A film starring Jean Gabin as a murderer who joins the Foreign Legion to escape justice was mostly filmed in what is now Morocco. The story follows Pierre Gilieth, who kills a man and flees to Spain, where he joins the Foreign Legion. The film was originally dedicated "to Colonel Franco and the soldiers who gave their blood in the arid mountains of Haff Al Uest." However, this dedication was later removed from copies of the film after the Spanish Civil War and the rise of Francisco Franco's dictatorship. At the time, French cinema was increasingly interested in stories about the Foreign Legion, with Le Grand Jeu, directed by Jacques Feyder and featuring Pierre Richard-Willm (1934), already regarded as a classic in the genre. Jean Gabin was cast in the role of Gilieth, a part that had originally been intended for Pierre Richard-Willm.