The Oriental Romance is my title for the genre of film that considers the adventures of contemporary (a deictic term that shifts as the history of the cinema lengthens but which covers the late colonial and postcolonial world) ‘Westerners’ in ‘the Orient.’  While this genre extends to include such classics as the Fu Manchu films and myriad films about the British Raj, I am limiting this particular filmography to those focusing on the Middle East.   The defining characteristic of what I am calling the Oriental Romance is the use of the Middle East, particularly the contrast between an imagined “East” and an imagined “West,” as a pretext for romance and adventure.  This genre is deeply associated with a whole range of Colonialist and post-colonialist fantasies. 

Imagining the foreign as at once exotic and familiar is not limited to Western media, of course.  Alf Layla wa Layla itself sets Aladdin in a China that is no more than an exotic name used as a backdrop for a fantastic story.  It is no more about China than Road to Morocco is about Morocco.  To be fair, many of the worst examples of this, including Aladdin, are considered to be  late additions to the text.  Nonetheless, there is no question that the use of foreign locations as exotic settings for adventure is not a technique limited to the western media.

The Oriental Romance borders on several of the other genres in this filmography.  I have excluded 20^th Century military films on the grounds that while these involve the East in the West, most borrow a different set of tropes.  Perhaps we will in time produce a filmography of these as a further subgenre.

British silent film directed by J. Searle Dawley.  The first adaptation of the novel by A.E.W. Mason.  Capt. Harry Faversham (Howard Estabrook) resigns just before being sent to the Sudan.  He receives four feathers from his girlfriend Ethne (Irene Warfield ) and three friends (Arthur Evers, Fuller Mellish, George Moss) – symbols of cowardice and dishonor. The shame makes him determined to force his former associates to take back the feathers and so he goes off to the Sudan and performs brave deeds of derring-do disguised as an Arab.  He saves each of his friends’ lives, returning to each the feather before vanishing.  Having proved himself, he returns to England and weds Ethne.

The Man From Egypt (1916)

Vitagraph.  Written and Directed by Larry Semon and Graham Baker.  Based on Norma Lorimer’s There Was a King in Egypt.  Cast: Larry Semon, Hughie Mack and Jewel Hunt.

Directed by William Wolbert.  Written by Helmer Walton Bergman from a novel by Frederick Lewis Isham.  This movie is supposedly based on an actual incident during a turn-of-the-century political uprising in Damascus. An Englishman named William Fitzgerald (William Duncan) and his infant daughter are kidnapped by insurgents and spirited away to the desert stronghold of wicked Amad (Otto Lederer). Eighteen years later, an American Broadwayite named Jack Stanton (Antonio Moreno), disguised as an Arab to win a bet, attempts to rescue the now-grown-up daughter Faimeh (Edith Storey) from the villain's harem. Also starring Laura Winston as Light-of-Life and George Holt as Sadi.

Directed by Arthur Rossen.  Written by C. Gardner Sullivan.    Glamorous actress Mignon (Louise Glaum) has retired from the Parisian stage after marrying young American engineer John Stanley (Matt Moore). When he is commissioned to go to work in the Sahara desert, Mignon accompanies him with their baby. But it isn't long before she is lonely and horribly bored.  So when a wealthy Russian expatriate, Baron Alexis (Edwin Stevens), passes through the camp, she runs away with him to his luxurious palace in Cairo. Years pass, but Mignon is not happy; she begins to seek happiness by charitable works.  While taking alms to the beggars' row one day she sees a filthy dope fiend accompanied by a animated little boy (Pat Moore), whom she recognizes as her husband and son. She takes them back to the palace, enraging the Baron, who tries to kill her.  Instead, Stanley kills him. Mignon, Stanley and the boy escape into the desert, where Stanley recovers, regains his memory and learns to forgive Mignon.

See reviews: New York Times, 30 June 1919, p. 16 (NP); Variety, 4 July 1919, p. 43 (WNP).  Also released as Forbidden Fire and Stairway to the Stars.

The novel L'Atlantide is a classic “lost race” novel.  It was published in two separate translations in 1920: in the U.S. as Atlantida and in England as Atlantis. Benoit’s novel was both very popular and very controversial, as Queen Antinea is closely modeled on H. Rider Haggard’s She and the plot is drawn from Haggard's novel The Yellow God (1908).

Read the review from the December 1921 Picture Play Magazine http://www.silentsaregolden.com/onearabiannightreview.html

Directed by George Melford.  This is the classic that defined the genre.  Englishwomen Lady Diana (Vilma Banky) dresses as an Arab to discover the hidden world of the desert people.  She finds a place where women are bought and sold – and ends up herself bought by an Arab sheik (Rudolph Valentino) who rapes her and makes her his wife.  In the end, she falls in love with him and he turns out to be English born. 

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Directed by Jerome Storm.  Written by Jules Furthman.  Norman Stone (John Gilbert) is a young American who, after killing the man who disgraced his sister, joins a band of Arab bandits led by the Sheik (Herschel Mayall). The sheik’s daughter Themar (Barbara LaMarr) vamps the handsome foreign adventurer, to the dismay of the jealous Ahmed Bey (Bob Kortman).  Several  coincidences later, Gilbert falls in love with Nadine Fortier (Barbara Bedford), widow of the man he has killed.  LaMarr was billed in Hollywood as “the woman who is too beautiful.”

Shadow of Egypt (1924)

Written and directed by Sidney Morgan.  Based on a novel by Norma Lorimer.  Harold Westcott (Milton Rosmer), Lilian Westcott (Alma Taylor), Sheik Hanon (Carlyle Blackwell), Abdullah (Arthur Walcott), Apollo (John Hamilton), Yusef (Charles Levey), Moonface (Joan Morgan).

Bound in Morocco (1925)
 

Written and Directed by Alan Dwan

Maid in Morocco (1925)  

Directed by Charles Lamont.  Starring Violet Blythe, Helen Foster, Lupino Lane and Wallace Lupin (as the Caliph). The fantasy Morocco of the Hollywood imagination provides a stage for the acrobatic comedy of Lupino Lane, famous in his day for his “India-rubber body.”  The film was noted at the time for an eye-popping stunt during a chase scene in which Lupino literally runs up and down the inside of a proscenium archway, making a full 360 degree loop.

Directed by Herbert Brenon.  Written by John Russell and Paul Schofield, from the novel by Percival Christopher Wren.  The film opens on the scene of a remote, burning desert fort, in which the bodies of dead Foreign Legionnaires are propped up at the guard posts.  To explain this strange site, the film flashes back to the early lives of the Geste brothers. As children, the Gestes swear eternal loyalty to one another and to their family. One of the boys, young Beau (Maurice Murphy), witnesses his beloved aunt (Alice Joyce) stealing a valuable family jewel in order to finance the Geste home; Beau chooses to remain silent rather than disgrace his aunt. Years later, the grown Beau (Ronald Coleman) again protects his aunt by confessing to the theft and running off to join the Foreign Legion. He is joined in uniform by faithful brothers John (Ralph Forbes) and Digby (Neil Hamilton), who in turn are pursued by thieves who think the Geste’s have the jewels. The crooks are in cahoots with sadistic Legion Sgt. LeJaune (Noah Beery, Jr.), who is later put in charge of Fort Zinderneuf, where Beau and John are stationed. When the Arabs attack, LeJaune proves himself a valiant soldier; it is he who hits upon the idea of convincing the Arabs that the fort is still fully manned by propping up the corpses of the casualties at the guard posts. Beau is seriously wounded, and while the greedy LeJaune searches for the jewel supposedly hidden on Beau's person, he is held at bay by loyal John. The suddenly enervated Beau kills LeJaune, then dies himself—but not before entrusting two notes to John, one of which requests that John give Beau the “Viking funeral” he'd always wanted.  John torches the whole fort as Beau’s pyre.  After the battle, Digby Geste, a bugler with the relief troops, comes upon Beau's dead body, and appropriates the notes. In the end, John Geste is the only one who survives to return to England. He gives his aunt Beau's letter, which explains why Beau had confessed and run off—“a ‘beau geste’, indeed” comments his tearful aunt

Dinky Doodle in Egypt (1926)

Walter Lantz animated short.  Part of a series that combined live-action sequences with the animated adventures of a young button-eyed boy named Dinky Doodle and his faithful dog, Weakheart.

