The Desert Song (1953) Reviews

• Based on a very real hero

  bkoganbing2005-04-26

  I have to say from the outset I'm a sucker for operettas. I like music as long as it has a melody and there's nothing more melodious than an operetta. The Desert Song is filled with wonderful melodies and Gordon MacRae and Kathryn Grayson sing them to perfection in this third film adaption of the Romberg-Harbach-Hammerstein operetta. The real surprise for most people is that the Riffs are quite real. A hardy fighting group they were led in the teens and twenties of the last century by a romantic hero very much like the Red Shadow(El Khobar)named Abdel-Krim. They are the indigenous folk who inhabit in and around the Atlas mountains of Morocco and what was at that time Spanish Morocco. During the post World War I years American correspondents reporting from those wars were pretty much on the side of the Riffs who were seeking independence from France and Spain. Spain which was not a combatant in World War I took the brunt of the fighting. And Abdel Krim led them on a merry chase for a decade. The Spanish army was beaten at every turn. A guy named Francisco Franco got his first military combat in the Riff Wars. Eventually the French entered the war in a big way and Abdel-Krim became a prisoner. He went into exile after release and died in the mid 60s. He was a warrior, Abdel Krim in the tradition of Saladin of the Crusades, not at all like today's terrorists. He never made war on civilians. The guy most responsible for his capture was Marshal Phillippe Petain who led the French army, his most notable activity between both world wars. No doubt in my mind that Abdel-Krim was the model of our hero. Of course since this is the west doing the story we make the hero a Frenchman named Paul Bonnard who by day is a mild-mannered archaeologist from a French University by day and the fearsome lion of the desert by night. Gordon MacRae even dons glasses in his Paul Bonnard mode, just like Clark Kent. And the leading lady is Margot, daughter of the French commandant and a typical 1920s flirt. In this version that would be Kathryn Grayson. But it's the wonderful romantic music that Sigmund Romberg wrote that will make the Desert Song last forever. The main songs, The Desert Song One Alone, the Riff Song and Margot's soliloquy Romance are done in fine style by the leads. I wish more of the score got into this version. Doing operetta, of necessity a lot of it is tongue in cheek. As villains Raymond Massey and Frank DeKova seem to be having a great old time, hamming it up. Kathryn Grayson got to do a lot of classic operetta and opera while she was at MGM. Gordon MacRae had a terrific baritone voice and sad to say in his case, he didn't come along in the 1930s or he could have done a lot of the operetta that was being filmed then. One more thing about Abdel Krim. I can't prove it, but I think he was the model for Rudolph Valentino's The Sheik and we all know how popular that was. For us operetta fans of all ages.

• MacRae and Grayson are in fine voice for this well-worn operetta...

  Doylenf2001-04-22

  This is the third screen version of the operetta and, as far as the singing goes, probably the best. Gordon MacRae is in splendidly robust baritone voice as the mild-mannered anthropologist who is asked to tutor the General's daughter (Kathryn Grayson), all the while being the leader of the Riffs being sought by her French legionnaire boyfriend (Steve Cochran). The well-worn plot rambles on interspersed with some action scenes, silly comedy and exotic dances--all in keeping with the spirit of the desert adventure. The two leads are charming in their roles and Raymond Massey is on hand as an evil sheik. Good color photography and location filming make it a pleasant film to watch--but it's the music by Sigmund Romberg that makes it all worthwhile. Grayson is especially good when she renders "Gay Parisienne" before an army of soldier admirers and gives her most flirtatious and colorful performance since 'Kiss Me Kate'. Gordon MacRae firmly established himself as singer and actor, revealing a sense of humor along with his splendid singing voice. Well worth seeing for fans of musical comedy.

• El Hadj Aleman -- Nicht Wahr?

  guidon72007-08-19

  I'm afraid I must contradict one of the contributors above. El Khobar (The Red Shadow) was not based on Abd-el-Kader but instead on the exploits of one known as El Hadj Aleman, who gave the French Foreign Legion fits during the Riff War in the 1920's. El Hadj Aleman was in fact a Legion deserter (Otto Klems) of German nationality. Despite being a Legion officer, he hated the French, defecting to the Arabs and with his military skills became a very effective leader. His identity was a mystery to the Foreign Legion until nearly the end of the war. Surrendering, he was sentenced to death by the French, but he had become a romantic hero in the U.S. due to dispatches by American reporters (witness Romberg's operetta, The Desert Song, as a result). U.S. pressure was applied to the French and they at last quietly released Klems. Back in Germany and in prison for burglary, he committed suicide. Just setting the record straight.

