Rogues' Regiment (1948)

A post World War 2, US Army agent is assigned to join the Foreign Legion in search of high ranking Nazi war criminal who may have also enlisted.

Director:

Robert Florey

Writers:

Robert Buckner (story), Robert Florey (story),

Stars:

Dick Powell, Märta Torén, Vincent Price

Cast

Cast overview, first billed only:
Dick Powell	...	Whit Corbett
Märta Torén	...	Lili Maubert
Vincent Price	...	Mark Van Ratten
Stephen McNally	...	Carl Reicher
Edgar Barrier	...	Colonel Mauclaire
Henry Rowland	...	Erich Otto Heindorf
Carol Thurston	...	Li-Ho-Kay
James Millican	...	Cobb
Richard Loo	...	Kao Pang
Philip Ahn	...	Tran Duy Gian
Richard Fraser	...	Rycroft
Otto Reichow	...	Stein
Kenny Washington	...	Sam Latch
Dennis Dengate	...	O'Hara
Frank Conroy	...	Colonel Lemercier

Storyline

After World War II, ex-soldiers trickle into French Saigon to join the Foreign Legion, among them American Whit Corbett and German Carl Reicher. Is Reicher really SS war criminal Martin Bruner, and is Corbett after him? Art dealer Van Ratten and nightclub chanteuse Lili Maubert are also more than they seem. Action scenes include anti-guerilla jungle warfare.

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Plot Keywords:

american | nightclub | saigon | war crime | foreign legion | 

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Genres:

Action | Adventure | Thriller

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Certificate:

Approved

Details

Country:

USA

Language:

English

Release Date:

28 September 1948 (USA)

Also Known As:

Der Mann ohne Gesicht

Company Credits

Production Co:

Universal International Pictures (UI)

Technical Specs

Runtime:

86 min

Sound Mix:

Mono (Western Electric Recording)

Color:

Black and White

Aspect Ratio:

1.37 : 1

Did You Know?

Trivia

"Screen Director's Playhouse" broadcast a 60 minute radio adaptation of the movie on May 17, 1951 with Dick Powell reprising his film role.

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Quotes

Whit Corbett: Ah, you're much too smart for a beautiful girl. Don't you have any fun at all?
Lili Maubert: Perhaps. In a quiet way.
Whit Corbett: I can be very quiet.
Lili Maubert: Good.
[hands him his hat]
Lili Maubert: Then you won't make any noise on the way out.

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Soundtracks

"WHO CAN TELL"
Written by Serge Walter
Lyrics Jack Brooks
Performed by Märta Torén (dubbed by Martha Mears)

User Reviews

A Milestone Of Sorts

A lot of post war politics gets mixed up in Rogue's Regiment, a story about a manhunt for an escaped Nazi war criminal. The plot takes a lot from the Orson Welles classic, The Stranger.

But when Edward G. Robinson is hunting Orson Welles and tracks him to Connecticut he's in the comfort zone of the good old USA even if he doesn't know that Welles is whom he seeks. But Dick Powell as an Army Intelligence Officer tracks his man all the way to Southeast Asia and has to join the French Foreign Legion in order to smoke him out.

Which brings us to the point that Rogue's Regiment can lay claim to the fact that it's the first Hollywood motion picture to talk about the Vietnam War. It wasn't Vietnam then, it was French Indochina where the French are rather foolishly trying to reestablish colonial control. A whole lot of history might have changed in the 20th Century if they had realized colonialism was dead. The rebels were called the Viet Minh then and they were making life very tough for French troops outside their outposts. Six years after this film was made, these same French Foreign Legionaires and regular French Army troops would be surrendering at Dienbienphu. But that's getting way ahead of this story.

The Foreign Legion has been the host to all kinds of criminals and other assorted riff-raff since its founding. They ask no questions when you enlist and Germans, some of whom might have been occupying France, are enlisting. It's here that our man hopes to find anonymity and here to where Dick Powell tracks him down.

With the able assistance of French Intelligence Officer Marta Toren who is working a case of her own, Powell ferrets his man out. In fact he uses the same gambit that Robinson does in The Stranger. There's another well known Nazi in the Legion company and Powell uses him as bait.

Such folks as Stephen McNally, Vincent Price, Edgar Barrier and James Millican fill out the cast in this story set in the then exotic locale of Indochina. Carol Thurston who played the tragic Tremartini in Cecil B. DeMille's The Story Of Dr. Wassell also set in Southeast Asia plays another exotic female in love with the wrong guy.

Though Rogue's Regiment gets a little silly at times, Powell gets captured by the Viet Minh and escapes rather too easily, almost like one of those serials, still the film is generally good. And being a first to talk about the war in Indochina, Rogue's Regiment is a historic milestone of a film.

I doubt though that the folks at Universal Pictures thought they were establishing a milestone.