Peabody's Improbable History (TV Series) The French Foreign Legion (1961) User Reviews

This picture on the Improbable History of . . .

[oscaralbert · 7/10 · 2 March 2024]

. . . THE FRENCH FOREIGN LEGION leaves a few blanks. As Mr. Peabody documents, the Legion began as a horseshoe club. However, during its first incarnation under some dude named Napoleon, it formed the basis for a Russian invasion when the Czar disputed Nap's claim that he was the world's top horseshoe pro--finding himself not tall enough to excel at water polo, epee or tiddly winks. Napoleon became so irate that the Czar tossed twice as many ringers as himself, he abandoned hundreds of thousands of Legionnaires to starve or freeze to death in Russia. Trying to salvage some horseshoe honors, the Legion was revived a few decades later and slowly lost all French colonies to more talented horseshoe champs. The Vietnamese proved particularly proficient in ringing out the French with cold hard steel in 1954, seven years before Mr. Peabody ridicules them here.