Directed by Sinclair Hill.  Written by Geoffrey Malins.  Eleanor Vallance (Marie Colette), Hugh Trevor (John Dehelly), Melody Rourke (Sybil Rhoda), the Sheik (Gordon Hopkirk), Sir Max Drake (Edward O’Neill).

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Directed by Roy Del Ruth.  Colonial officer General Bierbieu (Edward Martindel) is plagued by the antics of The Red Shadow, the Robin Hood-like leader of the Riffs, whom he cannot capture.  The good General has another cross to bear in the form of his nerdish, lily-livered son Pierre (John Boles), who is likewise despised by heroine Margot (Carlotta King). Little does anyone suspect that the wimpy Pierre and the dashing Red Shadow are one in the same!  When the Red Shadow kidnaps Margot, she falls in love with him – much to the annoyance of his Arab girlfriend Azuri (Myrna Loy). 

This is the first film version of the Sigmund Romberg and Oscar Hammerstein II operetta.  It is historically important as Warner Brothers second musical, following closely on the heels of the pioneering sound film The Jazz Singer.

Directed by George Melford.  Written by Randolph Bartlett and Paul Percy.  Spoiled young playboy Bob Winslow (Hugh Trevor) is shipped off to a desert sheik by his wealthy parents (Ida Darling and William H. Tooker) after they catch him running around with chorus girls. He is abducted by a rival Arab clan, but rescued by the princess Zarah (Olive Borden), whom he decides to marry. His mother is horrified (Arabian princesses apparently rate with chorus girls in her book).  Released in Italy as Sahara.

Morocco (1930)  

Directed by Josef von Sternberg.  Written by Jules Furthman . The Foreign Legion marches in to Mogador with booze and women in mind just as singer Amy Jolly (Marlene Dietrich) arrives from Paris to work at Lo Tinto's (Paul Porcasi) cabaret. That night, insouciant legionnaire Tom Brown (Gary Cooper) catches her seductive, tuxedo-clad act. Both bruised by their past lives, the two edge cautiously into a no-strings relationship while each being pursued by other lovers.  In Amy’s case, her pursuer is La Bessiere (Adolphe Menjou).  But just as their relationship is beginning, Tom must  leave  on a perilous mission.

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Jilted by his girlfriend, "Jeanie-Weenie," Oliver joins the Foreign Legion to forget, bringing Stanley along with him. They wilt under the scorching desert sun and under the harsh discipline of the Commandant (Charles Middleton). On a long march to reinforce remote Fort Arid, the boys get lost in the sands, finally reaching the Fort only to find it besieged by the fearsome Riffs.  Released in UK as Beau Chumps.

Who were Laurel and Hardy?

Love-Tails of Morocco (1931)

Directed by Zion Myers and Jules White.

Baroud (1932)

Also released as Love in Morocco.  Directed by Rex Ingram and Alice Terry.  Written by Rex Ingram and Benno Vigny.  This was Ingram’s only talking picture.  Si Alal, Caid de Ilued (Felipe Montes), Zinah, his daughter (Rosita Garcia), Si Hamed (Pierre Batcheff), André Duval (Rex Ingram), Mabrouka (Arabella Fields), Si Amarok (Andrews Engelman), Captain Sabry (Dennis Hoey), Arlette (Laura Salerni).

Directed by Harry Lachman.  Written by Basil Mason.  Half-Arab Capt. Ramon Nadir (Hugh Williams) of the French Foreign Legion, loves Pola Dubois (Elizabeth Allen), daughter of his commanding officer, Major DuBois (Sam Livesey).  But because he was previously court-martialed for insubordination, he cannot earn his commander's trust. Eventually, Dubois locks him up, then sends his own son Henry (John Gielgud) to fight with native troops. Nadir knows this is a mistake; he breaks out of jail and rushes to save the commander's son. He willingly sacrifices his life for the young man

Like the original version, shot on location in the Sahara.  Released in Germany as L'Atlantida and as Die Herrin von Atlantis.  Released in France as L'Atlantida.  Released in the UK and US as Mistress of Atlantis and Queen of Atlantis.

Directed by William Dieterle.  Written by Howard Estabrook.  Lt. Andre Morand (Victor Jory) is a French Foreign Legion doctor falsely accused of murdering his commander over the love of Margot Lesesne (Loretta Young). Jory escapes prosecution by heading for parts unknown, but when a deadly illness strikes his old fort, he returns to aid his comrades. He is arrested, but clears himself of the murder charge and ends up with Margot.  Bela Lugosi plays the military prosecutor.

The Three Musketeers (1933)

A 12-part movie serial directed by Colbert Clark and Armand Schaffer.  Written by Ella Arnold and Colbert Clark.  American Tom Wayne (John Wayne) rescues three Foreign Legionnaires, Clancy (Jack Mulhall) Renard (Raymond Hatton) and Schmidt (Ralph Bushman), in the deserts of North Africa.  Together they seek to track down and defeat the mysterious “El Shasta,” who is out to destroy the French Foreign Legion. 

Directed by Julien Duvivier.  Adapted from the novel by Pierre Mac Orlan.

Accused of murder, Pierre (Jean Gabin) joins the Legion, with detective Lucas (Roberto Le Vigran) hot on his trail. Both Pierre and Lucas fall in love with beautiful Bedouin girl Aischa (Annabella), which only intensifies their hatred of one another. The two antagonists are eventually forced to bury the hatchet when fighting shoulder to shoulder against uprising natives.

See Andrew, Dudley.  Praying Mantis: Enchantment and violence in French cinema of the exotic.  In Visions of the East: Orientalism in Film.  London: I.B. Taurus.

Directed by Louis King.  Written by Robert Ellis and Helen Logan.  The film opens as archaeologist Professor Arnold opens a tomb, and his servant Ali dies. Next scene: Charlie Chan (Warner Oland) arrives to meet with Prof. Arnold as part of an investigation he is conducting for a Paris museum; it seems that treasures from the Ameti tomb that have been sold in Europe in violation of their contract. Carol Arnold (Pat Paterson) tells him her father is missing. Arnold’s colleague Professor John Thurston (Frank Conroy) shows Chan the Ameti treasures, and Chan notices the mummy has been opened, to the astonishment of the archaeologists, who swear they were waiting for Arnold before opening it. They x-ray it, and Chan sees a bullet near the heart. It is Professor Arnold's body wrapped and hidden in the mummy case. Thurston gives Carol medicine prescribed by Dr. Racine. She is suffering nervous tension; she believes she saw a ghost. Her injured brother Barry Arnold (James Eagles) also believes in the legendary curses. Dr. Racine (Jameson Thomas) comes to see Carol. Thurston admits he sold some of the Ameti items to pay Dr. Racine.  He explains that professor Arnold was wounded by “natives,” and the bullet was never removed.

Chan stays with expatriate Tom Evans (Thomas Beck) and discovers that his typewriter, was used to forge a letter from Arnold letter. Tom tells Chan that professor Arnold was still looking for the real Ameti treasure, much vaster than what they found so far. Tom and Chan go to the tomb with Chan’s manservant Snowshoes (Steppin Fetchit). The lights go out, and a statue of Sekhmet disappears.

Dr. Racine tells Chan and local police that a blow on the head caused Arnold's death. Chan says he found a hallucinogenic poison called mapuchari in Carol’s cigarettes and believes it affected her. Barry, who said he knows where the “real” treasure is, collapses while playing the violin and dies. The polic try to arrest Edfu Ahmad, the Egyptian who sells the family cigarettes, but he pulls a gun and escapes.

Chan and Tom go back to the tomb and discover a secret passage. Tom swims underwater and finds a room with treasures and Arnold's clothes, but he is shot twice. A doctor removes the bullet, which Chan takes to compare it to the one he got from the professor's mummy. Chan tells the well-wishing servant Nayda (Rita Hayworth), "Kind thoughts add favorable weight in balance of life and death." Chan discovers a tiny vial of poison inside the violin. He explains that the sound of the violin broke the fragile glass, poisoning Barry. The police try to arrest Edfu Ahmad but Chan says that when Tom becomes conscious, he will name the murderer. Leaving Tom alone as a decoy, Chan catches Thurston about to stick a knife into Tom. Chan tells the police that Thurston killed professor Arnold, drugged Carol, poisoned Barry, and shot Tom. Tom awakes to find a doting Carol.  

