User Reviews

I tried to count the number of times George Raft, Cavalry Captain in the French Foreign Legion in Morocco, in the early years of the 20th century, blinked, but I didn't see any blinks at all. I wouldn't advance the proposition that George Raft never blinks in this movie. That's not it at all. It's just that I never caught him at it. Possibly because I blinked myself.

Why, man, he doth bestride this narrow movie like s Colossus astride Rhodes. He wears the same expression, whether making love or shooting rebels. He looks grim always. He moves purposefully. Everything he is involved in generates the same contour of his facial muscles and, as in a Kuleshov experiment, we interpret it according to context.

Excuse me for making a little fun of George Raft. He actually suits the role and the movie pretty well. It's an unpretentious and action-filled, mostly studio-bound, story of proud French soldiers opposing a conflicted culture of Islamic colonials. A leader of one tribe, Eduard Franz, is pretty hostile to the French presence. So much so that he wipes out one of their outposts, despite some friendly gestures on the part of the French. At the same time, Eduard Franz has a very pretty and sensual daughter, Marie Windsor, she of the large and doe-like eyes and a mouth that bespeaks passion. Raft has delivered her from the city to her father's oasis and they have fallen in love with each other. (Over an enormous bowl of rice.) The two of them are torn between their conflicting allegiances. Windsor has been to some extent Westernized. She's been away from the tribe long enough to have acquired one of those pointed brassieres that were to become so common in 1950s movies. Not that she needs it. She's superbly feminine and nubile beyond measure. Raft too is torn between his love for her -- his enemy's daughter -- and his commitment to La France, though he never seriously wavers.

I don't want to spell out the end, but it really is a little confusing. Eduard Franz's cavalry make a suicidal line-abreast charge against a fortified position that has automatic weapons. Somehow, Marie Windsor gets mixed up in the ruckus and the conflict between enlightened Westerners and benighted tribesmen is resolved.

Without being sure why, I can say that I quite enjoyed it -- the stereotypes, the shootings, the battles, the galloping horses, the eyeballs of Marie Windsor, the Russian slurring of English by Akim Tamirov. I think maybe I had OD'd on political arguments and the economic calamity that happened on the day I watched this, but -- whatever -- I loved the action and the mindlessness.

All in all, a splendid way to take your mind off things.

George Raft, either as a gangster or a truck driver or a French Foreign Legion officer, was a poor actor. I'm sure there have been doctoral dissertations by enthusiastic students of American contemporary culture on how Raft managed to carve a star career in Hollywood. Yeah, there are all those criminal connection rumors but so far they've just been that, rumors. We know he was a good dancer, but as an actor he was without animation. Often he just looked plain worried. He was wooden and unresponsive. Any actor might have turned down the chance to play the lead in The Maltese Falcon, High Sierra or Casablanca...but Raft turned down all three opportunities. Was he insecure, just realistic about his talent, or basically without a clue? Who knows? What we do know is that after a few big pictures in the late Thirties, he began a long, not-so-slow decline into some pretty awful stuff for the rest of his life. His coin-flipping tough guy persona, however, stayed with him and made him at least marginally bankable. I like him in a few of his movies, mainly Nocturne and Mr Ace from 1946 and, even though it's a tear-jerker, Christmas Eve from 1947.

Outpost in Morocco is a disposable adventure movie, complete with the French Foreign Legion, desert outposts, restless tribes and a desert princess with a figure usually seen only in a teen-ager's dreams. Still, as a basic Hollywood product it delivers the goods. Robert Florey, the director, keeps the action and the story moving along. Marie Windsor as Cara, the daughter of the Emir of Bel-Rashad, is zaftig. Akim Tamiroff as Lieutenant Glysko provides humor as well as bravery and energy. Eduard Franz as the Emir is suitably anti-French and, surprisingly, not simply a caricature of an untrustworthy native leader. And there's George Raft as Captain Paul Gerard, assigned to deliver Cara to her father in a journey across the sands, who then finds himself caught between love and a perilous rebellion, complete with a remote desert outpost on his hands to defend. Raft at 54 shows his age. His director makes him do the coin flipping thing a couple of times. Even when he's sneaking into the Emir's compound to find out what's going on, then escapes by leaping off parapets, racing across the sands and mounting briskly his horse, he shows as much emotion as when he's smooching Cara...not much. Once when asked about his acting Raft is supposed to have said, "I'm afraid to look, because I'm probably awful." It doesn't help Raft that he must wear a Legionnaire's uniform much of the time, complete with kepi and shoulder cape. When he's not in uniform he's in disguise, wearing a turban and what appears to be pantaloons. Raft, to his credit, does the job and doesn't seem embarrassed.

