Forgotten '60s movies: Lost Command

4 of our '60s favourites (Delon, Cardinale, Ronet, Segal)  in 1 forgotten war movie! Let's go ...

LOST COMMAND, 1966. “Anthony Quinn plays a hard-headed officer determined to become a hero at any cost in this dramatic war saga” but what will today’s generation make of this muddled war film dealing as it does with the French army in Indochina and Algeria in the ‘50s?. A Hollywood version of Pontecorvo's THE BATTLE OF ALGIERS? It starts with the battle of Dien Bien Phu in Indochina where the troops surrender to Burt Kwouk. 

George browns up ...

Mark Robson directs ably after touching on India’s problems (NINE HOURS TO RAMA), Sweden (THE PRIZE) and Nazi Germany (VON RYAN’S EXPRESS) not to mention his Hollywood sages like MY FOOLISH HEART, PEYTON PLACE or, his next, VALLEY OF THE DOLLS. Here in a large cast we have Alain Delon and Claudia Cardinale re-teamed but Robson does not showcase them like Visconti did in THE LEOPARD. Likewise there’s Delon and Maurice Ronet, teamed again after Clement’s PLEIN SOLEIL as different types of captains, Delon the idealist and Ronet another career solider determined to do whatever is needed. Most bizarre of all is George Segal, right, (after SHIP OF FOOLS and KING RAT as per recent reviews here, Segal label) in brownface as an Algerian, initially one of Quinn’s platoon in Indochina, but soon he is radicalised and becomes an Algerian “terrorist” determined to drive the French out of Algeria – well there’s topical resonance in that. Michele Morgan is also on hand as a French countess to romance Quinn who gets another chance to prove himself when she gets him a new position in Algeria. The peasant born Quinn aspires to her class and good life. He persuades his army buddies Delon and Ronet to join him in shaping up a unit, but eventually is forced to confront his old colleague Mahidi, now the Arab terrorist leader (Segal). In a desperate struggle to achieve victory he launches a bloody battle against the terrorist rebel forces …. 

LOST COMMAND bitterly shows man’s inhumanity to man – with questions that still ask us who is the terrorist? And why are they in Algeria in the first place? A war scenario that still echoes today in different parts of the world. It’s a serviceable enough war drama with a terrific mid-60s cast in their prime, but like any film that uses real war situations it raises more questions that it answers … 
I still can’t get over Segal browned up as the Algerian who changes sides (with Claudia as his sister who uses Delon to avoid those military checkpoints).  Some exciting moments too with a well-staged roadside ambush (rather like in THE HURT LOCKER) and theres the Hitchcockian frisson as we wait for a planted bomb to go off, and helicopter chases after those rebels in the mountains. It ends with Delon quitting the army while the career guys like Quinn and Ronet ironically get bedecked with medals .... 

An odd film then, one of those big-cast expensive productions no longer seen now - Delon served in Indochina himself I understand, and Claudia hails from Tunis, next to Algeria, but here they are making "entertainment" out of a real war situation, the French military operations in Indochina and Algeria, mystifying to us now - filmed in Spain, and Segal browned up as the Algerian terrorist would surely never happen today ?  Not trashy enough to be a Trash Classic, but Trash all the same ...