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First off, there are some very camp elements to this pre-code relic. The characters are shallowly scripted, but the principals creditably give them what they can. The ethnic stereotypes (and the wrong, wrong, wrong! depiction of Muslims at prayer!) may offend some, and anybody familiar with North Africa will notice many more howlers.

Still, Jack Holt's portrayal of Jim Bradler is almost Gable-esquire in its macho eloquence and Fay Wray is wonderful as hard, selfish Vida. The ending is unintentionally hysterical, but what elicits howls today may have only raised eyebrows among the cognoscenti in 1933.

While the story and production are impossible to take seriously, Holt and Wray make it very watchable, and the rest of it is just camp. Critically, I can't give this film high marks, but it's too fun to pass up.

Jack Holt returns to North Africa. The men working the site think he's returned to retake control of the oil production he spent years building. In truth, he's done with the oil business. He has returned to take Fay Wray with him. There are two problems. The lesser one is she's married to Donald Cook, whom he put in control of the works. The greater one is that the operation is falling to pieces, with the depredation of rebel general Noah Beery.

Holt was Columbia's biggest stars, one of the few actors Columbia had under contract, and he was their go-to lead for tough guy roles. Yet director Irving Cummings has his DP, under-rated Benjamin Kline, shoot the scenes -- almost none of which take place outside a studio set --to favor Miss Wray, a gauzy look in which shes often lounging on a day bed and looking swell. The story certainly favors Holt, who plays a straight-talking tough guy, and the gradual revelation f his character makes this a good movie. Also, the scenes with Beery are very funny.