Directed by D. Ross Lederman.  Written by Samuel Fuller and Maxwell Shane.
Jim Wilson (Paul Kelly), Captain Savatt (C. Henry Gordon), Carla preston (Lorna Gray), Lieutenant Dumond (Robert Fiske), Gravet the Jackal (Dwight Frye).

Directed by Leon Poirier.

See Andrew, Dudley.  Praying Mantis: Enchantment and violence in French cinema of the exotic.  In Visions of the East: Orientalism in Film.  London: I.B. Taurus

Directed by Richard Boleslawski.  Written by W.P. Lipscomb.  Based on the novel by Richard Hichens.  Domini Enfilden (Marlene Dietrich), an heiress who has led a quiet, cloistered life, comes to the North African desert to find spiritual renewal.  Her friendly, inquisitive guide Batouch (James Schildkraut speaking gibberish that sounds nothing like Arabic) brings her to a small Arab village she meets other expatriates:  Count Anteoni (Basil Rathbone), a European nobleman who has left his country because he loved the desert, De Trevignac (Alan Marshal), an honorable French soldier and handsome Boris Androvsky (Charles Boyer), a handsome man with a mysterious past.  As she and Boris are increasingly drawn to one another, his past emerges: he is a priest who has abandoned his Trappist monastery after a crisis of faith.  A wise old priest (C. Aubrey Smith) and the enigmatic Sand Diviner (John Carridine) round out the cast. 

This film won an honorary Oscar for color cinematography.

Pepe Le Moko (1936)

French classic directed by Julien Duvivier.  Pepe Le Moko (Jean Gabin), a thief who escaped from France with a fortune in jewels, has for two years lived in, and virtually ruled, the mazelike, impenetrable Casbah, “native quarter” of Algiers. A French official insists that he be captured, but sly Inspector Slimane (Lucas Gridoux) knows he need only bide his time.  The suave Pepe increasingly regards his stronghold as also his prison, especially when he meets beautiful Parisian visitor Gaby (Mireille Gabin), who reminds him of the boulevards to which he dare not return...and arouses the mad jealousy of Ines (Line Noro), his Algerian mistress.

See Morgan, Janice.  In the labyrinth: Masculine subjectivity, expatriation and colonialism in Pepe Le Moko.  In Visions of the East: Orientalism in Film.  London: I.B. Taurus

Short animated film directed by Dave Fleischer.  Jack Mercer is the voice of Popeye; Mae Questel is Olive Oyl.  Showing Sweepea around the museum, Popeye confronts a statue of Sindbad, billed as the world’s greatest sailor.  When Sweepea asks how this can be, since Popeye has told him HE is the world’s greatest sailor, the sailin’ man launches into a yarn about his own historic confrontation with the sailor of the Arabian Nights.

Popeye, Olive Oyl and J. Wellington Wimpy are out for a sail.  Sindbad sees Popeye’s boat and is smitten with Olive.  He sends his giant bird, Rokh, to wreck Popeye's boat and kidnap Olive, whom he forces to dance for him by firing buckshot at her feet with a pea-shooter. Popeye attempts to rescue her while Wimpy follows a duck around with a meat-grinder.  After Popeye disposes of Rokh and Sindbad's two-headed, Yiddish-accented giant, Boola, it's a battle to the “finich” between the two legendary sailors.  With the aid of his peculiar metabolic reaction to spinach, Popeye wins.  Back in the museum, Sweepea re-chisels the statue of the world’s greatest sailor into an image of Popeye. 

This is the first of three two-reel cartoons created by Max Fleischer interpolating Popeye into stories from the Arabian Nights.  The others are Popeye Meets Ali Baba’s Forty Thieves and Aladdin.  This one and Ali Baba are particularly interesting because they make the world of the Arabian Nights contemporary with the American neo-colonialist “adventuring” era between the wars.  Popeye symbolizes, at various times, both the American merchant fleet sailing the world’s seas and the “China gunboatmen” out there protecting them.

The Secret of Stamboul (1936)

British film directed by Andrew Martin.  Written by Richard Wainwright, George A. Hill, Howard Irving Young and Noel Langley from the novel The Eunuch of Stamboul by Dennis Wheatley.   Larry (James Mason) and Peter (Peter Haddon) are lose their jobs after they start a fight with lascivious Prince Ali, who tried to seduce Peter’s girl friend, Diana (Kay Walsh). Fortunately, Diana’s father Sir George (Robert English) is grateful.  He finds a job for Larry managing one of his tobacco warehouses in Turkey. There Larry meets the beautiful Russian Tania (Valerie Hobson), with whom he falls in love. Later he learns that she is being used by Prince Ali, who is conspiring to take over the Turkish government. Peter and Diana come to Turkey to help him stop the prince and Turkey is saved.  Also known as The Spy in White.  

Short animated film directed by Dave Fleischer.  Jack Mercer is the voice of Popeye; Mae Questel is Olive Oyl.  Popeye the Sailor is doing Coast Guard duty under the admiring gaze of Olive Oyl while fellow sailor Wimpy lounges in the boat eating hamburgers.  Suddenly word comes that “Abu Hassan and his forty thieves” have been sighted.  Popeye takes off, with Olive jumping in for the adventure.  The boat becomes a plane, and after a brief parody of those maps showing planes traveling, we reach the Sahara desert, where the plane develops engine trouble and crashes.  The desert takes its toll on his companions, but Popeye is unfazed: “Keep yer vitality up, Olive.  We gots ta save little women and children.”  They reach one of those walled desert cities the Sahara is dotted with in movies, and decide to have a meal at the local café before searching further for the bandits.  When the town is raided by the evil Abu Hassan and his forty thieves, Olive is kidnapped and forced her to do the laundry for the whole gang. Popeye follows on a camel and sneaks into their hideout to rescue her, but finds himself outnumbered forty-one to one.  Thank goodness for unique metabolic reaction to spinach… In the end, Popeye, Olive and Wimpy return the gold and jewels to the cheering crowds of the desert village. 

 This film combines the Oriental Romance with the Arabian Fantasy.  That an American Coast Guard officer would be sent to the Sahara desert to deal with a bandit gives expression to America’s fantasies about being the world’s policeman as early as 1937, and invokes both historical reminders of U.S. action in Tripoli and then current concerns about Morocco.  Popeye warns Abu Hassan to “stop in the name of the Coast Guard!”  When he eats his spinach, his empowerment is accompanied by American military music and as the background music to his fight with the forty thieves is by John Phillip Sousa.  This is one of three two-reel cartoons created by Max Fleischer interpolating Popeye into stories from the Arabian Nights.  The others are Aladdin and his Wonderful Lamp and Popeye Meets Sinbad the Sailor.

Who is Popeye?

Trouble in Morocco (1937)

Directed by Ernest B. Schoedsack.  Written by Paul Franklin.  From the book Sewing Glory by J.D. Newstrom.  Paul Cluett (Jack Holt) and Tiger Malone (Paul Hurst) are two foreign correspondents assigned to investigate a ring of arms smugglers in Cairo. Paul of them gets involved with a gangster who mistakes him for another crook and ends up joining the Foreign Legion under Captain Nardant (C. Henry Gordon). As he tries to fulfill his obligation, he finds himself battling with fierce desert warriors.   Starring Mae Clarke as love interest Linda Lawrence.

Algiers (1938)

Directed by John Cromwell.  Written by John Howard Lawson from the novel by Henri La Barthe.  A remake of the 1936 French film.  Pepe Le Moko (Charles Boyer), a thief who escaped from France with a fortune in jewels, has for two years lived in, and virtually ruled, the mazelike, impenetrable Casbah, “native quarter” of Algiers. A French official insists that he be captured, but sly Inspector Slimane (Joseph Calleia) knows he need only bide his time.  The suave Pepe increasingly regards his stronghold as also his prison, especially when he meets beautiful Parisian visitor Gaby (Hedy Lamarr), who reminds him of the boulevards to which he dare not return...and arouses the mad jealousy of Ines (Sigrid Gurie), his Algerian mistress.  She betrays him to Slimane.

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Porky in Egypt (1938)

Animated short starring Porky Pig.  Directed by Robert Clampett.  Written by Ernest Gee
Porky Pig is a tourist in Egypt.  He misses the main camel tour caravan, so he rents a camel of his own and sets off.  Both camel and pig are soon overcome by the hot desert sun; the camel starts hallucinating, and marches off, playing the bagpipes. Porky sees the camel swimming in a pool, but it turns out to be a mirage. The camel eventually recovers enough to bring both of them back to town, where Porky in turn goes mad.

