the Gestes were changed from British to American; the action was set in 1906 and the natives the legion are fighting are Tuaregs; removal of scenes of the brothers as kids ("which went on and on" according to Guy Stockwell); removal of notable female characters and the London sequences; simplifying Geste's motivation to join the legion, "more in keeping with the basic honesty of today" according to Selzter; removing any flashbacks; the fort is not entirely wiped out at the end, there is one survivor; the French Foreign Legion decide to abandon the fort at the end. It was written and directed by Douglas Heyes, whom Selzter described as "very visual minded." The star, Guy Stockwell, was under contract to Universal and had just made The War Lord with Seltzer. Stockwell said that Heyes "just tried to write a screenplay that would work. He had to keep telling himself that previous versions were really bad." As a publicity gimmick, Seltzer tried to track down a number of Foreign Legion veterans, asking to see if they were interested in appearing in the film. They received over 500 enquiries and 188 applicants, eventually casting 25, eight of whom lived near Los Angeles. Filming started November 1965. It was shot near Yuma with interiors at Universal studios. The film was the last credited work of Donald Robert Overall Hatswell (born July 3, 1898 in Norwood, Surrey, died: June 29, 1976). Hatswell was a former World War I Royal Navy Officer whose collection of over 720,000 picture postcards of uniforms and medals led him to be a Hollywood movie technical advisor Joseph Kane acted as the film's second unit director. See also Beau Geste for a list of adaptations of the novel References External links 1966 films 1960s war adventure films Films based on British novels 1960s English-language films 1960s historical adventure films American historical adventure films Films based on military novels Universal Pictures films Films about the French Foreign Legion Films set in deserts Siege films American war adventure films Remakes of American films Films set in the 1900s Films scored by Hans J. Salter Films directed by Douglas Heyes 1960s American films