE "BEAU IDEAL" MAJESTIC NEXT WEEK A little band of . French Legionnaires is massacred on the desert,, but the Arabs who sweep over them do not know that in an old grain silo, a jug-like cement structure huried in the sand, survives a group of Legion prisoners. They are men of all nations, ehained and imprisoned for their crimes. Among them is Otis Madison, an American (Lester Vail), and John Smith, an Englishma'n (Ralph Forbes). With no man living on the desert above them, they go for six days without food or water. There is no escape from their prison; chains weigh them down and the iron cover of the silo caps the light above them with its bars. Jacob, a Jew, gives Smith and Madison his last drop of water, and commits suicide. "Stout fellow!" comments John — and Otis shouts: "I've found yQu! You are not John Smith; you're John Geste!" The American tells his companion who escaped from, Fort Zinderneuf (in Beau Geste) how he has been hunting for him ever since he fell in love with Isobel Brandon (Loretta Young) and was sent by her to find and bring back the man she loved — John Geste, who had been sentenced to the Penal Battalion for avenging his brothers by the murder of a brutal sergeant.

He describes to John how he joined the Legion, deliberately courted sentence to the Penal Battalion and found it after a battle with Arabs. Now that he has met John, their fate, it seems, is only to die together. However, political movements are dictating other fates for them. The Emir of the district (George Rigas) with his lovely, conspiring consort, the Angel of Death (Leni Stengel), are plotting revolt against the French. The Emir and his caravan en route across the desert stop beside the scene of the massacre near the silo. A servant of the Emir's peering into the silo, sees the survivi ors — Otis and John — and hauls them out.

He holds them prisoners, but the Angel, enamonred of Otis, liberates ; them, and herself sets off in one dirj eetion to warn the French, while they 1 go in another. j But the Angel's price has been Otis' promise to marry her and take her to Paris! I } The American and the Englishman arrive in camp in time to assist in reI pelling the Arabs, they deliver the message to Major Lebaudy, in command, that their messenger (the Angel) is bringing the Spahis to their rescue. j The Spahis arrive in time, and the Arab revolt is crushed almost at its , inception. Otis himself kills his ' enemy, the Emir. j The Penal Battalion sentences of ' both men are snspended and they are given honourable discharges from the Legion. They are at liberty to go liome, John to Isobel — Otis to Paris — with the Angel. For Otis to keep his word to the „ Arab woman is like a death sentence. j He is determined to do so, however, even thongh his comrades advise against it. The first screening takes place on Monday at the Majestic.