Beau Geste (1939)

BEAU GESTE begins with a framed scene of a mounted column approaching Fort Zinderneuf in the desert of French Morocco. No one answers Colonel de Beaujolais's signal. Someone fires shots at his feet. When he points out that the troopers at their posts on the wall of the Fort are dead, the Company Bugler volunteers to scale the wall and investigate. Time passes, and Colonel Beaujolais (James Stephenson) follows the Bugler up the rope. He finds no one alive inside, and the Acting Commander of the Garrison, Sergeant Markoff, lies dead, bayoneted, with a note in his hand. The Colonel has just opened the gates to his men, when they come under fire from marauding Arabs. From the safety of the nearby Oasis, the Company sees Fort Zinderneuf burst into flames.