This production took full advantage of the British political and economic control of Egypt and the Sudan to film on location using actual soldiers and war surplus.  The  Omdurman battle scenes were filmed on location with actual Sudanese/Egyptian troops.  The original Nile gunboat Melik appears, being towed over a cataract.  The producers maintained splendid production values.  Scenes of the Dervish troops flowing across the land are spectacular, as are the beautiful Nile cataract sequences with dhows and steamers. There are also some urban scenes, including one in which the Mahdi's tomb takes an artillery hit in the background

Beau Geste (1939)
 

John, one of which requests that John give Beau the "Viking funeral" he'd always wanted.  John torches the whole fort as Beau’s pyre.   (this is why the fort is in flames at the beginning of the film). After the battle, Digby Geste, a bugler with the relief troops, comes upon Beau's dead body, and appropriates the notes. As it turns out, John Geste is the only one who survives to return to England. He gives his aunt Beau's letter, which explains why Beau had confessed and run off—"a 'beau geste', indeed" comments his tearful aunt

Read an article on this film by Tim Dirks

Directed by A. Edward Sutherland.  Written by Ralph Spence and Charles Rogers.  Oliver is heartbroken when he finds that Georgette, the inkeeper's daughter he's fallen in love with, is already married to dashing Foreign Legion officer Francois. To forget her, he joins the Legion, taking Stanley with him. They wilt under the hot desert sun and the harsh discipline of the commandant (Charles Middleton).  When he realizes he’s forgotten Georgette, he and Stanley try to leave, only to be charged with desertion and sentenced to a firing squad. They manage to escape in a stolen airplane, but crash after a wild ride. A remake of their earlier short film, Beau Hunks.

Who are Laurel and Hardy? 

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Mr. Moto’s Last Warning (1939)

Directed by Norman FostA Japanese man claiming to be Mr Moto, of the International Police, is abducted and murdered soon after disembarking from a ship at Egypt's Port Said. The real Mr Moto (Peter Lorre) is already in Port Said, investigating a conspiracy against the British and French governments. The dead man was his colleague, impersonating him to throw the conspirators off his scent. Mr Moto recognizes one of the conspirators as a British Secret Service agent (John Carradine) working undercover, and together they discover that the gang have mined the harbor in preparation for the arrival of the French fleet. Their aim is to throw the blame onto the British in order to start a second World War.  Fortunately, Moto and his British associate are able to stop the villains.

Who was Mr. Moto?

Starring Jean-Pierre Aumont.

Cairo (1942)  

American MGM film directed by W.S. Van Dyke.  Written by John McClain.  Wisecracking movie star Marcia Warren (Jeannette McDonald), living in London, hires fellow American Homer Smith (Robert Young) as her butler. What Marcia doesn't know is that Smith is an American newspaperman, who strongly suspects that our heroine is a Nazi spy.  They travel to Cairo, where Marcia and her maidservant Cleona (Ethel Waters) pitch in to help Smith break up an Axis espionage ring and capture the real spy, Mrs. Morrison (Mona Barrie). 

Casablanca (1942) 

Directed by Michael Curtiz.  Written by Julius J. and Philip G. Epstein and Howard Koch. Ugarte (Peter Lorre) obtains special passports (“letters of transit”) from murdered German couriers.  They are worth a fortune in Casablanca, where people are trying to flee North Africa and the war to go to America.  He is suspected, so he passes them on to saloonkeeper Rick (Humphrey Bogart) and is shot by police trying to escape.  Meanwhile, lovely Ilse (Ingrid Bergman) and her husband the resistance leader Victor Laszlo (Paul Hanreid) arrive in Casablanca seeking a way to America and freedom.  Ingrid had been Rick’s lover in Paris but she deserted him.  He was deeply embittered by the affair.  Ilse and Laszlo seek passports through Senor Ferrari (Sidney Greenstreet) but he warns them that there are none to be had – unless, he says, Rick knows more about the letters of transit than he lets on.

Rick’s friend, Capt. Louis Renalt (Claude Rains), shuts down Rick’s café at the demand of Major Strasser (Conrad Veidt) of the Gestapo.  In the darkness of the closed café, Ilse comes to Rick, explains that she was married to Laszlo before she met Rick, that she had thought her husband was dead but returned to him out of duty.  It is Rick she really loves.  They make love.  The next day, Laszlo arrives and tells Rick he knows about Ilse and him and wants a promise that if he won’t sell the letters of transit, he’ll at least take Ilse to safety.  Rick is left to ponder the nature of love that leads to such a self-sacrifice.   In the end, he gives Laszlo and Ilse the letters of transit.  When Strasser tries to stop him, Rick kills the Gestapo officer.  When the police arrive, Renault tells his men that Strasser has been murdered and they should “round up the usual suspects.”  Rick and Renault walk into the mist making plans for joining the resistance.

Read an article about the movie by Tim Dirks

Articles on Casablanca:

Casablanca: The Myths Debunked

Round Up the Usual Archetypes

Casablanca, or, the Cliches Are Having a Ball (Umberto Eco)

Casablanca Desktop Theme

Download a copy of the script (.zip format)

Read a copy of the script (.pdf format)

Casablanca's Régime: The Shifting Aesthetics of Political Technologies

http://www.iath.virginia.edu/pmc/text-only/issue.198/8.2otero-pailos

A Yank in Libya (1942)

Directed by Albert Herman.  Written by Sherman L. Lowe and Arthur St. Claire
Mike Malone (Walter Woolf King) is an American war correspondent on assignment in Libya. With the help of heroine Nancy Brooks (Joan Woodbury) he uncovers a Nazi scheme to incite an uprising of Arab tribes.  He enlists the help of British consul Herbert Forbes (H. B. Warner) and friendly Arab Sheik Ibrahim (George J. Lewis), and foils the Nazi plot at the last moment.

Directed by Robert Florey.  The second film version of the famous Sigmund Romberg and Oscar Hammerstein Jr. stage operetta.  This version is set during WWII and has more than a whiff of Casablanca about it..  Paul Hudson (Dennis Morgan), an American veteran of the Spanish Civil War, makes his living playing piano in a Morocco nightclub; in his spare time, he romances Margot (Irene Manning), the club's featured singer. Caid Yousseff (Victor Francen) is a Moroccan in cahoots with the Nazis who is trying to win the support of a local gang called the Riffs, even though they're under the control of the French. The Riffs are led by El Khobar, a masked do-gooder who wants to persuade Col. Fontaine (Bruce Cabot) that the Riffs deserve their independence; if it is granted, he promises that they will gladly fight against the Nazis. What Fontaine doesn't know is that El Khobar and Paul Hudson are actually the same person.  Won an Oscar for Best Art Direction.

Hindi film by Jagatrai Pesumal Advani.  Also released as Help.

Directed by Wilhelm Thiele.  Written by Edward T. Lowe Jr.
Tarzan (Johnny Weismuller) receives a letter from Jane, who is nursing British troops in North Africa.  She asks Tarzan to help by obtaining a malaria serum extractable from rare jungle plants. Tarzan and Boy (Johnny Sheffield) set out across the desert looking for the plants and wind up ruining an attempt by the cruel Hendrix (really Heinrich, a Nazi spy played by Otto Krueger) to capture a wild horse. They arrive in a desert city ruled by cruel Prince Selim (Robert Lowery) and rescue stranded American lady magician Connie Bryce (Nancy Kelly), who has been sentenced to be hanged for carrying a secret message to Sheik Abdul el Khim (Lloyd Corrigan). In addition to helping the good Arabs against the bad Arabs, Tarzan must fight prehistoric monsters, Nazis, and so on before successfully getting the plants. Includes the classic Weismuller line: “Tarzan no like Nazzies.”

Who is Tarzan? 

Directed by Charles Riesner.  Written by Harry Crane, John Grant and Harry Ruskin.  Pete (Bud Abbott) and Harvey (Lou Costello) are two American magicians on tour who become stranded, along with songstress Hazel Moon (Marilyn Maxwell) in a mythical Arab desert kingdom (the sets and costumes were borrowed from MGM’s recently completed Arabian Nights fantasy Kismet). The trio becomes involved with the efforts of Prince Ramo (John Conte), to reclaim his rightful throne from his evil usurping uncle Nimativ (Douglass Dumbrille). Alas, the villain is armed with a pair of hypnotic rings with which he forces everyone to do his bidding: he even kidnaps and hypnotizes the entire Jimmy Dorsey Orchestra! Trying to help Ramo, Pete and Harvey encounter a giant guard (Lock Martin), a gibbering lunatic (Murray Leonard) and a bevy of harem beauties.

