ManiakJiggy This is How Movies Should Be Made

Motompa Go in cold, and you're likely to emerge with your blood boiling. This has to be seen to be believed.

Joanna Mccarty Amazing worth wacthing. So good. Biased but well made with many good points.

Yash Wade Close shines in drama with strong language, adult themes.

Prismark10 When French Foreign Legionnaire Kincaid (Burt Lancaster) is told of an impending attack on the outpost of in North Africa while he is imprisoned. In return for his freedom he and his men will distract the enemy until help arrived.However he learns that the treacherous leader of the Riffs plans to marry Mahla, a girl from a rival tribe in order to create an alliance against the French. Kincaid kidnaps her and takes for the desert where both fall for each other.Burt Lancaster was the tough, compassionate and dashing soldier several years before From Here to Eternity.The plot nicely shot in Technicolour does have a hint of being shot in a Hollywood back lot rather than a desert. It also has a whole heap of campness especially with a bare chested Lancaster about to be tortured.Its purely a film of its time with a light plot, broad humour, a clunky romance where the white soldier kidnaps the Arab princess and inexplicably fall in love. Still you feel that all involved had their tongues in their cheeks and went all out to entertain.

MartinHafer Despite the presence of Burt Lancaster, this is a very ordinary sort of French Foreign Legion film. You certainly WON'T be reminded of "Beau Geste" when you see "Ten Tall Men".Lancaster plays a trouble-loving sergeant. However disrespectful and crazy he behaves, however, he's loyal and very brave. So, when he hears that the evil Hussin is planning an attack, he's quick to volunteer to take a group of nine men and try to delay Hussin's men. But, when they arrive in his camp in disguise, they learn that Hussin is about to marry the daughter of his hated rival from another clan. And, in doing so, he'll united the clans and be strong enough to beat the Legion. So, they impulsively decide to kidnap the lady--figuring that this way the two tribes will not become one. Much of the rest of the film consists of Lancaster and his men running from the pursuers.I assume that if you love the colonial system, you will be more favorably disposed towards this film. After all, if you think about it, you could just as easily root for the rebels as they are trying to rid their land of foreign invaders. As for me, the deciding factor for not loving the film had much more to do with the very pedestrian nature of the movie. Nothing caught my interest and it seemed more like a B-movie with color than anything else. It had a lot of clichés (such as the falling in love bit that came from out of no where) and an ending that just seemed rushed and, again, clichéd. Not a terrible film--just not a good one either.By the way, look for Robert Clary (of "Hogan's Heroes" fame) in a small part as one of the natives.

Spikeopath More known for writing credits that include the likes of The Man Who Shot Liberty Valance and Sergeant Rutledge, Willis Goldbeck here instead jumps into the directors chair for this fun Burt Lancaster led desert adventure piece. Also starring Jody Lawrance, Gerald Mohr and John Dehner, the film finds a cast rightly not taking things too seriously. The plot sees Sergeant Mike Kincaid (Lancaster all teeth and pectorals) lead nine Legionnaires on a deadly mission to delay a Riff attack on a desert fort. Whilst on the trek Kincaid learns that the Riff leader Khalid Hussein (Mohr) is planning to marry Mahla (Lawrance) so as to unite two once opposing tribes. So, to prevent the marriage, Kincaid kidnaps Mahla and the troubles for the Legionnaires are about to get much much worse.It's easy to dismiss the all round acting as being rather poor, but with the material and the obvious tone the makers were going for, it all sits rather well. None more so than with the square jawed Lancaster, an Oscar winning actor whose comic timing wasn't always put to the best use. Here, however, it is. For sure much of the film is iffy technically, but in glorious Technicolor and with smiles and moustaches aplenty, the film winds up being the undemanding light entertainment piece it set out to be. Think Carry On Follow That Camel meets The Crimson Pirate and we are about there I think. 5.5/10

bkoganbing In those last years before the French finally cleared out of North Africa, Foreign Legion films seem to have been popular with the movie going public. Ten Tall Men is a typical example of such a film. Even though ultimately and soon the French would be driven out of the area the Foreign Legion patrolled before the decade ended.Burt Lancaster is a sergeant of American background in the Foreign Legion and typically we don't know what drove him to join. His two corporals are Gilbert Roland and Kieron Moore and a bit of lese majeste involving Mari Blanchard got these guys some stockade time. Still they and others break out and hear of both an impending attack by the Riffs while the regiment is away on their post. It will be at the conclusion of a marriage between Jody Laurence the daughter of one sheik and Gerald Mohr another sheik. Once these tribes are united nothing stands in their way.What to do but kidnap the daughter and hold her until the regiment returns. That proves easier said than done and once done a lot harder to tame this desert wildcat. But Burt with that smile and those pecs is the guy for the job.None of the players in Ten Tall Men took this one real seriously and neither should we. Ten Tall Men is like a combination of The Desert Song and The Road To Morocco without songs.Don't believe me, well check out the end and you can't tell me The Road To Morocco didn't inspire that.