I'm on a roll this week with great pulpy adventure pictures!  I just had the pleasure of watching the 1936 French Foreign Legion film,  We're In the Legion Now, and what amazing fun it was!  I was coming off the little buzz that I had from the 1936 William Boyd romp, Go-get-'em, Haines (reviewed HERE); I really enjoyed Eleanor Hunt's impish charm in that one,  so I went digging for another movie with her in it, and voila', here she was.  It also works out in another way,  as I was already prepping a review of a Foreign Legion film, yet another 1936 screen burner, Under Two Flags...said review coming along soon.  I've hit a Legion-type hot spot.

Based on a 1934 story by prolific pulp author J.D. Newsom called The Rest Cure (which was also apparently the American name for the film),  We're in the Legion Now stars the ubiquitous character actor Reginald Denny, sidekicked by veteran comedian Vince Barnett. In lighthearted fashion, they play Dan Linton and Spike Conover (Isadore Simonski in the original story), two former New York racketeers on the run from a former "business associate";  apparently this mobster, Al Perelli, had a penchant for murder and kidnappings, and our decent duo wanted no part of that sort of thing.  The guys were basically just good guys looking to get fashionably intoxicated during the prohibition, in the process got mixed up with the wrong crowd. Having had enough, they escape to France,  where they begin to freely imbibe on an epic scale.

During their liquor-fueled fun,  they find out that Al Perelli has come after them, which gets them to reconsider their options.  During a public drinking session they meet two English sisters,  one of whom is married to a British officer in the French Foreign Legion.  The guys express a desire to move on to greener pastures,  and the gals suggest Morocco...but the catch is, they would have to join up for a five-year stint in the Legion!  Not their first choice, of course, but fate steps in, Al Perelli shows up (with a Tommy-gun in a violin case),  and the boys set off for Morocco as Legionnaires!  There they encounter wild Arabs,  beautiful ladies,  brutal hardships, and mutiny!

It's great fun from beginning to end.

I really loved the cast.  I've always enjoyed Reginald Denny;  in spite of his being cast as a token Brit,  he always delivers the goods with class and style (If you get a chance, see him in the classic Canadian Mountie movie Fort Vengeance).  I was a bit confused by his character in this movie though, as he was ostensibly an American, but his accent vacillated between his usual classic British r.p. clip and a gobbly American-ish drawl.  Otherwise he was completely charming and appropriately stalwart.  Denny's sidekick, played by comedic character actor Vince Barnett,  was as hilarious as a wisecracking, bottle-tossing, Brooklyn drunkard should be.  He was apparently best known from the Andy Griffith Show and it's spinoff, Mayberry R. F. D..  Eleanor Hunt, as the stunning American Expat songstress Honey Evans, sizzles on an entirely new level from her role in Go-Get-'Em Haines...the gams alone definitely made the search worthwhile!

From the cultural perspective, while I don't generally judge these low-budget action frolics by their accuracy,  it's worth noting that the bit of the Islamic call to prayer was accurate,  and the music was also at least actual Arabic music,  with an Oud being played correctly (as opposed to a Hollywood orchestra playing faux-Arabic slop), and what sounded like a Raita, which is a type of shawm.  From there things go fairly wonky;  badly imitated Arabic writing on the walls (for local flavour, I assume, but there were letters from Persian that aren't found in the Arabic script),  women in Hejab wearing pantaloons, and one surreal scene in which a Berber drum & hand-clapping music party was overlaid with the Arabic Oud from the earlier scene, along with the end-blown Nai flute...a mix that would never happen.  Oh well,  a little is better than nothing, wot?  In any case, one has to set aside quite a bit in these Imperialist-type pictures (westerns, British Empire, Foreign Legion, etc.),  and the fun generally makes the hits on one's pedantry worthwhile!

I thoroughly recommend We're in the Legion Now;  it's top-flight b-reel action,  with a rakish edge and a cheery demeanor.  Any weekend afternoon would be perfect for it;  it's completely entertaining!

Finally, here's a taste of the kinds of Moroccan music hinted at in the film.  Enjoy!

Go-Get-em Haines is a fun b-reel-type picture from 1936;  it stars the lovely Eleanor Hunt (who charmingly co-starred alongside John Wayne in the 1934 Western Blue Steel), but more importantly, it features William Boyd in his last role in which he wasn't playing Hopalong Cassidy, the most famous cowboy character of them all.  When it was released, Boyd had already done a huge list of westerns,  many of them as Hoppy, so this could be seen as a sort of last hurrah (character-wise) before he accepted his exalted fate as a typecast legend.

The basic premise it this: Steve Haines is a wily and mildly rakish reporter who gets on the trail a disgraced businessman who has cheated many people out of their life's savings.   Intrigued by the possibility of hunting this guy for a solid byline, Haines sets up camp around his life (much to the chagrin of his grumpy boss), following him wherever he goes.  Slowly others become involved,  and the chase is on.

Eventually the trail leads Haines aboard an ocean liner...it's destination? Murder!

Having grown up watching cliffhanger serials and listening to old time radio drama, with an early affinity for pulp magazine fiction, I see Go Get-em Haines as another aspect of that same world; fun, relatively bite-sized bits of pulp colour, designed to be gobbled up without too much attention paid to the quality of the ingredients. It was very light in tone (in spite of the murder),  it had a few fun songs (sung fabulously by Eleanor Hunt...an actress to watch for),  and the cast all seemed like they were having a good time. There were so many good little gems like this throughout the 1930s,  yet many of them go unknown.  I'm stunned every time I go on Youtube and see dozens of sweet little pictures that are just begging for eyes to watch them, and this is very much one of those.

Go Get-em Haines is a perfect movie to see what the older Bill Boyd would have been like if he hadn't become Hoppy. It shows off his ability to be light hearted and quick, but, while highly entertaining, it also shows that westerns really were his true calling.  He wasn't the kind of handsome that this type of thing called for, and he was almost 42 when he made it.  I feel that it showed he wasn't going to grow into this sparky, youthful role very well. Boyd is best suited for a more serious minded character, and though I thought he played Steve Haines well enough, it seemed a good time for him to have gone with what the fans liked best. 

I came to these kinds of non-Hoppy Boyd films later in life,  and it's like seeing an old friend when he was in high school.  He was still generally the same Bill Boyd that I'd come to know and admire,  but he was also very different.  Early Boyd is jaunty and enthusiastic,  fast-talking,  and at times,  even a little bit of a smart aleck..  It's nice to see my hero with his hat off,  so to speak.

Like his earlier films, such as the incredible 1927 silent The Yankee Clipper (which I reviewed HERE), and High Voltage from 1929 (co-starring a VERY young and lovely Carole Lombard), Go Get-em Haines is an absolute must for any fan of William Boyd and Hopalong Cassidy.   It's so fun to seen him in such different contexts, and it fleshes out the man who in turn,  fleshed out our favourite cowboy hero.