Who were Abbott and Costello?  

Directed by Archie Mayo.  Written by Joseph Fields, Ronald Kibbee and Frank Tashlin.  In postwar Casablanca Count Pfefferman (Sig Ruman) -- secretly Nazi war criminal Heinrich Stubel -- has been murdering the managers of the Hotel Casablanca  in order to get the position himself.  He wants it so that he can search for the stolen Nazi jewels and art that are concealed there.  Unfortunately, when he is finally offered the job he is unable to come accept it because his valet Rusty (Harpo Marx) has sucked his hairpiece into a vacuum cleaner, thus exposing an incriminating scar. Instead, the position is offered to the unsuspecting Ronald Kornblow (Groucho Marx).  When Rusty overhears his master’s plot to assassinate Kornblow, he enlists the aid of taxi driver Corbaccio (Chico Marx) to help protect Groucho from Stubel.  Meanwhile, American aviator Pierre Delmar (Charles Drake) has come to Casablanca to find Stubel and clear his name of collaborating with the enemy. He enlists the help of his girlfriend Annette (Lois Collier) and buddy Corbaccio.   Failing to kill Kornblow, Stubel dispatches femme fatale Beatrice Reiner (Lisette Verea) to romance the lecherous manager.  When she, too, fails, he has them arrested on a trumped up charge.  But they escape from jail in time to capture Stubel and discover a hoard of war booty the Nazis have cached in the hotel.

Casbah (1948) 

American musical film directed by John Berry.  Written by Leslie Bush-Fekete and Arnold Manoff.  Music by Harold Arlen and Leo Robin.  Casbah is a musical version of Pepe le Moko and Algiers.  Pepe (Tony Martin) is a master thief pursued by police inspector Slimane (Peter Lorre).  As long as Pepe stays in the Casbah, he remains safe from Slimane, for the arm of the law doesn’t reach into this quarter of Algiers.  But when Pepe falls in love with beautiful tourist Gaby (Märta Torén), he is betrayed to Slimane by his former lover Inez (Yvonne DeCarlo), whom he has cast off for Gaby.  He is shot by the police as he leaves the Casbah to escape with Gaby to France.  The Katherine Dunham Dancers (including a young Eartha Kitt) are made part of the mix to help with the musical elements.  The Arlen and Robin song “For every man there’s a woman” was nominated for an Oscar for Best Song (1949).

Outpost in Morocco (1949)  

Directed by Robert Florey.  Written by Joseph N. Ermolieff and Charles Grayson

Capt. Paul Gerard (George Raft) is the greatest lover in the Foreign Legion [Bamboule: Knowing the captain, I'd look for him in some nice, cool room with a sultry lady. Orderly: But there are so many sultry ladies in Tesket. Bamboule: Uh huh. Interesting problem, isn't it?]  He is assigned the job of escorting Cara (Marie Windsor), an emir's daughter, to her father's mountain citadel and find out what he can about the emir's (Eduard Franz) activities. Gerard enjoys his “work” with lovely Cara, but arrives to find rebellion brewing.  His love for Cara complicates his efforts to put down the rebellious emir.

Filmed on location in Morocco.

Watch the movie on-line

Directed by Charles Lamont.  Written by John Grant, Martin Ragaway and Leonard B. Stern.  Jonesy (Bud Abbott) and Lou Hotchkiss (Lou Costello) are wrestling promoters whose star attraction, Abdullah (Wee Willie Davis), skips town to return to his home in Arabia. While scouring the desert in search of Abdullah, they inadvertently purchase slave girl Nicole (Patricia Medina), and with equal inadvertence manage to join the Foreign Legion. In their own bumbling, inept fashion, they foil a desert uprising fomented by shiek Hamud al Khalid (Douglass Dumbrille) and traitorous Legion commandant Axmann (Walter Slezak).

Who were Abbott and Costello?

British film directed by David McDonald.  Written by Robert Westerby.  Col. Youssef Bey (Eric Portman) is an Egyptian police chief whose investigation of a seemingly routine killing takes a suspenseful turn when he deduces that the murdered man was mixed up with drug smuggling. The chief leaves the relative security of his office to set a trap for the murderers within the teeming streets of Cairo

Directed by Charles Lamont.  Written by Gerald Drayson Adams. 
In a mythical, medieval North Africa (looking a lot like California) a Bedouin chief named Tamerlane (Jeff Chandler) is seeking to capture the magnificent wild stallion Shazada when he meets tomboyish Princess Tanya of Tunis (Maureen O’Hara). When the two meet again in Tunis, Tamerlane has run afoul of the barbaric Corsair Lords, one of whom Tanya's wicked cousin is forcing her to marry. To avoid this dire fate, Tanya must arrange for a "dark horse" to win the forthcoming great race...which means a battle of wits between Tanya and Tamerlane, taking romantic overtones...

US animated film directed by Seymour Kneitel..  9 mins.  Popeye and his 3 nephews tour a nautical museum and come across a statue with the inscription, "Sinbad the Sailor - Greatest Sailor In The World".  He tells the story of his epic fight with Sinbad.. This is an edited version of the old “Popeye Meets Sinbad the Sailor” with a new soundtrack and musical score.

Short animated film directed by Chuck Jones.  Although the Warner Bros. Looney Tunes character Pepe le Pew owes much of his parodic power (including his name, a parody of Pepe le Moko from the films Pepe Le Moko, Algiers and Casbah) to the French colonial subgenre of the Oriental Romance, this is one of only two Pepe le Pew cartoons set in an imagined French North Africa.  Borrowing its central trope from the various Beau Geste films, a heartbroken Pepe le Pew enter the Foreign Legion: “I am ze broken heart of love.  I am zee disillusioned.  I wish to enlist in the Foreign Legion so I may forget. (Direct address to audience:) A pitiful case, am I not?”  Things pick up for Pepe when a local skunk becomes accidentally painted with a white stripe and he pursues her, imagining her to be a female skunk.

See 1998.  “‘Ah, love! Zee grand illusion!’ Pepe lePew, narcissism, and cats in the Casbah” in Reading the Rabbit: Explorations in Warner Bros. Animation. Pp. 137-153.  Kevin Sandler, ed.  Rutgers University Press.

Directed by Joseph Pevney.  Written by Irving Wallace from the novel The Demon Caravan by Georges Arthur Surdez ( New York: Dial Press 1927).  Captain Paul Lartal (Alan Ladd) of the Foreign Legion leads a troop of legionnaires into remote Algerian mountains in search of guerilla Omar Ben Khalif.  When the troops are ambushed, Lartel is the sole survivor, rescued by the Princess Morjana (Arlene Dahl).  His superiors, clearly men of little imagination, don't believe his tale of being rescued by the lovely, mysterious princess.   The princess invites Lartel to return, however, and he is led to the hidden city of Madara, which is threatened from within by the evil demagogue Crito Damou (Richard Conte). Lartal must do in the bad guys (which includes participating in a bare chested spear-throwing contest), save the city and marry the Princess.  Released in Italy as La Legione del Sahara.

Directed by H. Bruce Humberstone.  Written by Roland Kibbee.  This is the third film version of the famous Sigmund Romberg and Oscar Hammerstein Jr. stage operetta.  Paul Bonnard (Gordon MacRae) is the wimpish American tutor of lovely Margot Birabeau (Kathryn Grayson), the daughter of a military officer (Ray Collins) stationed in Arabia. Under cover of night, Bonnard assumes the identity of the Red Shadow, head of the Riffs, who fights against the oppression of a cruel local potentate Youssef (Raymond Massey). Circumstances force Bonnard to kidnap Birabeau and spirit her away to his desert headquarters, where she eventually sees the wisdom of his mission and falls in love with him. With her help, the Red Shadow thwarts Youssef’s plans to massacre all "foreigners" living in his domain.

