The Lost Patrol (1934)

User Rating:

7.1/10   

Director:

John Ford

Writers:

Dudley Nichols (screenplay)
Garrett Fort (adaptation)

Release Date:

16 February 1934 (USA)

Genre:

Adventure | War

Tagline:

BLISTERING SUN...BLAZING BULLETS! (original print ad - all caps)

Plot:

A dozen British soldiers, lost in a Mesopotamian desert during world war I, are menaced by unseen Arab enemies.

Plot Keywords:

Desert | Sergeant | Sniper | Arab | Cavalry

Awards:

Nominated for Oscar.

Cast

Victor McLaglen	...	The Sergeant
Boris Karloff	...	Sanders
Wallace Ford	...	Morelli
Reginald Denny	...	Brown
J.M. Kerrigan	...	Quincannon
Billy Bevan	...	Hale
Alan Hale	...	Cook
Brandon Hurst	...	Bell
Douglas Walton	...	Pearson
Sammy Stein	...	Abelson
Howard Wilson	...	Aviator
Paul Hanson	...	MacKay

Runtime:

USA:73 min (original release) | USA:66 min (1954 reissue length)

Country:

USA

Language:

English

Color:

Black and White

Aspect Ratio:

1.37 : 1

Sound Mix:

Mono (RCA Victor System)

Certification:

UK:A (original rating) | Canada:PG (Ontario) | USA:Passed (National Board of Review) | USA:TV-PG (TV rating) | USA:Approved (PCA #1345-R, re-release)

Filming Locations:

Buttercup Dunes, Imperial County, California, USA

Company:

RKO Radio Pictures

Trivia:

Victor McLaglen, who plays The Sergeant, is the brother of Cyril McLaglen, who played The Sergeant in the earlier 1929 version of this film.

Goofs:

Revealing mistakes: As the plane is circling the encampment, you can see tire marks in the sand.

Quotes:

Sanders: Brown, you're a gentleman! You've got breeding! You must have faith!
Brown: Why?
Sanders: Why? Why in Heaven's name, man, what do you believe in?
Brown: Would it really interest you? Oh, a lot of things. A good horse, steak and kidney pudding, a fellow named George Brown, the asinine futility of this war, being frightened, being drunk enough to be brave and brave enough to be drunk, the feel of the sea when you swim, the taste and strength of wine, the loveliness of women, the splendid, unspeakable joy of killing Arabs, the smell of incense and bacon, the weight of a fist, an old pair of shoes, a toothache, triunph...
[...]

Movie Connections:

Referenced in The Searchers (1956)

Soundtrack:

Pack Up Your Troubles in Your Old Kit Bag and Smile, Smile, Smile

Dunes

This is a rip-roaring adventure film set in the Mesopotamian desert during the First World War. It concerns a detachment of British soldiers holed up in a desert camp, where they are picked off one at a time by Arab snipers. Victor McLaglen's the star of the show, and very believable, as he had in fact played this sort of role in real-life, as a soldier, and always looked good in a uniform. The supporting cast, which includes Wallace Ford, Boris Karloff, Reginald Denny and Alan Hale, are all fine. John Ford directed the picture brilliantly, and this is in many ways a transitional film for him. His career had been in second gear for some time, and this one showed that he still had the old fire, and was a big box-office winner, which in turn led the studio to allow him to film his pet project, The Informer, the following year. And the rest, as they say, is history.

Those who regard Ford as a quaint and sentimental pictorialist will be dazzled by this one. There isn't a wasted frame of film here, and the picture moves at a lightning pace. All of Ford's strengths and none of his weaknesses are on display in this one. Much of the action is synchronized to Max Steiner's score, as film music was still in its relative infancy at this time. Somehow this works in the movie's favor, as when McLaglen lurches at another character and the music accompanies his movement in such a way as to evoke King King, which Steiner had scored the previous year. The effect is sometimes frightening and quite powerful.

Ford's sadistic humor comes out in odd and surprisingly frank ways. Karloff's religious fanatic is so over the top that he might have thrown the film off, yet Ford, rather than diminishing the character, decides to give him more screen time. There are moments when the character himself seems to be undermining the film. When he is tied up by the men, having proved himself to be nothing but an utter nuisance, he grins and wails in his captivity like a demented baboon. Karloff's quite funny here, giving the movie a respite from its own seriousness, which is very much needed. The film is, after all, about how men face death, and who's to say which way is the proper one?