Ten Tall Men (1951)

Absolutely Fantastic

Entertaining from beginning to end, it maintains the spirit of the franchise while establishing it's own seal with a fun cast

It's entirely possible that sending the audience out feeling lousy was intentional

It's a good bad... and worth a popcorn matinée. While it's easy to lament what could have been...

When French Foreign Legionnaire Kincaid (Burt Lancaster) is told of an impending attack on the outpost of in North Africa while he is imprisoned. In return for his freedom he and his men will distract the enemy until help arrived.However he learns that the treacherous leader of the Riffs plans to marry Mahla, a girl from a rival tribe in order to create an alliance against the French. Kincaid kidnaps her and takes for the desert where both fall for each other.Burt Lancaster was the tough, compassionate and dashing soldier several years before From Here to Eternity.The plot nicely shot in Technicolour does have a hint of being shot in a Hollywood back lot rather than a desert. It also has a whole heap of campness especially with a bare chested Lancaster about to be tortured.Its purely a film of its time with a light plot, broad humour, a clunky romance where the white soldier kidnaps the Arab princess and inexplicably fall in love. Still you feel that all involved had their tongues in their cheeks and went all out to entertain.

This is a typical Hollywood action-adventure movie of the 1950's. It is a vehicle for Burt Lancaster to show case his sly romantic, tongue in cheek comedic, and of course his bravura talents. This film also has a bunch of well known Hollywood character actors, most as reprobate Legionnaires who are sent on a mission to delay the Riff from attacking the town of Tarfa. There is the promotion hungry lieutenant who has been left in command while most of the regiment is away. He and Burt ( a sergeant well liked by the major but NOT the LT.) are at odds over a saloon singer. This gets Lancaster in trouble as he belts the officer and gets thrown in the gaol. His only way out is to go on the probable suicide mission This where Hollywood rears it special effects head. Burt's revolver is capable of more than six shots with out a reload!! They steal the chieftain's daughter to prevent a uniting marriage between two tribe of Riff. During the course of their flight the girl of course falls for the handsome, charismatic sergeant. Everything turns out well in the end with Burt getting a medal that the lieutenant must present to him with full honors (kiss on the cheeks)!!

"3 Men in White" director Willis Goldbeck's "Ten Tall Men" is a rip-snorting adventure in the Errol Flynn tradition about recklessly brave heroes and slimy villains running loose in the dunes. Basically, the Roland Kibbee & Frank Davis screenplay, based on a story by James Warner Bellah and Goldbeck, is a French Foreign Legion escapade against murderous desert tribes that want to wipe out the French. The light moments outweigh the dark moments in this nimble actioneer that looks like it is a 19th century epic until the heroes find an abandoned French supply truck in the last quarter hour. Nevertheless, this is fast, furious and frivolous nonsense with Lancaster in command at all times supported by Gilbert Roland and Kieron Moore. Lancaster fans will love this opus. He specialized in swashbucklers after he made some film noir thrillers at Universal. This Columbia Pictures release is in glorious color and the cast is first-rate."Ten Tall Men" opens with French Foreign Legion Sergeant Mike Kincaid (Burt Lancaster of "All My Sons") masquerading as an Arab merchant. Kincaid trudges along a desert trail with his two veiled daughters, in reality Corporals Luis Delgado (Gilbert Roland of "Camille") and Pierre Molier (Kieron Moore of "Mine Own Executioner") in disguise waiting to catch an enemy Rif warrior. They manage to catch one and they return after being gone for two weeks. Anybody who looks with lustful eyes at the new exotic dancer in town, Marie DeLatour (Mari Blanchard of "Jungle Heat"), ostensibly the sweetheart of martinet French Lieutenant Kruger (Stephen Bekassy of "Hell and High Water"), gets put in poky. Not surprisingly, while Kruger is interrogating the Rif prisoner that Sergeant Kincaid provided him, Kincaid is making time with DeLatour. Meanwhile, the savvy Rif prisoner informs on Kincaid so that he can avoid any more of Kruger's probing questions. Kruger marches a squad to DeLatour's apartment and finds Kincaid. Predictably, Kincaid winds up in the clink with his Legionnaire buddies, Londos (George Tobias of "Objective, Burma"), Mouse (Nick Dennis of "Spartacus"), and Roshko (Mike Mazurkia of "Murder, My Sweet"), and learns from the Rif prisoner that Tarfu is going to be wiped out. Kincaid tells Kruger about the enemy plans and insists that he can save the garrison as well as the town if Kruger will give him ten men. Naturally, Kruger has his doubts and cannot spare the manpower so Kincaid settles for men in the stockade.Our heroes descend onto the enemy camp deep in the desert by an oasis. They spot what they believe is a munitions tent and decide to blow it to smithereens. Instead, they discover that the tent belongs to a beautiful girl, Mahla (Jody Lawrance of "Mask of the Avenger"), who is not only about to marry Khalif Hussein (Gerald Mohr of "Invasion, U.S.A.") but also unite two tribes intent on running the French out of Morocco. Kincaid and his men snatch Mahla and Hussein and company pursue them. Mahla tries to escape, but she cannot get away from the tenacious Sergeant Kincaid. Eventually, each earns the grudging respect of the other. Hussein means to kill Kincaid slowly, but Mahla demands that he release Kincaid or she will not wed Hussein. Reluctantly, Hussein capitulates to this demand. No sooner has Hussein freed Kincaid than he dispatches two Rif guards to kill him. Happily, the two guards are none other than Delgado and Molier in disguise again. They rescue Kincaid, spoil the marriage, rout Hussein and save the town. The commandant of the Foreign Legion orders Lieutenant Kruger to administer full honors to Kincaid after he pins on the medal. This includes the ceremonial French embrace. Kincaid gives the medal to Mahla and tells her that it belonged to his mother.Fistfights, shoot-outs, horse chases, and more enliven this adventure film. The diminutive Frenchman who plays Lancaster's orderly is future "Hogan's Heroes" star Robert Clary making his film debut. Die-hard Lancaster fans will not his acrobat buddy Nick Cravat in the wedding scene. Forget your troubles and enjoy this movie.

The French Foreign Legion movie usually ranked as one of Hollywood's most enjoyable sub-genres, and this is a good though undistinguished example of it. If it doesn't quite match 1953's "Desert Legion," it's probably because of a tongue-in-cheek tone which sometimes seems a bit juvenile, and because of an unconvincing leading lady -- Jody Lawrance -- who seems more North Hollywood than North Africa. However, Burt Lancaster shone in this kind of adventure and you don't have to wait long before he has his shirt off in a bathtub scene. He also winds up, as was often the case, in a beefcake-bondage scene which has him bound with outstretched arms inside the villain's tent. "I imagine it'll be dawn before you finally die," the villain says. "I should like to watch your entire performance ... to the very end." The villain then nods toward a wizened Arab who's gleefully heating up a variety of branding irons to be used on Lancaster's sweaty face and naked torso. "You'd be surprised at how much Tarik can get from even the most phlegmatic types."Lancaster's back got lashed in "Rope of Sand" and "Kiss the Blood Off My Hands," so it'd be a switch to see his chest bear the brunt of the torture for a change, but circumstances spare him from such a fate.Incidentally, this being the prudish era of the early 1950s, Lancaster's pants during this bondage scene are worn high enough to cover his navel.