TEN TALL MEN

US, 1951, 97 minutes, Colour.
Burt Lancaster, Gilbert Roland, Kieron Moore, John Dehner, Jody Lawrence, George Tobias, Mike Mazurki.
Directed by Willis Goldbeck.

Ten Tall Men is an early Burt Lancaster film, from his acrobatic days (Crimson Pirate, Flame and the Arrow). It is matinee material, the Sahara and the French Foreign Legion. Lancaster plays it all cheerfully with support from Gilbert Roland and Kieron Moore. The whole thing is highly contrived - in the '50s vein.

1. Enjoyable Saturday matinee material? The Foreign Legion? The Riffs? Battles and intrigues? Romance?

2. The atmosphere of the Sahara, the exotic Riff locations, V111ages? Action sequences? Musical score?

3. The title, the Foreign Legion, Kincaid and his followers? Not exactly heroes?

4. Burt Lancaster as Michael Kincaid - the humorous opening with him in the beard and his assistants in women's clothes? The confrontation with the Chief? Battles? The jealousy of the superior officer? The visiting woman and his arrest? His plan, his going out into the desert, the capture of the Princess, saving her, the adventures in the desert, the insubordination of his men? The build-up to the wedding, his kidnapping the bride? His being decorated at the end? Genial American hero?

5. The portrait of the international group in the Foreign Legion, stereotype figures, loyal and disloyal, dying bravely, cowardice? Action adventure?

6. The Riff situation: the riders in the desert, the attacks, the plans for uniting tribes, the Princess and her marriage, kidnapping, her resistance and trying to escape, her saving Kincaid's life, his rescuing her, her being kidnapped?

7. The military personnel? The jealous officer and his plans? His having to decorate Kincaid at the end?

8. The perennial popularity of this kind of boys' own-action adventure? In the American tradition?