Egypt By Three (1953)  

Directed by Victor Stoloff.  Written by Fred Freiberger and Joseph Morham

This, the first US motion picture shot entirely in Egypt, is a trilogy of tales about a philandering knife thrower, a cholera epidemic and American jewel smugglers.  The three stories in this anthology are all set beside the Nile River and are narrated by Joseph Cotten. The first story deals with the potentially dangerous, tumultuous love affair between a knife-thrower (Paul Campbell) and his partner (Ann Stanville). The knife thrower is married and when his wife (Jackie Craven) finds out about the affair, she gives him an ultimatum that could result in the end of the girl. In the second story, a caravan to Mecca finds itself afflicted with cholera. Now the leader (Abbas Fares) must decide what to do. In the last story, Yankee con artists Nick (Eddie Constantine) and Charlie (Charles Mendick) attempt to sell “holy bread.”  One of them really wants to use the sacred loaves to smuggle diamonds out of the country.

Directed by Albert Lewin.  A doctor (Cornell Wilde) comes to Morocco to battle plague but he must also battle belief in black magic.  This development project becomes personal when the doctor falls for a young sorceress (Rita Gam) and must compete for her with a dashing Berber leader (Mel Ferrer). 

Directed by Ewald André Dupont.  Written by Richard Schayer.  Surviving a plane crash in the Sahara, four oilmen (Rod Cameron, Tab Hunter, John Dehner and Richard Erdman) find and manage to repair a German Afrika Corps tank which had been buried in the sand since WWII. Heading toward a French Foreign Legion outpost, they encounter a nomadic Arab tribe.  Sheik Taras (Frank Puglia) and his next-in-command Mustapha (John Abbott)  believe the oilmen have found the treasure of Calipha, a rival Arab leader.  The Arabs are prepared to kill the oilmen to get the stolen treasure.   Released in England as The Treasure of Kalifah and in Italy as Segreto del Sahara.

Short animated film directed by Chuck Jones.  This film showcases the popular Looney Tunes character of Pepe le Pew.  While Pepe’s intertext has always included Charles Boyer, Louis Jourdan and Maurice Chevalier, this film makes explicit the parodic borrowing from such classic Oriental Romance films as Pepe Le Moko, Algiers and Casbah.  It begins with Pepe’s direct address to the camera: “Oh, hello.  I am so glad you could come.  You are here to interview me about my life, non?  Come with me to zee Casbah.”  The scenes dissolves to a fantastic Algiers, through which Pepe pursues Kitty, the black cat with the unfortunate white stripe that makes him take her as one of his own kind.  The Looney Tunes Casbah includes snake charmers and all manner of Orientalist paraphernalia. 

See 1998.  “‘Ah, love! Zee grand illusion!’ Pepe lePew, narcissism, and cats in the Casbah” in Reading the Rabbit: Explorations in Warner Bros. Animation. Pp. 137-153.  Kevin Sandler, ed.  Rutgers University Press.

Directed by Jack Lee.  Written by Robert Westerby.  A British archeological expedition, accompanied by an American reporter (Van Heflin) journeys through the Sahara in search of the legendary “golden mask.” Also on the trail is a gang of murderous thieves, who plan to let the expedition find the treasure, then slit the scientists' throats from ear to ear.

Socko in Morocco (1954)

Directed by Don Patterson

Woody-Woodpecker (voiced by Grace Stafford) in Morocco.

Written and directed by Robert Pirosh from a novel by C.W. Ceram.  Egyptologists Mark Brandon and Ann Mercedes Looking, they find intrigue, betrayal and murder.

Directed by Edward Bernds.  Written by Ellwood Ullman.  Sach Debussey Jones (Huntz Hall) buys a battered oil lamp, which turns out to be the home of a genie (Eric Blore).  The sudden affluence of Sach and his pal Skip Mahoney (Leo Gorcey) draws the attention of gangsters, who steal the lamp.  When the genie refuses to work for the bad guys, they kidnap Skip and Sach as well. The boys escape by wishing that the genie take them home. He does—but to his home, ancient Baghdad where Sach and Skip fall afoul of the Caliph (Charlie Lung).  They finally manage to wish themselves back to the Bowery but without the genie.  This was the 35^th Bowery Boys film.

Who were the Bowery Boys?

U.S. television series.  Captain Gallant (Buster Crabbe) is the guardian of Cuffy Sanders (Crabbe’s 10-year-old son Cullen), a boy who was orphaned after his Foreign Legion father and brother died.  The program was essentially a kiddie western in Oriental Romance clothing, with Arabs instead of Indians and the Legion standing in for the cavalry. 

Warner brothers cartoon.  Directed by Friz Freling.  Written by Warren Foster.  Riff-Raff Sam, riding a camel that won’t “whoa,” chases Bugs Bunny into a Foreign Legion outpost inhabited by Legionnaire Daffy Duck.

British film directed by Zoltan Korda and Terence Young.  Written by R.C. Sherriff and Lajos Biro from the novel The Four Feathers by A.E.W. Mason.  A few of the characters names have changed, but it’s the same director and the same script, and its even shot pretty much the same.  Capt. Harry Faversham (Anthony Steel) resigns just before being sent to the Sudan.  He receives four feathers from his fiancée Mary (Mary Ure) and three friends (Ronald Lewis, Ian Carmichael, Laurence Harvey) – symbols of cowardice and dishonor. The shame makes him determined to force his former associates to take back the feathers and so he goes off to the Sudan and performs brave deeds of derring-do disguised as an Arab.  He saves each of his friends’ lives, returning to each the feather before vanishing.  Having proved himself, he returns to England and weds Mary.

U.S. film directed by Virgil W. Vogel.  Written by László Görög. Archaeologists Dr. Roger Bentley (John Agar) and Dr. Jud Bellamin (Hugh Beaumont ) are excavating in Sumeria, when they find reference to a city that survived the great Flood (Noah’s flood) by going underground.  With their assistant LaFarge (Nestor Paiva) they discover the ancient city inside a volcano.  The inhabitants have evolved into albinos who burn up like vampires if exposed to the sun. They have cruelly enslaved the burrowing mole people.  They are ruled by the evil high priest Elinu (Alan Napier).  Bentley falls in love with the one of the rare, non-albino “marked ones,” Adad (Cynthia Patrick).  Together, the two of them lead the mole people in a revolt.  Adad dies in the revolution.

This Warner Brother’s animated short was directed by Robert Clampett and written by Melvin Millar.  Bugs Bunny and Daffy Duck tunnel to Baghdad where they find caves full of treasure and a scimitar-wielding guard named Hassan.

As always, we find that the Arabian Nights world is contemporaneous with that of contemporary America.

Indian film starring Meena Kumari.

Mission in Morocco (1959)  

Directed by Anthony Squire.  Written by Ken Annakin.

Bruce Reynolds (Lex Barker) is a wealthy American oil man. While in Morocco on business, he is forced into a murder investigation. The key to the mystery is a microfilm, showing the locations of newly discovered oil deposits.  Also starring Juli Reding as Carol Sampson, Fernando Rey as Prince Achmed, Silvia Morgas as Marian Palos and Alfred Mayo as Major Selim Naruf.

French film directed by Michel Gast.  Starring Paul Guers, Jean Servais and Magali Noel.

British film written and directed by John Paddy Carstairs.  Charles Sands (Charles Drake) is a short, buffoonish young man trying to set up a holiday camp in an unspecified desert kingdom.  Unfortunately, he runs afoul of villainous Arab chieftans, especially Sheikh El Jabez (Peter Arne).

French/Italian co-production directed by Giuseppe Masini and Edgar G. Ulmer. Written by Remigio Del Grosso, Ugo Liberatore and André Tabet.  Based on the novel by Pierre Benoit.  

Lost aviators John (George Riviere), Pierre (Jean Louis Tritignant) and Tamal (Amadeo Nazarri) discover the entrance to Atlantis at a nuclear blast site in the desert.  They have to deal with a menacingly beautiful Atlantean queen (Haya Harareet) and the fear that another bomb test is scheduled.

The novel L'Atlantide is a classic “lost race” novel.  It was published in two separate translations in 1920: in the U.S. as Atlantida and in England as Atlantis. Benoit’s novel was both very popular and very controversial, as Queen Antinea is closely modeled on H. Rider Haggard’s She and the plot is drawn from Haggard's novel The Yellow God (1908).

Released in Italian as Antinea, L'amante Della Citta Sepolta as Antinea. Released in English as Journey Beneath the Desert, Atlantis: City Beneath the Desert, Lost Kingdom and Atlantis. Released in German as Die Herrin von Atlantis.

