Better Late Then Never

Blending excellent reporting and strong storytelling, this is a disturbing film truly stranger than fiction

True to its essence, the characters remain on the same line and manage to entertain the viewer, each highlighting their own distinctive qualities or touches.

This movie tries so hard to be funny, yet it falls flat every time. Just another example of recycled ideas repackaged with women in an attempt to appeal to a certain audience.

The Legion of Missing Men is a film about the Foreign Legion. It also involves two brothers in this Legion and perhaps unsurprisingly a woman comes in between them. I can't say that I have seen a lot of movies about the Foreign Legion but The Legion of Missing Men is not a bad exploration of this premise. There is nice singing from the said woman played by Hala Linda. The plot of the movie is not overly spectacular but it makes a good enough time passer. It perhaps just as well that this movie only runs for little over a hour and it is hard to see how the plot of this movie could have been sustain for a longer running time.

What a disappointing picture! Just look at those credits! Well, I'll admit the cast isn't much, except for Ralph Forbes (who is great in small doses like "The Hound of the Baskervilles") and Ben Alexander's legions of fans, although even Dragnet die-hards will find little to cheer about here. However, I must admit I really enjoyed Hala Linda's performance (and I loved her songs). And this "Missing Men" is her only movie too! But I expect a a fair degree of excitement from a classy director like Hamilton "Charlie Chan" MacFadden; and for the first ten minutes or so of fast action and multiple camera angles with scores of extras, it looks like he's going to deliver. But then the boring part of the "Beau Geste"-derived screenplay (unaccountably hashed up by three of the best writers in Hollywood's ten-thrills-a-second business) takes over. And while all this tedious brothers-falling-out stuff is flat-footedly proceeding, what is Charles Hutchison doing? Lightning Hutch himself! Presumably he was hired just for the strength of his name. The action spots at the beginning and end of the picture feature only a small amount of stunt work. Nothing to get too excited or wide-eyed about—which is a fair description of the whole movie itself.Sample dialogue: (Heroine)"You are clean and fine! So different from the others who come here." And (Sheik) "How many men did you lose?" — (Henchman) "As many as the fingers of two hands twice!"

One would think that a film that depicts the French Foreign Legion and their violent struggle with desert brigands in Morocco would be rousing entertainment. Unfortunately, there are only two significant scenes of action in the film. The bulk is taken up with boring dialogue, singing, and stock footage.It is not unreasonable to expect some adventure in an adventure or war film. "The Legion of Missing Men" fails on this count. While I would normally grant some leeway to a poverty-stricken studio like Monogram, the problems aren't with the budget. In my opinion, they reside mostly with the screenplay and director. The film is only a little more than an hour, but feels substantially longer. Unless you are a foreign legion film fanatic, this is one to miss.