Rogues' Regiment (1948) User Reviews

Good action film depicting the Foreign Legion in Indochina

[guanche · 7/10 · 19 January 2005]

One of the few Foreign Legion films that takes the Legion out of the desert. The Legion was instrumental in the conquest of Indochina in the 1880s, and fought a bloody, futile war in a vain attempt to retain it, from 1946-54. In the late 40s, the French government prohibited sending conscripts to serve in Indochina, so the Foreign Legion was greatly expanded. A major falsehood presented by the film is the great effort made by former SS enlistees to conceal their past, since the French were said to execute any they discovered. The reverse was in fact true, and the French actively (though covertly) sought out and recruited former Wehrmacht and SS men. For the first time in the Legion's history, large enlistment bonuses were paid and former officers and senior noncoms were advanced to sergeant upon completion of training and a short probation period. Jobs were hard to come by in postwar Germany, and the French eagerly made use of this large pool of disciplined, fully trained professional killers. Just the thing for a dirty, distant, unpopular war.

Dick Powell joins the Legion to find a wanted SS war criminal. Despite the above, most of the movie is quite realistic and fast moving. There are good action, and even training sequences, and the atmosphere is appropriately gritty and depressing. The legionnaires are depicted with American M1 rifles. This was accurate in the early part of the war. Ironically, these were later replaced by inferior and obsolete French equipment.

An interesting mix of war movie and film noir done reasonably well.

A Milestone Of Sorts

[bkoganbing · 6/10 · 30 September 2009]

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.

Hunt The Man Down

[boblipton · 6/10 · 30 March 2022]

The Nuremburg trials are nearing their end, with some Nazis being hanged and others sentenced to life imprisonment, but one criinal remains untouched. No one knows what he looks like. So they send Dick Powell after him. Since this evil man has joined the French Foreign Legion, Powell does likewise, and is sent to French Indo-China to catch what turns out to be Stephen McNally and make love to Märta Torén.

It's a capable programmer. There are battle scenes. There's Vincent Price in villain mode, expediting McNally, and the shadows grow darker and longer gradually, under the camera of the under-rated Maury Gertsman. Director Robert Florey fills the time ably; although the movie times in at 85 minutes, it never grows dull.

A regiment full of Nazis

[AAdaSC · 7/10 · 24 November 2013]

The film follows undercover agent Dick Powell (Whit) as he tracks down fictitious Nazi Martin Brunner as portrayed by Stephen McNally (Reicher) in the French Foreign Legion in Indo-China. I assume that McNally's character is based on real life high ranking Nazi Alois Brunner and the story is a fictionalized interpretation of where real life Brunner may have gone. Incidentally, the real Brunner never got caught. Can Dick Powell track down and capture McNally, or does this story foretell the actual truth of how Brunner may have evaded his searchers?

The film begins in a documentary style with clips from the Nazi war trials before it turns its attention to the plight of one particular high-ranking Nazi who has evaded capture. We follow the leads that place him in Indo-China, and that's where we meet our cast, all of whom give good performances. My favourites are McNally and Carol Thurston, who plays devious Vincent Price's (Van Ratten) servant girl, Li-Ho-Kay. Oh yeah, she's handy with a knife.

The film seems to tie itself up rather too neatly but it is an interesting journey - there is suitable tension throughout the film as well as intrigue as to what will happen. We are taken into the world of the Vietnamese freedom fighters, who, as a separate issue, win a victory in the end, a few years later.