One of the pleasures of the movie is seeing Marie Windsor, the quintessential noir bad girl, playing Cara. Windsor gives us an emir's daughter who can be arrogant, sweet, loving and brave. She manages to avoid looking ridiculous even while photographed on what is supposed to be a horse galloping in front of a rear screen projection to stop her father. She's eye-catching at the start of the movie when we watch her and Raft dance a tango in a nightclub. For that matter, Raft looks great dancing the tango, too. To see Windsor at her best, which is to say her worst, just watch her deal with poor Elisha Cook, Jr., in The Killing.

If you are looking for something new and exciting I cannot recommend this movie. The story is pedestrian, a mixture of Beau Geste and Casablanca. It has been told better.

But there are several points that I found very interesting. For its low budget look this movie has a lot of scenes shot on location in the desert in Morocco. It is not stock footage like, for example, in Fort Algiers, but custom made stuff with an artistic quality that fits in very well with the footage shot on a Hollywood studio lot. Another reviewer suggests that Raft, Windsor and Tamiroff had a nice time in Morocco doing this movie. My guess is that they never left California when working on it. For long or medium range shots some locals took their parts, closer shots are all made with rear projection or on studio sets. This never disturbs the flow of the picture in any way and one might really think the stars are in that faraway country. This shows that some true craftsmen were involved here.

I've seen several films directed by Robert Florey. They are B movies but all have memorable scenes, often related with nature. Like Edgar G. Ulmer, Florey never seems to have lost his artistic ambition, however small the budget, however corny the script. Outpost in Morocco has a well filmed, dramatic climax when the fort is surrounded and the water supply is cut by the assailants. The commanding officer orders the horses to be released into the desert which is a little like dying for the cavalrymen. The scenes showing the horses galloping through the gate of the fortress and out into the desert plain are powerful. The following night the water supply is exhausted. The second in command starts praying, and suddenly the half asleep soldiers hear raindrops fall, one or two splatter on the leaf of a small plant. These really are very poetic moments one would not expect in a run off the mill picture, as are the sometimes interesting camera angles. Incidentally, the set design and the lighting are also very good, compared with pictures like the afore mentioned Fort Algiers.

Fans of Marie Windsor (and there are lots of reasons to be a fan of her) will like this movie. She plays the sheik's thoroughly Westernized daughter which is completely incongruous – and nevertheless works amazingly well. I credit this to the talent and commandeering presence of this underrated actress whose sole handicap seemed to have been that she was very tall. At one moment she is seen swimming in a pool, by all appearances completely naked.

. . . as he schemes to lessen the "White Man's Burden" in Northern Africa. In this virtually humorless attempted spoof if the classic Pre-WWII British Empire epics, Mr. Raft's character has his "GUNGA DIN" stand-in shot dead for trying grab a cup of water. Stranger still, this flick's doomed "CHARGE OF THE LIGHT BRIGADE" is undertaken by the natives against an impregnable Imperialist French fort. Adding insult to injury, Raft isn't content to merely dishonor the Muslim Hot Chick. When he's had his fill of her, he blows her up with land mines, and then machine guns what's left of her for good measure. OUTPOST IN MOROCCO recycles LIGHT BRIGADE's fort massacre and GUNGA DIN mountain pass ambush scenes. But if the one-time French tradition of exporting youthful petty criminals as a Foreign Legion were to be applied to America, everyone would be happier. The world's Trouble Spots would stay better pacified, and it would be safe for baseball fans here in Baltimore to watch Orioles home games INSIDE Camden Yards!

