The Desert Song (1953)
Shiek Yousseff, poses as a friend of the French while secretly plotting to overthrow them. Apposing Yousseff are the Riffs, whose secret leader, The Red Shadow, is Paul Bonnard, a professor who is studying the desert, and whose attacks on the supply trains intended for Yousseff keep the Riff villages in food. Foreign Legion General Birabeau arrives to conduct an investigation, accompanied by his daughter, Margot. Birabeau hires Bonnard to tutor her, and she is attracted to a Legionaire captain, Claud Fontaine. While the general, Bonnard and Fontaine pay a visit to Yousseff, an American newspaper man, Benji Kidd, discovers a secret way in and out of Yousseff's palace, with the aid of Azuri, a dancing girl in love with Bonnard. The latter is forced to resume his role as the Riffs leader, and kidnap Margot until he can convince her of Yousseff's treachery. But Yousseff's men attack the Riff camp and take Margot prisoner.
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That was an excellent one.
Excellent but underrated film
When a movie has you begging for it to end not even half way through it's pure crap. We've all seen this movie and this characters millions of times, nothing new in it. Don't waste your time.
It’s not bad or unwatchable but despite the amplitude of the spectacle, the end result is underwhelming.
In this film, the highlights are the singing performances of Kathryn Grayson and Gordon MacRae. Unfortunately, the songs they sing are not really memorable. They certainly are not the quality of songs that you find yourself humming as you leave the theater. To make matters worse, these musical oases are separated by vast distances of desert-like story that are uninspiring.The tale that surrounds the music is about a tribal conflict in the Sahara and the political tensions between the locals and the French. A wily but deceitful sheik is portrayed by Raymond Massey. MacRae plays the good-guy-in-disguise Paul Bonnard, who moonlights as El Khobar--the mysterious opposition to Massey's plans.Comic relief is handled by Dick Wesson, but his performance is not very comic and it only intrudes on the real story.There is little to recommend this film, but fans of Grayson and MacRae will probably want to catch their performances.
While not perfect, The Desert Song has a lot to like about it. The story is very improbable and does drag in spots, and Steve Cochran is sadly underused to the point he was wasted although he does do his best. However, the cinematography is absolutely gorgeous, the sets are handsome and the costumes are colourful, if anything the production values are one of the film's strongest attributes. The Desert Song has a very pleasant and lively score and the songs are great, especially The Desert Song, One Alone and Gay Parisienne. The dialogue is snappily written without ever been corny and there are some very sweet moments without being saccharine, the conflict is also convincing. The dancing is deliciously exotic and choreographed in a way that doesn't interfere with the story or the pacing of it and the direction is not too flashy and never indifferent. Gordon McRae is immensely charming and shows that he is natural in comedy, his voice, one of the beautiful on film, is as ever splendid. It is the same with Kathryn Grayson, who brings personal charm and sass to her role, who is energetic in Gay Parisienne and really goes for it in One Alone that it is easy to feel the emotion. Raymond Massey is a perfect villain and for me he was the best and juiciest performance in the film. To conclude, The Desert Song is not quite glorious but it's well performed, handsomely made and makes for good entertainment. 8/10 Bethany Cox
What saves this movie is the wonderful singing done by Gordon MacRae and Kathryn Grayson. This movie really was something different for these general movie musical stars. They actually played in a film that involved intrigue.Usual evil player, Steve Cochran, is given little to do in the role of a nice guy, most unusual for him. Even in the Virginia Mayo-Danny Kaye films, Cochran got better parts as gangsters.Raymond Massey, who by this time had fallen into supporting roles, is evil as ever as the Arab to watch. His game of blaming other Arab factions in the movie worked only for a while.Grayson and MacRae sing the title song with great beauty.Note an interesting part by Robert Conrad and the guy who played Edward G. Robinson's brother in "The Ten Commandments," is as wicked as ever here.
Following John Boles in 1929 and Dennis Morgan in 1943, Gordon MacRae gives this outdated hokum his best shot in the silly role of Paul Bonnard, sometimes a timid academic, sometimes an adventurer. He does get to sing some lovely songs though - it may be one of the most improbable musical plots, but 'The Desert Song' has one of the best scores of any musical.Kathryn Grayson is on hand with her trademark soprano trill as female lead, while Steve Cochran and Raymond Massey enjoy themselves in the supporting cast. And there's some fabulous Technicolor. Recommended for musical fans who like to suspend belief and for those who have a long-term devotion to the lyrics of Oscar Hammerstein II.