1h 22min | | 23 November 1949 | Color
Director: Charles Lamont
Stars: Maureen O'Hara, Paul Hubschmid, Vincent Price.
Lester Horton ... choreographer
Bella Lewitzky ... choreographer
Watched online, good print.
3 songs performed (sung/danced) by Maureen O'Hara; no indication of a voice double. Additional dancing by chorus girls in middle-Eastern style.
This is primarily action/adventure. No idea what motivated the Fantasy tag; we get no magic, not even a dream sequence.
The romantic lead is a Swiss/German actor who made plenty of films, but few in America. He's handsome, and could have been interesting with the proper roles.
MO is fiery and willful as always. She is the Bedouin princess, red hair and all. I suppose her education in England justifies her non-traditional behavior, but nothing justifies her riding horseback through the desert with her head, neck and chest exposed to the sun.
We get no humor from VP's role this time. That's a shame: funny/slimy is his best configuration.
The plot might be difficult to recount, particularly when the body count goes up in the last quarter (or less) of the film. But it's a H'wood production, so the couple you're expecting unite in the end.
Universal, dir. Lamont; 6