Directed by Wolf Rilla.  Written by Joan Scott from a novel by W.R. Burnett.  Major Pickering (George Saunders) is released from a German prison and sets off for Cairo, whereupon he recruits the city’s top criminal talent Willy Roberts (John Meilon), Nicodemos (Eric Pohlman), Ali (Richard Johnson), Kerim (Ahmed Mazhar) and Kuchuk (Walter Rilia), while simultaneously making love to the beautiful Amina (Faten Hamama).  The team successfully steals the treasure of Tutankhamun from the museum, only to find smuggling the stolen treasure out of the country more difficult.  

The focus of attention is Tutankhamen's jewels on display in the Cairo National Museum made the film quite  topical since the treasures from King Tut's tomb were making the rounds of U.S. exhibition sites around the time this film was released.

Starring Christian Marquand and Margali Noel.  Melodrama about two rivals in the international oil business.

British/West German joint production (in English) directed by Seth Holt.  Written by Brian Clemens and Bryan Forbes.  Tensions – sexual and otherwise –run high among the five men stationed at pumping station six in the Sahara.  The lid blows off when a beautiful woman (Carroll Baker) and her estranged husband crash at the station.  Ran as the “B” feature with Topkapi.  Won the 1963 BAFTA Award for best B&W cinematography.  Released in Germany as Endstation 13 Sahara.

Italian/Spanish movie filmed in English and Italian versions.  Directed by Domenico Paolella.  Written by Víctor Auz and José López Moreno.  American agent 003, George Steele, discovers the Red Chinese have built an atomic city under the Sahara, from which they plan to attack America.  Also released as Operation Atlantis (USA) and Operation Sahara (Sweden).

Directed by Gene Nelson.  Elvis Presley plays a movie star who is kidnapped while he's on a personal appearance tour in the Middle East.

Directed by J. Lee Thompson.  An American spy pilot (Richard Crenna) crashlands near the palace of a Middle Eastern potentate as the same time as a girl reporter (Shirley MacLaine) arrives for an interview.

Italian film directed by Guido Malatesta.

Animated U.S. television series.  Sindbad Jr. seemed like a typical American cartoon kid, in T-shirt and baseball cap, but he was the descendant of the Sindbad of the Arabian Nights.  He and his talking parrot Salty sailed the Seven Seas having adventures in a fantasy postcolonial world of tribes and desert kingdoms and so forth.  They frequently had to defeat the evil Rotcoddam (read it backward) and his sidekick Egoots.  Fortunately, Sindbad Jr. had inherited from his ancestor a magic belt which allowed him to lose the baseball cap, expand his chest size about three times and gain superhuman strength.

Written and directed by Douglas Heyes, from the book by Percival Christopher Wren.  Beau Geste (Guy Stockwell) is forced to take the blame for a crime he didn't commit in order to protect the good name of his family; he and his brother John (Doug McClure) flee the country to avoid capture and join the French Foreign Legion. Under the leadership of the sadistic Sgt. Major Dagineau (Telly Savalas), Beau and John must battle Arab troops as they try to clear their names

The Hand of Night (1966)  

Schoenfield/Associated British Pathe film, directed by Frederic Goode.  Written by Bruce Stewart   Produced by Harry Field.  Paul Carver (William Sylvester) is a grieving widower whose wife and child were killed in a car accident.  Looking for something different to do, he accepts a job accompanying an archaeologist named Gunther (Edward Underdown) and his daughter Chantal (Diane Clare) on a tomb-hunting expedition.  Travelling through the desert one night he comes upon a lavish Moorish castle wherein he is entertained by a mysterious wealthy woman named Marisa (Alizia Gur). He departs and returns in the morning to find the place has vanished.  His inquiries only bring fear and hostility from the local villagers, who speak of legends involving a Moorish vampire who haunts the tomb.  The lonely Carver begins visiting the castle at night, falling prey to the seductive wiles of Marisa, who begins to bend him to her will. Chantal tries to come to his rescue, but her attempts only place her in jeopardy.  Ultimately, Carver must break free of Marisa's evil clutches and destroy her to save both Chantal and himself. Also released as The Beast of Morocco

British film directed by Frederic Goode.  Written by Roger Dunton and Kelman Frost.  Starring John Stuart, Terrence de Marnay and Darryl Read.

Animated U.S. television series.  Another combination of the Oriental Romance and Arabian Fantasy.  Shazzan featured the adventures of two adventurous teenagers, Chuck and Nancy  (apparently brother and sister) who found a magic ring split into two parts (one for each of them).  On one side was the word “Shaz” and on the other, “zan.”  When they joined the rings, they summoned a powerful 60-foot Djinn named Shazzan, and were teleported back in time to “Ancient Egypt” – code for a mythic Arabian Nights fantasy world of mysterious oases, desert cities, despotic rulers and sinister sorcerors.  Each week, they sought to find the original owner of the ring, who was the only one who could send them home.  They were aided by a cloak of invisibility and a flying camel named Kaboobie.  They were inevitably pursued by one evil wizard after another, all desiring the ring.  Whenever the dangers got too much for them, they put the rings together to summon the nearly omnipotent Shazzan, who could apparently do anything except send them home.

British suspense movie directed by Jesus Franco.  Written by Harry Allen Towers.  The insidious Fu Manchu (Christopher Lee) has developed a way to turn oceans into ice as part of a plan to rule the world. He kidnaps Professor Herakles (Gustavo Re) to assist him in his diabolical plan. When Herakles' health starts to fail, Fu kidnaps two more people (Guenther Stoll, Maria Perschy) for a transplant operation at his Istanbul headquarters. Fu's old rivals Dennis Nayland Smith (Richard Green) and Dr. Petrie (Howard Marion Crawford) come to Turkey to foil his evil experiments.

The first time I read Said’s “Orientalism,” I perfectly understood his point about the way Orientalists created the Orient by constructing a single other out of a vast variety of different cultures and ethnicities.  I understood perfectly because, as a teenager, I had read all twelve Fu Manchu novels, in which Burmese Dacoits, Indian Thugs, Persian Hashashin and Arab Mahdists all follow the lead of a Chinese Mandarin.  The “Yellow Peril” for Rohmer wasn’t only yellow, it was black, brown, tan, amber, ivory, dusky – any and every color but Anglo-Saxon white!  Even Mediterranean Europeans are suspect in his racial hierarchy.  Interestingly, the films have been more careful than the books about keeping their “Orientals” straight.  For example, the quest for the sword and mask of Al Mokannan, the masked prophet of Arabia, in the novel The Mask of Fu Manchu, is replaced by Genghis Khan’s mask and sword in the 1932 movie version with Boris Karloff and Myrna Loy.  Of the thirteen Fu Manchu movies I know of, this one (fifth and last in a British series starring Christopher Lee and Richard Green) is the only one that inserts the villain into the Middle East – Turkey, to be precise.  It owes more perhaps to the James Bond film series than to any of Rohmer’s novels.

Who was Fu Manchu? 

Justine (1969)  

Directed by George Cukor and Joseph Strick. The wife of a well-to-do banker in 1930s Alexandria becomes involved in Middle East politics

American film directed by John Milius.  An American woman (Candice Bergen) and her children are kidnapped by a charismatic Berber chieftan (Sean Connery) in Morocco, 1902. The scene shifts back and forth from Morocco to Washington, as Teddy Roosevelt and the North Africans weave the crisis into their political agendas. Stirring action sequences involve American Marines, Moroccan and German colonial troops, Berbers, and bandits.

American film directed by Sherif Kapur.  Written by Hossein Amini and Michael Schiffer from the novel by A.E.W. Mason.  Pacifist impulses lead Captain Harry Faversham (Heath Ledger) to resign just before being sent to the Sudan (it is 1898, the time of Lord Kitchener's re-conquest of the Sudan culminating with the battle of Omdurman).  He receives four feathers from his girlfriend Ethne (Kate Hudson ) and three friends – symbols of cowardice and dishonor. The shame makes him determined to force his former associates to take back the feathers and so he goes off in disguise (as an Arab) to do brave deeds of derring-do. 

Directed by Tonino Valerii.  Written by Tonino Valerii and Ernesto Gastaldi.

