As you know, The Deserter is my latest novel, and it’s set in the French Foreign Legion. It’s hard to remember that there was a time the Legion was at the forefront of pop culture- books, and especially movies. The Mack Daddy of all of them was Beau Geste. In doing research, I came across someone whose fascination with film, and Beau Geste in particular, led to The Compleat Beau Geste. To thank him for his kind support of my book, and to let you know a bit more about him, I give you Frank Thompson.
Okay, Frank, who are you?
I now identify myself primarily as an author and film historian. I’m currently finishing up my 47th book, most of which have been about movies. I’ve written about directors – two books on William A. Wellman, one on Robert Wise, one on Henry King – and a couple on what were then new films, such as The Nightmare Before Christmas (1993) and The Alamo (2004). In fact, for my sins, I’ve written five books about the Alamo and have produced, written, or been otherwise connected with several documentaries on the subject. I also have a close-up in the 2004 film, although claims that this is why the film didn’t do well at the box office are just hurtful.
But, like many people, I guess, I could have ended up going in several other directions. I studied arranging and composition at Boston’s Berklee College of Music, was in a comedy/improv troupe for 4 years in Chicago, worked in non-theatrical film distribution (when there was such a thing) in Chicago and Atlanta, and performed as a singer-songwriter for a while. Moving to Los Angeles in 1992, I worked for several years on television, including ten happy years writing for American Movie Classics – again, when there was such a thing.
Yes, AMC was about movies like MTV used to be about music. Why would you write a whole book about Beau Geste and its offspring?
Beau Geste constitutes my origin story as a film historian. When I was 12 years old, I happened to see the last half of Wellman’s 1939 film version on TV. I was enthralled by it and my mother told me it was based on a book. The next day, I went to the school library and, sure enough, there was the novel by P. C. Wren. Even better, it was illustrated with movie stills – but not from the movie I had just seen. These were photos from the 1926 version starring Ronald Colman. I then read every book I could find on silent film – which, in South Carolina in 1965 was not easy – mostly hoping only to find more pictures from Beau Geste. But along the way, I became fascinated by all aspects of silent cinema, even though I had literally no access to the films themselves.
That changed when I got to Boston to attend Berklee. At that time, the city had – I was told – half a million college students. There were not only great repertory and classic film theaters everywhere, but every college had movie screenings pretty much every day of the week. I finally got to see 35mm and 16mm screenings of silent films, foreign films, and experimental cinema. A whole new world of movies opened up to me.
Following the Beau Geste trail led me to start researching Wild Bill Wellman and he was the subject of my first book, published in 1983. In 2018, my late friend John Andrew Gallagher and I published a mammoth, lavishly illustrated limited edition book about him: Nothing Sacred: The Cinema of William Wellman.
In 2020, just a couple of weeks before COVID lockdown, I went to L.A. to record audio commentary for the new Blu-ray of the 1939 version with William Wellman Jr. Then, in 2026, I recorded a commentary track for the Blu-ray of the restored 1926 film. I was flown to L.A. to attend the premiere of the restoration on the last night of the TCM Festival. TCM’s Jacqueline Stewart and James Mockoski – who, with Robert A. Harris, restored the film – introduced it. James asked me to stand up for a round of applause and said, “What Kevin Brownlow is to Napoleon, Frank is to Beau Geste.” Not even remotely true but gratifying in the extreme.
It was during lockdown, when I couldn’t leave the house, that I decided to pull together my considerable research on all things Beau Geste and write a book about all of it – not only movies but stage, television, comic books, toys, and so much more. Although I had a pretty vast archive, it still took another two years of research and writing before I completed The Compleat Beau Geste. Available, if I may be crassly commercial, at Amazon.
What do you think the fascination is with the Legion? Why do the stories still resonate?
I don’t know if I can answer that. I do have a few friends who have a deep interest in the Legion and there seem to be pockets of enthusiasts around the world, for example, the terrific blog Mon Legionnaire which highlights fiction about the Legion, primarily the great stories from the pulp magazines. And, of course, I know of a wonderful new novel, The Deserter, which I read with genuine delight although the author’s name escapes me.
I love all versions of the story but was excited to hear about the restoration of the original silent film.
I provided no real assistance to the restoration of the 1926 Beau Geste, although Harris and Mockoski were kind and generous enough to keep me in the loop throughout the process. They would send me scenes as they completed them, and I don’t have to tell you how excited and grateful I was throughout. For decades, I have been pleading with archivists to restore this important film. For some reason, the general belief was that it was protected and in good shape. It was neither. Harris and Mockoski pulled prints from all over the place to make a complete version – or as complete as possible – and the result is beautiful. I guarantee you that no one under the age of 100 has ever seen it look like this.
I was honored to write an essay on the film for the San Francisco Silent Film Festival’s program book. That piece was turned into a booklet which is enclosed with the new Blu-ray. Sixty years after my journey to Fort Zinderneuf began, this is a happier destination than I ever expected.
What’s next?
My latest book is on the filming of Thunder Road (1958). I have a fascination with movie locations – did I tell you that I made seven trips to the California desert where the first four Beau Gestes were filmed? – so when my wife and I moved to Asheville, North Carolina in 2015, I immediately began researching the film history of the area. In 2017, I published Asheville Movies Vol. I: The Silent Era and I have other related books planned. I decided to ignore chronology and go straight to Thunder Road because I live within a few miles of every place where it was filmed and there are still local people who remember the filming and who have given me priceless information.
So, that random viewing of the last half of Beau Geste in 1965 continues to lead me down unexplored roads and it will until, I guess, I’m propped up in my embrasure, awaiting my Viking’s Funeral.
My own addition to the Legion oeuvre is The Deserter- a Tale of the Foreign Legion. “A gritty, well-researched historical thriller that revives the classic Foreign Legion adventure with confidence and control.” Author Glow.
