Rogues' Regiment (1948)

Director:

Robert Florey

Writers:

Robert Buckner (story) and
Robert Florey (story) ...
(more)

Release Date:

28 September 1948 (USA)

Genre:

Action | Adventure | Thriller

Plot:

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.

Plot Keywords:

American | Nightclub | Saigon | War Crime | Foreign Legion

Cast

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
Martin Garralaga	...	Hazaret
James Nolan	...	American Colonel (as James F. Nolan)
rest of cast listed alphabetically:
Wong Artarne	...	Chinese Vendor (uncredited)
Eugene Borden	...	Doctor (uncredited)
George Bruggeman	...	German Officer at Burial (uncredited)
Paul Bryar	...	Saigon Chief of Police (uncredited)
Kei Thin Chung	...	Viet Guard (uncredited)
Gordon B. Clarke	...	Lt. Verdier (uncredited)
Paul Coze	...	Commander (uncredited)
John Doucette	...	Foreign Legion recruit found to have Nazi tattoo (uncredited)
Charles Flynn	...	Dispatch Rider (uncredited)
Ken Harvey	...	Sgt. LaJeune (uncredited)
Leon Lontoc	...	Rickshaw Boy (uncredited)
Joseph Marievsky	...	French Bartender (uncredited)
Maurice Marsac	...	Lieutenant (uncredited)
Harro Meller	...	Legionnaire (uncredited)
Jerry Mills	...	Legionnaire on Train (uncredited)
Ken Nordenshield	...	Legionnaire (uncredited)
Barry Norton	...	Legionnaire (uncredited)
John Peters	...	Lutheran Minister (uncredited)
Albert Pollet	...	Frenchman (uncredited)
Buddy Roosevelt	...	Figurine Dealer (uncredited)
John Royce	...	Legionnaire (uncredited)
Leo Schlesinger	...	Soldier (uncredited)
Lester Sharpe	...	Kavenko (uncredited)
Robert R. Stephenson	...	German Legionnaire (uncredited)
Robert Verdaine	...	Legionnaire (uncredited)
Jacques Villon	...	Call Boy (uncredited)
Willy Wickerhauser	...	Legionnaire (uncredited)
Victor Sen Yung	...	Rickshaw Boy (uncredited)

Directed by
Robert Florey

Writing credits
Robert Buckner		(story) and
Robert Florey		(story)
Robert Buckner		(screenplay)

Produced by
Robert Buckner	....	producer

Original Music by
Daniele Amfitheatrof

Cinematography by
Maury Gertsman

Film Editing by
Ralph Dawson

Art Direction by
Bernard Herzbrun
Gabriel Scognamillo

Set Decoration by
Oliver Emert
Russell A. Gausman

Costume Design by
Orry-Kelly

Makeup Department
Carmen Dirigo	....	hair stylist
Bud Westmore	....	makeup artist

Production Management
Lew Leary	....	production manager (as L. Leary)

Second Unit Director or Assistant Director
Horace Hough	....	assistant director

Sound Department
Leslie I. Carey	....	sound
Richard DeWeese	....	sound

Camera and Electrical Department
Harry Davis	....	camera operator (uncredited)
Russ Franks	....	grip (uncredited)
Maurice Goldberg	....	still photographer (uncredited)

Costume and Wardrobe Department
Eugene Joseff	....	costume jeweller (uncredited)

Music Department
Milton Schwarzwald	....	musical director
David Tamkin	....	orchestrator

Other crew
Paul Coze	....	technical advisor
Billy Daniel	....	choreographer
Dorothy Hughes	....	script supervisor

Production Companies

• Universal International Pictures (UI)

Distributors

• Universal Pictures (1948) (USA) (theatrical)

Also Known As:

Runtime:

86 min

Country:

USA

Language:

English

Color:

Black and White

Aspect Ratio:

1.37 : 1

Sound Mix:

Mono (Western Electric Recording)

Certification:

Finland:K-16 | Sweden:15 | USA:Approved (certificate #13211) | USA:Passed (National Board of Review)

Company:

Universal International Pictures (UI)

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.

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.

Soundtrack:

WHO CAN TELL

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.