The Last Remake of Beau Geste (1977)  

This parody of Foreign Legion flicks was written and directed by Marty Feldman.  Beau Geste (Michael York) is forced to take the blame for a crime he didn't commit in order to protect the good name of his lusty Aunt Flavia (Ann Margaret); he and his brother Digby (Marty Feldman) flee the country to avoid capture and join the French Foreign Legion. Under the leadership of the sadistic Sgt. Major Markoff (Peter Ustinov), Beau and Digby must adventure in the desert as they try to clear their names.

Velluto Nero (1977)
 

Directed by Brunello Rondi.  Written by Ferdinando Baldi and Brunello Rondi.  Laura Gemser stars as Laura, a model who travels to Egypt for a photo shoot in an exotic land.  Her photographer Carlo (Gabriele Tinti) makes her pose (in various stages of undress) alongside a dead rotting dog, dead bodies, and on top of a big mound of dung.  After the photo shoot, Laura gets zoned out by a mystic, kills a baby goat, and drinks its blood. She has a series of short, pointless affairs with Pina (Annie Belle), Ali (Tarik Ali) and others.  Completely plotless pornographic movie.  Because Gemser became famous as the star of the Emanuelle series, this film has also been released as Black Emmanuelle, White Emmanuelle and in a censored version as Emanuelle in Egypt.

Who is Emmanuelle?

Directed by John Guillerman.  Written by Anthony Schaffer from the novel by Agatha Christie. Murder mystery set during a cruise on the Nile. Belgian detective Hercule Poirot (Peter Ustinov) must unmask the murderer of Linnet Ridgeway, with almost every one on board of the cruise ship as a suspect.  Also starring David Niven, Jane Birkin and Betty Davis.

The Sahara Cross (1978)  

Italian/US joint production.  Melodrama about espionage and sabotage in the Sahara.  Starring Franco Nero.  Released in Italy as Extrana Aventura en el Sahara

Piedone d’Egitto (1979)

Directed by Steno.  Written by Adriano Bolzoni and Massimo Franciosa.  Professor Cerullo (Leopoldo Trieste) has disappeared in Egypt and Police Commissioner Rizzo (Bud Spencer), nicknamed “Bigfoot,” (Piedone) and his sidekick Marshal Caputo (Enzo Cannavale) are sent to Egypt to look for him. The professor has discovered an insect that can smell where oil is and lots of criminals are interested in it. 

Who is Piedone?

See our full page devoted to this film.

Directed by Stephen Leacock.  Written by Herb Meadow from a book by Barry Wynne.  This dramatization of the events surrounding the discovery of Tutankhamen’s tomb stars Eva Marie Saint as Sarah Morrissey, Robin Ellis as Howard Carter and Raymond Burr as Jonah Sebastian.

This is an odd entry.  It technically fits my definition of the Oriental romance, but the adventures the treasure seekers run into in North Africa are not “Oriental” horrors but Occidental monsters.  One of my Egyptian students who actually saw this movie said he read it as an allegory of the horrors left behind at Allemein, where the Germans, Italians and British between them left behind tens of thousands of land mines.  Every year a few Bedouin lose limbs or lives in the desert to land mines.  The Egyptian government can’t afford to clean them up and efforts to get the Germans, Italians or British to fork over the estimated $14 million the effort would cost have fallen on deaf ears.  The issue was in the student’s mind when he saw the film (he saw it during a winter break trip to Spain) because the unexpected heavy rains of winter 2000, when we got our entire average annual 2 inches of rainfall in about three days of wind and rain, was reported in newspapers to have exposed landmines and ordinance long buried, and so increased the risk to desert travelers.

Directed by Steven Spielberg.  Written by George Lucas and Philip Kaufman.

Archaeologist/adventurer Indiana Jones (Harrison Ford) is hired by the US Government to find the lost Ark of the Covenant, believed to hold the original Ten Commandments, before it is found by agents of the Third Reich.  To get it, Indy must team up with his old flame Marion Ravenwood (Karen Allen).  

Directed by Franklin J. Schaffner.  Written by John Byrum from the novel by Robin Cook.  Young egyptologist Erica Baron (Lesley-Ann Down) makes her first trip to Egypt, only to stumble into intrigue and danger after witnessing the murder of an old antiques dealer. Frank Langella also stars.

It is the 1920's.  Dale Gordon (Brooke Shields) is a race-car driver whose father (Steve Forrest) is a car designer. He has designed a new vehicle, known as the Gordon-Packard, to be raced in the "Trans-Saharan International" a car race across the entire Sahara Desert. Gordon is dying, and his daughter makes a deathbed promise to enter the race. Since women are forbidden to enter, she does so disguised as a man (a simple fake mustache, with her hair tucked up in her hat).   And they're off! Unfortunately for the racers, there are tribal wars raging across the sands. No sooner has Dale taken the lead, then she is attacked by a bedouin tribe, led by Jaffar (Lambert Wilson) and his henchman Rasoul (John Rhys-Davies). Jaffar kidnaps Dale and woos her at his own private little oasis, which is complete with a waterfall.   Meanwhile, Van lessing (Horst Buchholtz), the German competitor in the race, tries to help Jaffar’s tribal enemies by giving them a souped-up combination car/tank. The portrayal of the Bedouin is unbelievable: The two warring tribes are distinguished by color-coded robes and turbans (the good tribe wears black with blue trim, the bad tribe wears tan with pink trim); nomadic Bedouin chiefs keep stone dungeons on hand, other Bedouin have frosted lipstick and gold lame party outfits lying around, the Bedouin hunt humans using leopards instead of hounds, etc.

Spanish film written and Directed by Antonio Cabal.

Directed by Andrew McLaglen.  When two of his employees are captured by the Iranians, an American businessman decides to bypass diplomacy and hire mercenaries to rescue them.

Italian film directed by Aldo Lado.  Written by Aldo Lado and Fiorenzo Senese.

A photographer (Fiona Gélin) and her lover travel to Morocco for photo shoots. While traveling there she has erotic adventures with residents of the area. She ends up having an affair with a man who betrays her and she murders him in retaliation. Also released in the US as Sahara Heat and in France as Scirocco.

A Marine gunnery sergeant seeks revenge after extremists hijack American weapons and kidnap his commanding officer in an Arab country.

Review:

Directed by Richard Stroud.  John Hurt stars in this silent movie about a gentlemanly reporter in Arabia.

Directed by Aldo Lado.  While visiting Tunisia, a photographer is seduced by a mysterious stranger

Ducktales the Movie – Treasure of the Lost Lamp (1990)  

Beuna Vista animated feature directed by Bob Hathcock.  Wealthy Scrooge McDuck and his nephews Huey, Duey and Looey set off on a quest to find a legendary magic lamp before it is found by the evil Merlini.

US film directed by Rachel Gordon. 

A white slavery ring run by "The Committee" kidnaps the sister of a former police lieutenant. He calls on an old kickboxing buddy and the two set off to hunt her  through the dark and dangerous underworld of international crime.

Short, animated feature.  Carrotblanca offers a brief parody of Casablanca, with the Warner Brother’s Looney Tunes characters in the actors’ roles.  Rick is played by Bugs Bunny, Ilse by Kitty, Peter Lorre’s character by Tweety, and so forth.

Who are the Looney Tunes?

Morocco (1997)

Robert Margolis

Hideous Kinky (1998)

Based on a 1992 autobiographical novel by Esther Freud, Hideous Kinky is the story of two sisters: Bea (Bella Riza), seven, and Lucy (Carrie Mullan), five, as the travel with their hippie mother Julia (Kate Winslet) from London to Morocco in the late 60's. Julia’s search to find herself and her naïve and trusting nature puts them into a series of odd, funny and sometimes dangerous situations.  Julia takes up with charming street performer Bilal (Saïd Taghmaoui).  She leaves daughter Bea with strangers, only to have her vanish and to ultimately find her with a Christian missionary woman (Abigail Cruttendon) who wants to keep her – she can provide Bea with the normalcy she craves.  It is told through the eyes of Lucy, and we learn her observations on life, Mum, and determined sister, Bea.  Also released as Morocco Express and Marakesh Express.

Reviews

Road to Nowhere (Charles Taylor, Salon)

Looks good, says little (Ruthe Stein, San Francisco Chronicle)
expatriate life in the time of flower power (Roger Ebert, Chicago Sun-Times)

Walls of Sand (1998)

US film directed by Erica Jordan.  A sensual film of friendship between two women, an Iranian au pair and an American agoraphobic, who embark upon a dramatic quest for freedom and self-understanding