Political B Movie

[Theo Robertson · 6/10 · 9 July 2013]

1948 and US agent Whit Corbett is given a mission to track down Nazi war criminal Martin Brunner . It is believed Brunner has fled to French Indo-China to join the French Foreign Legion . The French meanwhile have a problem in the country where the Viet Mink are waging a war of national liberation

In order to get the best out of this film it's necessary to suspend all disbelief . We're given a short history lesson on the Nuremberg War Crimes Trial where 30 Nazis were found guilty of crimes against humanity - all except one Martin Brunner who has disappeared from the surface of the planet and the entire resources of American , British and French intelligence have no luck in finding . Their task isn't helped by the fact he hasn't been photographed since 1935 and as agent Corbett finds out there's a good reason : " After Hitler and Himmler Reicher was the third highest ranking Nazi . All this leads to a couple of serious questions

1 ) Have the allies tried looking in South America where all the real life Nazis like Josef Mengele and Adolph Eichmann were hiding

2 ) Hitler and Himmler or indeed any other Nazi didn't mind being photographed so why is Brunner different ? No doubt he looked in to a crystal ball and saw he'd be a fugitive so decided to forsake any photo opportunities . Either that or the film wouldn't have worked but you do get the impression the producers could have come up with a better way round this plot point

As it stands the film plays out almost as much as you expect it with the American good guy and a Nazi bad guy who conveniently has met Brunner joining the Legion at exactly the same time . It does play up to the myth that erstwhile Nazis joined the Legion to escape from war crimes . There is some truth in this but the truth of this myth in painfully over stated such as in novels The Devil's Guard by George Robert Elford which purports to be a true story but was very quickly debunked . Perhaps ROGUES REGIMENT is the one piece of fiction that started off the myth ?

An uneasy mix of war movie and film noir with a political slant it's not a very good film in its own right but one thing that is fascinating is the politics . The French are fighting the native population and they're portrayed as being communist stooges . There's also a scene where a French officer studies a wall chart on Viet Minh tactics but later on there's a scene where a Viet Minh leader states that " My friends ? Huh The Viet Minh are not such easily fooled , we may free our selves from [ our French masters ] only to be devoured by the red ones " and this astonishing and prescient line could have changed the whole course of history where Vietnam would 25 years later would have been an obscure exotic country rather than a metonym of bloody folly followed by inglorious defeat

Rogues' Regiment

[CinemaSerf · 6/10 · 5 January 2023]

To be fair to this, it does inject a little twist into the usual French Foreign Legion story. This time the Americans implant an agent "Corbett" (Dick Powell) into the platoon in the hope that he can track down a senior Nazi who is trying to get himself (and some loot) to safety after WWII. It's set in French Indo-China rather than North Africa, so there is some scope for a bit of jungle antics as the two men play a bit of cat and mouse. The mystery is helped along by Vincent Price and his dodgy accent as "Van Patten", a travelling art dealer and by the glorified pub singer Lili" (Märta Torén) whom, to be fair, can actually hold a note for her two numbers. It doesn't take us long to work out who is who but the method of smuggling the spoils is quite innovative and though the production is pretty run of the mill, the decent pace keeps it quite entertaining for ninety minutes.

Part noir, part war

[gordonl56 · 8/10 · 11 November 2008]

One of a number of post ww2 noir dealing with escaped Nazi war criminals. Notorious, The Stranger and Cornered would be several of the more well known. In this one, Dick Powell is an army intelligence agent on his way to French Indo-China. He is on the trail of a high-ranking SS officer. The trail leads Powell to the French Foreign Legion camp in Saigon. (The French used large numbers of ex-German soldiers in their war with the Viet-Cong.) Powell's main problem is that there are no known photos of the man he wants. He joins the Legion himself in order to try and identify the swine. Said swine, Stephen McNally, is very careful about his identity and bumps off everyone he thinks is a danger. Helping Powell out on his case is French Secret Service agent, Marta Toren. Toren poses as a singer in a cabaret frequented by off duty Legion members. Also in the mix is Vincent Price as an antique dealer who supplements his income with a little gun running for the Viet-Cong. McNally, who picked Saigon and the Legion thinking it would be the least likely spot to be recognized finds the opposite true. One of his ex-staff officers from Dachau concentration camp happens to be in the same unit. While out on patrol the men become involved in a fire-fight with the Viet-Cong and McNally applies a few rounds to the man's back. Problem solved. Not quite it seems. Old Vincent has tumbled to McNally's identity and figures a bit of blackmail is in order. He knows McNally has a large cache of jewels and gold taken from his camp victims. Price wants most of it. McNally agrees as long as Price can supply him with a passport and some American dollars so he can leave the country. Both of course plan to double cross the other when the deal is completed. Powell finally figures out what is going on and arrives just as McNally has bumped off Price. A blazing gun battle and a well staged round of fist-a-cuffs ensue before McNally is captured. McNally gets the rope and Powell gets Toren. McNally as the vicious Nazi on the run and Price as the blackmailing snake in the grass are very good here. Powell and Toren both turn in merely adequate performances. Rest of the cast includes Edgar Barrier, Richard Loo, Philip Ahn and James Millican.

