French Soldiers at the Cinema in Shanghai – They’re Almost as Bad as the Italians!!

I’ve talked before about Italian soldiers behaving badly in Shanghai’s cinemas – in 1937 Italian sailors rioted at the Isis Cinema in Hongkew, egged on by some local fascisti from the Italian community, complaining about a Soviet documentary detailing the Italian army’s abuses in Abyssinia. More on that here…

But it seems there was precedent.

In 1928, nearly a decade before former French soldiers, about 60 in total, turned up at the Carlton Theatre (Ka’erdeng) to protest a screening of Beau Geste. The Shanghai Municipal Police were in attendance but were, apparently sympathetic towards the veterans. But why Beau Geste?

There are several movie versions of Beau Geste and we’re talking about the 1926 Ronald Coleman version from Paramount, based on Percival Christopher Wren’s novel. Michael “Beau” Geste leaves (a pre-WW1) England in disgrace and joins the infamous French Foreign Legion. He is reunited with his two brothers in North Africa, where they face greater danger from their own sadistic commander than from the rebellious Arabs. It was the biggest movie in box office terms in 1926. I’m assuming the French veterans objected to the sadistic French commander, but if anyone knows different….???