The Lost Patrol (1934)

When a pre-Code movie is a remake, that can mean only one thing: The original was silent. Quite an understandable move when there's plenty of inaudible gunfire. This particular remake is more popular than the original and reportedly inspired many knockoffs, but it's had a pretty mixed reception over the decades.

If there's a moral to the story, it's "Share important information with your team before heading into danger." In the first scene, a British WWI lieutenant gets gunned down in the desert by an unseen Arabian sniper. Since he had refused to tell anyone else in his patrol where they were going or why, the remaining 11 wander. When they find an oasis with a curiously abandoned fortress, they can only hope another British patrol will reach them before the snipers get them all.

As war flicks go, it's pretty good at getting me to care about the troops as individuals. I won't get into many character details, but the most memorable is Boris Karloff as the most pious Christian among them. This trait starts out fairly charming, until blown out of proportion. Then we learn why Karloff was cast: He loses his grip on sanity. Other actors familiar to me include Victor McLaglen, Wallace Ford, Reginald Denny (not that one), J.M. Kerrigan, Alan Hale, Brandon Hurst, and Douglas Walton.

The "politically incorrect" label is tentative. Certainly we're not likely to see a movie like this today, where a British invasionary force is held up as heroes and all the Arabs, while not present enough for caricature, are implicitly vilified. At least we can admire the latter's skill; they practically turn invisible, and how often are villains such crack shots on screen? Some viewers get annoyed at the complete lack of women, but what can you expect from the setting? The only non-soldier is a random aviator. The other reason a modern audience might complain is the use of an "Eeny meeny miny moe" variant that does not include "tiger." No, it doesn't use the N-word either. I can't find the precise line in writing, but it sounded like "voodoo" to me. Whatever it means, it hasn't aged well on this side of the pond.

I'd say the main weakness is in how slight the writing is. Maybe a lot got lost from the Philip MacDonald book Patrol. It still feels a little fresh, if only because I can't think of another tale of troops getting picked off one by one at an oasis.

As a rule, the genre is big on downers. If you want a relatively uplifting example, keep looking. The most recommendable thing about this one is a 73-minute runtime.