As I considered Marie Windsor's role in this picture, I had to wonder what kind of life a real emir's daughter would have in the middle of the desert. It seemed to me like it would be all kinds of boring, even with all that imported wealth to walk around in. Not very satisfying if you ask me. Which is why I guess, she would be smitten with French Captain Girard (George Raft) at the start of the picture. More so than in other films I've seen Raft in, his composure here is one of somber duty and reflection. It wouldn't have hurt to crack a smile every now and then, but that just wasn't to be.

Upon completion of the story, I couldn't think of a single practical reason why it should have been made. The Emir of Bel-Rashad (Eduard Franz) resents the presence of the French Foreign Legion in his lands, and makes preparation to rid their headquarters from his territory. In another film, his daughter Cara (Windsor) might have been able to bring the opposing sides together, professing her undying love for the Captain. Not here. In a rather well staged final battle scene, the Arabs are defeated at the Tasket outpost, but not before Windsor's character and her father are decimated by explosive charges detonated by soldiers at the fort. Girard is momentarily conflicted.

Raft and Windsor may have been the nominal stars here, but it's Akim Tamiroff who provides most of the animation as French Lieutenant Glysko. Suitably deferential to the Captain, he nevertheless has some good moments that might be described as lightly comedic. I would like to have seen more of Girard's orderly who started out in the picture, but then was never heard from again. I couldn't figure that one out either.

Other reviewers have characterized Raft's portrayal here as wooden, and I would concur. Interestingly, Marie Windsor has the kind of look that would suit either a charmer or a villain. Either way, I enjoy it when she turns up in a film. For a look at Windsor's dark side, try her manipulative role as Elisha Cook Jr's wife in "The Killing", or on a lighter note, as the evil Madame Rontru in "Abbott and Costello Meet The Mummy".

**SPOILERS*** Just about to go on leave French Foreign Legionnaire Capt. Paul Gerard, George Raft, gets the news from his boss Col. Pascal, John Litel, to escort a company of legionnaires to the far off French outpost, some 12 days of traveling on horseback, Bel-Rashad and transports the Emir Al-Rashad's, Eduard Franz, beautiful non Arabic looking daughter Cara, Marie Windsor, there for her usually off-season, when the weather is cooler, stay! What Col. Pascal is worried about is that instead of October, when it's cool and pleasant, when Cara visits her father the Emir this time it's in mid-June! The hottest time of he year for that desert town!

The French are suspicious that the Emir has been supplied with thousands of modern and highly effective, unlike the 19 century muskets that his men have, German Mauser rifles! And with those modern arms he's planning to start a revolt all over French Morocco and end up throwing the French out. Something he's been dreaming about for years and now is finally able to make that dream come true! Unknown to the Emir Capt. Gerard has gotten his daughter to fall madly in love with him by his dancing ability that has her now going to great lengths, like hiding him in the privacy of her boudoir, in protecting him from her fathers men.

It's when Capt. Gerard uncovers, by going undercover, the fact that the Emir had the means, the Mausers, to cause real trouble for his French occupiers that he, by the skin of his teeth, makes it back to headquarters and Col. Pascal with the news. That turns out to be a bit too late for the French Foreign Legion unite, some 100 legionnaires, at Bel-Rashad who ends up getting slaughtered by the Emir men before help could arrive!

***SPOILERS*** With thousands of the Emir's horsemen now moving on the main French Foreign Legion outpost outside Bel-Rashad Morocco it's up to Capt. Gerard and his trustful sidekick Let. Glysko, Akim Tamiroff, who always wears in clean shirt in combat so if he gets killed he'll end up being buried with it wait for the inevitable end as the charge of the "Mauser Rifles", some 10,000 strong, is about to begin!

**MAJOR SPOILER*** Just when things look like they can't get any worse Cara, in what looked like a fit of insanity, jumps on an Arabian Stallion and takes off to the far off desert battlefield in order to stop her father the Amir from doing in her lover Capt. Gerard and the men he's in charge of. Starting way behind but, with her excellent riding ability, getting to the front of the charge Cara ends up getting blasted together with her father the Emir by a volley of French cannon fire and dynamite explosions! The ironic thing about all this is that Capt. Gerard never knew what Cara's motives were since, by being killed, she wasn't around to tell him.