Beau Geste is a 1924 adventure novel by P. C. Wren. It has been adapted for the screen several times.

The phrase "beau geste" is from the French, meaning "a gracious (or fine) gesture".

In French, the phrase includes the suggestion of a fine gesture with unwelcome or futile consequences,[1] and an allusion to the chanson de geste, a literary poem celebrating the legendary deeds of a hero.[2] In English, "geste" is a homophone with "jest," meaning "a joke" or "to joke." As a pun, a "beau geste" may therefore indicate a beautiful (or poignant) joke.

The original novel, on which the various films are more or less loosely based, provides a detailed and fairly authentic description of life in the pre-1914 Foreign Legion, which has led to (unproven) suggestions that P. C. Wren himself served with the legion.