The director was Robert Florey. His work included MEET BOSTON BLACKIE, DANGEROUSLY THEY LIVE, THE BEAST WITH FIVE FINGERS, DANGER SIGNAL and the very under-rated THE FACE BEHIND THE MASK. Screenplay was by Robert Buckner who did, DEPORTED, A PRIZE OF GOLD.

Toren, who died at age 31, managed to work DEPORTED, MYSTERY SUBMARINE, SPY HUNT, ILLEGAL ENTRY, ONE WAY STREET, Paris ASSIGNMENT and SIROCCO into her 4 year Hollywood career. The d of p was Maury Gertsman who worked on BLONDE ALIBI, INSIDE JOB, SINGAPORE, ONE WAY STREET, THE GLASS WEB and JOHNNY STOOL PIGEON.

Great and rare noir adventure film

[searchanddestroy-1 · 8/10 · 10 November 2022]

I will remind Stephen Mc Nally's character here, where he shines as the villain, Nazi on the run. This is a great B movie, or a minor grade A picture, you can choose. It is convincing, rather fast paced, with plenty of suspense and action. I like that the screenplay focuses much of Mc Nally's role, more than I would have thought in the first place. Dick Powell is of course the hero, the good guy, I would not have imagined him as the Nazi war criminal.... This is one best example of what Robert Florey was able to do for the US film industry in those forties decade. Such a shame that he left the movie business to go to TV one, but with success, I admit. It also evokes the War in Indochia for French, but in a quite different way to David Butler and his JUMP INTO HELL.

Unusual war criminal chase film set in pre-Vietnam French Indo-China

[SimonJack · 8/10 · 1 October 2021]

"Rogues' Regiment" is very unusual film - more ways than one. Billed an action, adventure and mystery, this is a preview look at Vietnam and the Vietnamese War. It takes place during the French Indo-China colonial period which lasted until 1954. The French pulled out of the country on May 7, 1954, after a four-month siege by communist-led rebels of the French garrison at Dien Bien Phu.

So, there's more than a little history surrounding this film. It portrays the French Foreign Legion in the Vietnam of the late 1940s. And, it shows some ambushes of French units. I know of only one other film that has scenes about the French Army and defeats in Vietnam. That is the 2002 film that starred Mel Gibson, "We Were Soldiers Once... and Young." So, considering that this movie came out in 1948, the film is somewhat prescient of the failure and withdrawal of the French in 1954, and then of the Vietnam War and American involvement a decade after that.

But for its prophetic historical notes, the plot of this film is about an American undercover sergeant joining the French forces in Indo-China in the hopes of discovering the last notorious Nazi official from World War II, to bring him to justice. In this film, the character is Martin Brunner who is disguised as another legionnaire, Carl Reicher. Dick Powell plays the American, Whit Corbett. Another historical aside is that from well before WW II Germans had been joining the French Foreign Legion, and many of the NCOs at the time of the war were German. The Nazis had tried to infiltrate the legion with recruits, and the French discovered the plot. Even after France's defeat, the Legion operated as the Free French and worked to purge itself of any Nazis. So, now, in the post-war period, former German soldiers who weren't Nazis were joining the French legion in Indo-China. But that made it a logical place for Nazis as well who fled Germany to hide out for several years.

