The Last Remake of Beau Geste

Second Sight

R2 DVD

Marty Feldman was one of the early British comedians to break the mould of “traditional” humour and move British comedy into a more ridiculous level. Although Feldman did a lot of early writing with and for the group that eventually became Monty Python, he and Tim Brooke-Taylor opted to go their own way. He had some success with a TV show of his own and wrote sketches for many of the other comedians of the time. It was only a matter of time before he moved to films.

His first attempt was The Bed-Sitting Room (1969) which was mildly funny but not particularly impressive. I have always like his obscure second film, Every Home Should Have One (1970) in which he plays an advertising executive whose job is to make Mackenzie’s Frozen Porridge look sexy. At the time this film did rather well and he went on to other classics like Young Frankenstein (1974) and The Adventures of Sherlock Holmes’ Smarter Brother (1975). His early comedy work and his later films were, while funny, also aimed at lampooning the British upper classes. You may remember the Class Sketch in which John Cleese, Ronnie Barker and Ronnie Corbett stand in descending order of height to represent their various class origins. So the stage was set for that ultimate spoof on class, honour and stiff upper lip, The Last Remake of Beau Geste.

The film’s plot need only be recounted briefly since the film has been remade and shown so often. Beau and Digby Geste are sons of the wealthy, randy and totally insane Lord Hector Geste, played brilliantly by Trevor Howard. Beau knows he has been brought up to be a hero (dead, if necessary) and Digby also dreams of heroic deeds. Sir Hector is dying, possibly helped by his new wife (Ann-Margret). One evening the fabulous sapphire that is the base of the family’s fortune is stolen. The next day Beau is gone but leaves a letter admitting to the theft. To avoid any embarrassment to the family by having the police called in, he has run away to join the French Foreign Legion. Digby (Feldman) takes off after him to persuade him to return and face the music as an honourable man would.

Their money-hungry stepmother also sets out independently to retrieve the sapphire. She enlists the help of Beau’s one-legged commanding officer (Peter Ustinov) and the sadistic sergeant (Roy Kinnear). There are a lot of visual jokes about blind cooks, used camel salesmen, Frenchmen and Germans and false legs. There are lovely little minor parts, such as Spike Milligan as Crumble the Butler who takes Lord Hector’s three-legged bulldog for a walk at night on a little wagon.

The best part of the film is that the actors looked happy hamming up their roles for all they were worth. Actors like Ustinov and Howard were not known as comedy actors but in this film they gave it all they could and seemed to be having a great time.

Frenchmen in general are not treated with any respect at all. Even the theme song that comes on before the main menu parodies Frenchmen with a final chorus of “we’ll kill all the wives and rape all the men”.

Feldman went on to make three more films before his death. The third, Yellowbeard (1983) was possibly his best but Beau Geste runs a very close second. It is a pleasure to see Second Sight releasing his films so we can appreciate the work of one of Britain’s finest but almost forgotten comedians.

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