Lost Command

Set against the backdrop of the French-Algerian war of the late 1950s and early 1960s, this action film takes a considerably more commercial and entertaining look at the events covered (far more authentically) than did the previous year's BATTLE OF ALGIERS. After France's defeat at Dienbienphu in Indochina in 1954, a unit of paratroopers led by Lieutenant Colonel Pierre Raspeguy (Anthony Quinn) is sent to North Africa to quiet the Algerian freedom fighters. One of the unit's officers, Lieutennt Ben Mahidi (George Segal), joins forces with the rebels. Raspeguy, meanwhile, takes up with Countess de Clairefons (Michele Morgan), a wealthy beauty widowed when her husban...