THE
LAST REMAKE OF BEAU GESTE DVD Region
2. Second Sight.
Marty
Feldman appeared to have outstripped his 1960's TV contemporaries
in the early 1970's when he graduated from forgettable British
films like Every Home Should Have One to appearing
in Mel Brooks' Young Frankenstein and Silent
Movie. But by the end of the decade, he was no longer
a critical darling, and had been surpassed by Monty Python in
the cinema. Certainly, his last few films have a fairly poor
reputation (In God We Trust, his last film
as director, was a disaster), and so I found myself approaching
his 1977 comedy The Last Remake of Beau Geste
- a film that I'd missed on initial release and which then fell
into relative obscurity -with some trepidation.
Certainly,
the omens are bad. Although it had been filmed a few times,
Beau Geste was hardly such a ubiquitous tale
in 1977 that it warranted spoofing, and Feldman was a comedian
with a tendency to self-indulgence. Yet to my surprise, this
turned out to be a wonderful little movie.
Feldman
- who co-wrote and directed as well as starring - plays Digby
Geste, twin brother of Beau (Michael York), a dashing type who
has been raised by his adoptive father (Trevor Howard, warming
up for Sir Henry at Rawlinson End) to be a
heroic soldier. When their father returns from a war with a
new wife (Ann-Margaret), Beau steals the priceless family heirloom
the Blue Water Sapphire and escapes to join the French Foreign
Legion. Imprisoned for the crime, Digby finally escapes and
joins his brother, followed by their voracious mother-in-law,
who seduces everyone and anyone in order to get her hands on
the jewel.
The
film has a wonderful cast of recognisable British faces - Terry-Thomas,
Roy Kinnear, Spike Milligan, Irene Handl, Henry Gobson, Hugh
Griffith - as well as Peter Ustinov and James Earl Jones (sporting
a ridiculous British accent), and Feldman keeps the gags flowing,
often breaking the fourth wall. Scenes where he interacts with
clips from earlier black and white versions of the story are
impressively done and amusing, and the main cast handle the
comedy well - Ann-Margaret, in the sort of role normally filled
by Madeline Kahn in 1970's comedies, is suitably lusty, and
has the most eye-popping cleavage I've ever seen! Bizarrely,
York and Feldman do look as though they could be brothers
- though possibly not twins...
This
previously hard to see film is certainly of its time - but that's
no bad thing, given how many great comedy films emerged in the
Seventies. Certainly, if you enjoy Brook's work of the period
- or other Feldman efforts like The Adventures of Sherlock
Holmes' Smarter Bother - then this is always enjoyable
and often hilarious film is well worth snapping up.
Marty
Feldman appeared to have outstripped his 1960's TV contemporaries
in the early 1970's when he graduated from forgettable British
films like Every Home Should Have One to appearing
in Mel Brooks' Young Frankenstein and Silent
Movie. But by the end of the decade, he was no longer
a critical darling, and had been surpassed by Monty Python in
the cinema. Certainly, his last few films have a fairly poor
reputation (In God We Trust, his last film
as director, was a disaster), and so I found myself approaching
his 1977 comedy The Last Remake of Beau Geste
- a film that I'd missed on initial release and which then fell
into relative obscurity -with some trepidation. 
The
film has a wonderful cast of recognisable British faces - Terry-Thomas,
Roy Kinnear, Spike Milligan, Irene Handl, Henry Gobson, Hugh
Griffith - as well as Peter Ustinov and James Earl Jones (sporting
a ridiculous British accent), and Feldman keeps the gags flowing,
often breaking the fourth wall. Scenes where he interacts with
clips from earlier black and white versions of the story are
impressively done and amusing, and the main cast handle the
comedy well - Ann-Margaret, in the sort of role normally filled
by Madeline Kahn in 1970's comedies, is suitably lusty, and
has the most eye-popping cleavage I've ever seen! Bizarrely,
York and Feldman do look as though they could be brothers
- though possibly not twins...