• Romance, Song and Conflict in the Desert

  weezeralfalfa2007-11-08

  I recently found a DVD source for this forgotten gem. Wow! It's beyond me why reviews of the major film roles of Kathryn Grayson and Gordon MacRae invariable ignore this unique operetta. Gordon sandwiched this film in between his early film years, mostly costarring Doris Day, and his peak career period, staring in the film versions of "Oklahoma" and "Carousel". Kathryn was nearing the end of her Hollywood career, starring in the much better known "Kiss Me Kate", filmed the same year. To my mind, Kathryn was just about the classiest woman Hollywood ever featured. She had it all: classic beauty, a great operatic voice and very flirty looks at the men, yet prim and proper. She gets ample opportunity to display all these qualities in this film. Unfortunately, her real life romantic relationships seem to have been a bit of a mess. Gordon does a great job playing starchy, if handsome, French anthropologist Paul Bonnard, who doubles as El Khobar, the dashing leader of a band Riff Berbers in their fight against the French legionnaires and an evil sheik, played by veteran character actor Raymond Massey. This dual personality does strongly remind us of the Clark Kent-Superman duality in the 1950s TV series. True, it does strain credulity that Gordon, as a rather thinly disguised El Khobar, could have avoided recognition by Kathryn and others as being the professor. Steve Cochran makes a dashing-looking Captain Fontaine whom Kathryn, as the newly arrived daughter of General Birabeau, immediately falls for. Eventually, she transfers her chief affection to Gordon in his El Khobar incarnation, being bored by his persona, the professor, her private tutor. Both Kathryn and Gordon sing quite a few solo numbers as well as several duets. Allyn Ann McLeries is fine in her supporting role as Azuri, a sensuous blue-eyed Riff dancing girl, presently employed in the evil sheik's palace, but in love with El Khobar, who inexplicably rebuffs her advances. Having recently seen her in the supporting role in "Calamity Jane", filmed the same year, I was surprised how well she could be made to look and dance like a real knockout Berber temptress. Dick Wesson, as the goofy nosy American reporter, provides some comic relief from time to time. By way of historical background, the Riffian Berbers mainly inhabited the Rif mountains, which are a Moroccoan coastal range near Gibralter. Thus, the depiction of the Riffs as galloping over endless sand dunes is presumably quite inaccurate. The tribal peoples of the Rif Mountains declared their independence from Spanish Morocco in 1921, under the leadership of Abd el-Krim. Unlike his predecessors, he was able to suppress the usual intratribal fighting that had defeated previous attempts to oust the Spanish. The Spanish were unable to defeat the Riff, but when the French entered the conflict, they brought overwhelming forces and technology that eventually defeated them. According to another reviewer, the character El Khobar is very loosely based on the life of the German Josef Klems, who joined the French army and spent some years fighting the tribesmen in Morocco. However, the French couldn't forget that he was a German. One day, he beat up an officer reminding him of this, and he fled to the tribal people. They spared him and eventually he was made a leader of raids and given two wives. He sometimes dressed up in his French uniform and thus was able to gain entrance to French posts around dusk, where he would steal weapons and ammunition while the men were at dinner. ..An Italian adventure film, "Man of Legend", made in 1971, is also loosely based on his life. A review said it is a good film, but not presently available.

• Bright and Cheerful Film

  marik4me2004-06-14

  Though it seems many criticize this in comparison with the stage play, I have always been in love with this movie version. The characters are fun (especially Benjy), the music is heavenly (I could sing it all day!), and the plot is nonstop action. I look at the play and this movie almost as two different shows completely, since there are, admittedly, many differences. Here, Margot is the general's daughter (as opposed to his child being the Red Shadow/El Khobar). Pierre is now Paul. Captain Fontaine's first name is Claude. Benjamin Kidd's nickname is now Benjy instead of Bennie, and his secretary Susan is absent. And there's an evil sheik, making two different foes for the Riffs: The Legionaires and the sheik and his men. All in all, I find the movie quite satisfying.