Another element of this film is that an arms smuggling operation existed that supplied the Vietnamese with weapons of war. The bad guy playing the part of Mark Van Ratten here is Vincent Price. Märta Torén plays Lili Maubert, who is an undercover contact for Corbett But she's also an acquaintance of Van Ratten. This film has some interesting twists. Considering that it was all shot in Californians and on Universal studio lots, the film does well in looking like Vietnam.

The call all give good performances. Torén was a Swedish actress who was being billed as the next Ingrid Berman. She is 21 at the time of this movie and she would make some good films. But just nine years later she would die of a brain hemorrhage in her native Stockholm, Sweden. Here are some favorite lines form this film.

Lily Maubert, "What does Col. Mauclaire think?" Whit Corbett, "Same as you do - that I'm fishing for whales with a bat pin. Be he'll help with the bait."

Lily Maubert, "I wish I could help you too." Whit Corbett, "You're doing that, just letting me look at you."

Whit Corbett, "You know, this is my last job for the Army. In another three months, my time will be up and I'll be going home - to a place called Nebraska. I've got a farm there - a hay farm. It's very quiet and might even be a little dull, after what we've been doing. But it's also a wonderful life in another way. And, for excitement, we can always drive the jeep up to Omaha.

Lily Maubert, "Are you making love to me?" Whit Corbett, "I'm trying to. Why, does it amuse you?" Lily, "No, no, it doesn't. I think I like it very much - if you mean it."

Lily Maubert, "What is hay?" Whit Corbett, "Hay? That's the stuff you make when the sun shines."

A lesser known Robert Florey

[happytrigger-64-390517 · 8/10 · 24 January 2023]

Robert Florey directed à lot of B movies and some very fine titles like "Murder in the rue Morgue", "the Beast with five fingers" (with a fantastic Peter Lorre) , "the Man behind the mask" (very original fantastic movie with again Peter Lorre, but completely forgotten) before shooting a lot of TV episodes.

This "Rogue's regiment" is perhaps not a classic but remains in the inventive visual style of Robert Florey. The introduction about the last nazis chieves is surprising. Then begins the chase of the very last unknown nazi chief by Dick Powell in Indochina in the Legion Étrangère. The cinematography is chiaroscuro with most of the sequences happening at night, very creepy atmosphere close to film noir. The casting is great with Stephen McNally frightening as the fleeing nazi and of course Vincent Price, charismatic as ever. From a story by Robert Florey, "Rogue's regiment" was written by Robert Buckner who also wrote great titles for Errol Flynn.

"Rogue's regiment" is a fine surpise.

Chasing a Nazi to death in the jungles of Vietnam while the Vietnam war still was French

[clanciai · 8/10 · 16 March 2022]

The French are having a hard time with the Viet Minh guerrillas of Ho Chi Minh operating in the jungles in Indochina and striking whenever they can while staying hidden out of reach, creating a constant terror for the Europeans, but this film is not much about that. To combat these insidious freedom fighters France is applying the Foreign Legion, and after the war many ex-Nazis join this 'Rogues Regiment' where they can go on living in anonymity, even if they are chased all over the world. Dick Powell is assigned the mission to find a certain Nazi fugitive hiding in this army, so he joins the legion himself and finds it swarming with Nazis among the other usual delinquents. Vincent Price provides the guerrillas with weapons and ammunition and knows the wanted fugitive, having helped him to secretly join the legion, and there is an attractive night club singer Märta Torén who knows them all, whom Dick Powell falls in love with like everyone else. It's a tricky story amidst some difficult jungle fights, but finally Dick Powell gets his man, while in reality he actually got away - a certain Alois Brunner, who is here called Martin Brunner with some traits of Martin Bormann, another mystery Nazi who some believe got away. It is not a bad film, but it is not altogether outstanding either, but it is interesting for its anticipation of the Vietnam war which would go on for almost 30 years, the French giving up and leaving it to the Americans to keep up the hopeless case. Stephen McNally as Brunner is actually the most interesting character, while Dick Powell is just an ordinary tough guy and Vincent Price that ordinary crook he generally makes, while Marta Toren offers some refreshment. It is exotic and intriguing but hardly first class.