El halcón del desierto

Once again Universal getting out of those sets that they created for Maria Montez and her films creates The Desert Hawk with romantic bandit leader Richard Greene romancing the Princess Scherazade played by Yvonne DeCarlo.. Fortunately Greene has two villains to contend with George MacReady and evil prince and Carl Esmond leader of a cult of assassins who work at cross purposes.

To keep DeCarlo from marrying MacReady in an arranged marriage Greene pretends to be MacReady and he has a clergyman in his gang marry them. These days we'd go to court for an annulment, but back then this is a beheading offense.

The film also has Jackie Gleason and Joe Besser playing Aladdin and Sinbad. Not those two legends from Arabian Night but a pair of burlesque comedians of those times who look jarringly out of place. Gleason looks like he crash dieted for this film, God only knows why.

Rock Hudson plays one of MacReady's henchmen and he was up and coming over at Universal at the time. Lucky this was early in his career or within two years he would have had the lead and this would be remembered as a Hudson picture.

Definitely one of Universal's lesser homages to the Arabian Nights.

The beautiful Princess Scheherazade (Yvonne DeCarlo) is betrothed to Prince Murad (George Macready). Unfortunately for her, Prince Murad is a bit of a tyrant, and his tax collectors have been oppressing the common people. Challenging his tyranny is the man known as the Desert Hawk. His real identity is under wraps, and when not fighting injustice he's a humble blacksmith under the name of Omar.

Richard Greene plays the Desert Hawk in this sprightly Arabian Nights adventure ( minus the fantasy elements) and he's a Robin Hood figure. It's nothing new, but that doesn't mean it isn't entertaining. There's a lot to enjoy like scimitars clashing, riders in the desert landscape, diabolical plots, and some nice twists and turn. It was quite enjoyable.

Both stars - Yvonne DeCarlo and Richard Greene- enliven this film further, with Decarlo's haughty princess adding some spice, and Greene's dashing acting. He really swordfights well.

It's got the typical Hollywood's exaggerated version of Arabia with harems and poetic language. But it's harmless fun that had me cheering the hero.

It's a fairy tale like out of Arabian Nights and very much romanticised and Hollywoodised but with above all spectacular clothing and fencing scenes. It's a comedy like out of the days of Douglas Fairbanks and Rudolph Valentino and set in the same kind of fantasy world of highly romantic splendour but totally drowned in superficiality. Richard Greene as the Desert Hawk is just a dashing adventurer like any pirate, and Yvonne de Carlo as the princess is also kept down on a very basically superficial level - she is not allowed to do much dancing. The other characters are amusing enough with their tricks, while the most impressing character actually is George Macready as one of his many suave and very wicked crooks excelling in foul play. The colours are also magnificent throughout, this is a dashing costume drama of great swashbuckling and a dazzling extravagance of costumes all the way, while Frank Skinner's music isn't too bad either. To sum it up, it's good enough as entertainment but not much more.

A remarkably decent cast fail to enliven this rather verbose and dull Arabian Nights adventure based around the legendary character of "Scheherazade". This time she (Yvonne de Carlo) is the daughter of the Caliph who is tricked into marrying "Omar" (Richard Greene) in the belief that he is the Prince "Murad" (George Macready). Nobody is very impressed by this arrangement, the Princess demands the head of "Omar" and off we go on some colourful desert shenanigans during which the Princess realises that she might just have backed the wrong horse! Sadly, though, it is all just descends quickly into a routine sand and scimitar story as the men vie for her affections whilst pursuing wealth and power at the same time. It looks quite good, but the dialogue is pretty stilted and even with Jackie Gleason and a bit-part from Rock Hudson, it never really flows - indeed, much of the time it is just too meandering and lacklustre. Pity, though - better writing and direction could have made more of it.

'The Desert Hawk' is a bog-standard adventure epic (Arabian Nights subclass), sorely compromised by its extremely low budget but benefiting from an interesting cast. When I saw that Yvonne De Carlo was the female lead (in harem trousers, worse luck), I was worried this might turn out to be a Maria Montez-type campfest: fortunately, this film never sank to that level. Rock Hudson, in a prominent supporting role, is not as embarrassing as one might expect. Richard Greene, in his Robin Hood period, basically plays an Arabian version of Robin Hood here. De Carlo's character is named Scheherazade, but she isn't the famous Scheherazade of the 'Arabian Nights' tales: she's playing a different character with that same name.

The best and most interesting performances here are given by Jackie Gleason and Joe Besser as Richard Greene's wily assistants. Confusingly, their characters are named Aladdin and Sinbad. I kept wondering why Aladdin didn't whip out his magic lamp and summon his genie (not to mention Widow Twanky), until I twigged that the 'Aladdin' and 'Sinbad' in this movie aren't the two famous characters: they're two completely different characters with the same names as those two.

Jackie Gleason, as 'Aladdin', does well in a semi-serious role: his performance here doesn't resemble any of his well-known television characters. Joe Besser is a 'comedian' whose unfunny performances have almost always annoyed me, and who spent most of his career in supporting roles to comedians much more talented than Besser ... such as Moe Howard, Larry Fine, Bud Abbott and Lou Costello. In 'The Desert Hawk', Besser gives a genuinely impressive performance, with some dramatic ability. I was especially impressed by one scene in which Besser as Sinbad is put into a torture device (a vertical form of the rack), and stretched unmercifully. Based on Besser's other characterisations, I expected him to scream effeminately and have a tantrum ... instead, he remains stoic and endures his torture manfully. (A trivia note: Joe Besser and the famous caricaturist Al Hirschfeld lived in the same house in St Louis, Missouri during their respective childhoods ... but not at the same time.) Gleason and Besser are the two main points of interest in 'The Desert Hawk', but their screen time is quite brief.

Michael Ansara and Nestor Paiva put their facial bone structures to good use in small roles. Ben Welden (an American actor who started his film career in England) is obtrusively American in a small role as an Arab. I'll rate 'The Desert Hawk' 4 out of 10. I'm grateful that this film wasn't very campy ... but I suppose that fans of Yvonne De Carlo and Rock Hudson will be disappointed that this film isn't MORE campy.