La Caravane du désert

Putting the opening scenes aside, this film turns most of Hollywood's favorite racial conventions upside down. Robeson is the one and only action hero in this film, he has a tiny white sidekick who provides comic relief and he gets the girl. The girl is played by a dark skinned actress while her "Arab" brothers are all white, but otherwise it is less groan worthy than many modern films. It has few pretensions, is well written and has lots and lots of footage of camels. Even the plot twist that another reviewer complains of is sort of plausible. And Robeson sings "Mammy's little baby loves shortnin' bread" to a baby and leaves out the "pickaniny" lines, so even that isn't really objectionable.

It's only 75 minutes long, so, even if you don't find it as good as I did, you haven't really wasted that much of you life. It's really quite a good adventure film starring the famous black actor Paul Robeson. He made this film as a part of a package deal with British backers, because he felt that he would be able to play less stereotypical roles. Other blacks in the film don't get this posh treatment, as they speak pidgin English, throw dice, and scare easily, but, for the most part, Robeson maintains all of his dignity (the most he does is sing `Mammy's little babies love shortnin' shortnin', but, who knows, that might not have seemed harmful in 1937). Robeson plays Jericho Jackson, an intelligent soldier trained as a doctor. During a crisis on his ship, Robeson tries to knock out a superior officer who has gone nuts and accidentally kills him. Sentenced to death, he escapes, which gets a friend of his who has vouched for him (Henry Wilcoxon, Marc Antony from Cecil B. DeMille's 1934 movie, Cleopatra) thrown in jail. Robeson runs into the North African desert, where he becomes a leader of a tribe of nomads. A wise-cracking white man (Wallace Ford) becomes his best friend. When Wilcoxon is released from prison, he attempts to search out Jericho in order to reclaim his own honor. It's a pretty good story, although it ends rather lamely. Robeson sings some damn fine songs and his acting is great. The on-location cinematography, by John W. Boyle, is really beautiful. He captures a lot of great shots of a caravan moving slowly up and down the desert terrain. 8/10.

Paul Robeson shines as a GI who disobeys orders to abandon a torpedoed ship in order to pry loose a door and free 6 fellow Negro soldiers. He punches his sergeant, who falls and hits his head and dies, while Robeson continues his effort and succeeds in rescuing the men. His captain, Henry Wilcoxon, stands up for him at a hearing, declaring it would be unjust to punish a man for a heroic deed. But the major in charge disagrees, since Robeson disobeyed orders and struck a superior officer. He is put under arrest pending a court-martial. On Christmas Eve, Wilcoxon lets Robeson out of his cell to join fellow soldiers at a Christmas songfest, but Robeson escapes in a small boat, befriending Wallace Ford, the only other person in the boat. They head for Africa and Robeson starts a new happy life in the desert, marrying Princess Kouka, who bears him two children. Meanwhile, Wilcoxon is court-martialed for complicity in the escape and sentenced to Leavenworth for five years. When he gets out, his only object in life is to find and bring back Robeson, who could clear hum of the complicity charge. Wilcoxon accidentally sees Robeson in a newsreel some explorers shot while in Africa, and he goes to bring him back.

Two original songs were written for Robeson, whose rich baritone voice is always a pleasure to hear. There's also a bit of adventure in the film, as Robeson leads a 12-mile-long caravan of camels trekking to an area to pick up a year's supply of salt. In an exciting sequence, they have to fight off a group of bandits.

Great entertainment with several interesting aspects. Tailored for Robeson's self-preferred Black Superman persona, this movie has scenes of Robeson ordering Wallace Ford ("Old Pa" from Patch of Blue) to tend to his camel, and Robeson commanding an army into battle. All this is done with a genial sense of humor that keeps it fun! Robeson is a man on the run, who is also a college-educated doctor. Remember, this was 20 years before Sidney came along.

A plot so arbitrary that it's not possible to mistake, for a moment, that this is anything but a Paul Robeson vehicle: for worshipful fans only.