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.
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.