We're in the Legion Now (1936)

Director:

Crane Wilbur

Writers:

J.D. Newsom (story)
Roger Whately (screenplay)

Release Date:

13 December 1936 (USA)

Genre:

Comedy

Tagline:

A spree of Blondes...and a Hangover of Mirth! (original poster)

Plot:

Two petty gangsters trying to elude their enemies join the French Foreign Legion. |

Plot Keywords:

Cigarette Smoking | New York City | Husband Wife Relationship | Nightclub | Sergeant

Cast

Reginald Denny	...	Dan Linton
Esther Ralston	...	Louise Rillette
Vince Barnett	...	Spike Conover
Eleanor Hunt	...	Honey Evans
Claudia Dell	...	Yvonne Cartier
Robert Frazer	...	Capt. Henri Rillette
Rudolph Anders	...	Sgt. Groeber (as Rudolph Amenut)
Francisco Marán	...	Abdul Ben-Abou
Merrill McCormick	...	Ali
Frank Hoyt	...	Adjutant Cartellini
Manuel Peluffo	...	Military Prisoner
Charles Moyer	...	Recruit Ringleader
Lou Hicks	...	Al Petrelli, American Gangster

Also Known As:

The Rest Cure (USA) (working title (reissue title))

Runtime:

56 min

Country:

USA

Language:

English

Color:

Color (Hirlicolor)

Aspect Ratio:

1.37 : 1

Sound Mix:

Mono

Certification:

USA:Approved (PCA #1805)

Company:

George A. Hirliman Productions

Movie Connections:

Alternate language version of De la sartén al fuego (1935)

Lightweight Foreign Legion Comedy in early color process!

Here is a very obscure Grand National Picture filmed in an early 2-color process. 20 years ago, I had the good fortune of owning a 35mm nitrate color print of this film under its original title: "We're in the Legion Now"

Reginald Denny had a long career in silent pictures, talkies and tv. Always the inimitable English gentleman, he plays off the illiterate and bumbling Vince Barnett very well, as a couple of American gangsters on the run wind up in Morocco in the French Foreign Legion. They're in the stockade more than they are out during the story as it unfolds. Barnett appeared in countless films as comic relief in westerns, gangster pictures and comedies.

Since most of the Grand National library dispersed to the four winds in the 1940s, it is unclear if this picture survives in its original color version. Hirlicolor was a play on words using the name of George Hirlman, an executive and producer at the studio. The actual color process is Magnacolor aka Cinecolor, which utilized 2 basic colors to combine to make the picture, unlike Technicolor's later 3-color process. The result is a pleasant warm color tone you would associate with the sun on the desert. Late 1940s 16mm television prints were printed in black & white.