Une Tête Brûlée

It definitely fits the time period as the Axis & Allies were playing espionage games throughout most of North Africa & the rest of the world. It's not the best of films, but certainly not the worst of the budget films as described previously from the compilation War Classics.

Duncan"Cisco Kid" Renaldo was actually very good in one of his first feature films. I really enjoyed the performance of Harry Parke (credited as Parkyarkarkus). Why he never got any bigger roles is beyond me. He played the perfect buddy/partner role and saved the movie...imho.

As said, this film was part of a budget package from Superbox-Mart entitled War Classics. Eight movies for eight bucks, which included other never-heard-from-films that has some decent stars trying to pay the bills.

This script is...well, not so hot. The editing & cinematography is...worse. If you can by-pass all of that and want to see the future Cisco Kid & a great sidekick that sadly never fulfilled his true potential, definitely pick it up! Otherwise, there's other WW2 films to watch.

-Thunderossa.

This was released in july of 1942, so the united states had just been yanked into the war by japan. Right at the start, there's a warning about content that may be objectionable to some, but should be kept in the context of the time it was made. The only name I recognize here is hb warner, who was in so many huge films, even nominated for lost horizon. Funny guy parkyarkarkus is in here, but credited as harry einstein. When loud, blustery, newspaper reporter malone gets caught up in a mixup between the nazis and the arabs in libya, he doesn't realize the complications he has started. Malone tries to enlist the help of nancy brooks, but she's not falling for it. Mr. Forbes at the british consulate may or may not know more than he is telling. It's not the tightest story, and it was made by the producers releasing corporation, one of the lowest budget studios in the 1940s. It's very okay. I don't think anyone was too proud of this work. It rambles all over the place, and was not at all respectful to other cultures. Parkyarkarkus died pretty young at 54. Film directed by al herman. I've seen a couple of his films from the 1940s. He had made tons of short films with mickey rooney and billy barty, starting as silents in the 1920s. Fun reference to camel cigarettes about halfway through; camel cigarettes had been around since 1913!

Although this film stars H.B. Warner, he is certainly not the central character, that role being fulfilled by Walter Woolf King, a little known actor, who portrays an American war correspondent who has unearthed a Nazi plot to foment a rebellion among the Arab tribes. In fact, Warner's part is rather minor. The story is pedestrian but the acting is good. There is not much big action, the only scenes promising it being at the end of the film, but, it doesn't come off. The chief of the attacking Arabs, making a sudden recovery from a Luger bullet at close range, prevents it. It turns out a small medallion on his chest stopped the bullet!

Neither Leonard Maltin nor Martin and Porter list this film in their filmograhies. I got it on DVD in a budget set of eight "War Classics". The plot of a Nazi conspiracy to foment a revolt of the Arab tribes in Libya is the nearest it gets to WWII. The sheik is played by Duncan Renaldo, perhaps better known as the Cisco Kid both in film and on TV. The Arab villain is portrayed by the prolific George J. Lewis with whom any fan of serials would be familiar, being a stock villain in that genre. He only appeared in about 260 films! Some comic relief is supplied by Parkyakarkas posing as an Arab selling razor blades!

Mike Malone is an obnoxious and stupid American reporter who, inexplicably, is hanging out under cover in Libya! He's boorish and stupid--which is a nice match, as all the rest of the folks in the film are really dumb. Because of this, the whole gun smuggling and Nazi infiltrator angles just don't make a lot of sense and the film leaves you wondering WHAT you've just seen! "A Yank in Libya" is a horrible movie and I have no idea why most of the reviews are so kind to this mess of a film. The only good thing about it is that the film can be fun to watch because it is so incredibly stupid!

When the movie begins, you can see that the footage they're using of a desert scene is old re-used footage. It's grainy but more importantly, since it was from a silent film (which runs at a different speed than a sound film) the footage is too fast. As you watch the film, again and again you notice this, as the filmmakers actually just spliced up an old movie and inserted a few new scenes into it to make an all-new picture. Clever? Not really, as it's very obvious AND the new scenes are just god-awful--mostly due to the script having been written by a couple of chimps! Again and again, the dialog is just awful (a nice example is the line "why I'd be a cock-eyed whirling dervish...") and the plot just doesn't make any sense (one guy is shot from only a few feet away and is dead...but later, with no explanation, he's very alive and quite well!). The bottom line is that this terrible B-movie is so terrible that it actually could be seen as funny to bad movie buffs- -but all others stay clear!

This film is an example of what a low budget "B" film can be like. "A Yank In Libya" is one of those more classic B films amongst movie buffs, as well known for its title as it is for being a "poverty row" film. The film was produced and released by PRC, Producers Releasing Company. Intercut in the film are numerous scenes taken directly from other films, by doing this it was a cost saving measure. Also several scenes, such as the fight scenes were speeded up, much in the way old silent comedies were run at a faster speed.

The film has an interesting plot where Germans are supplying weapons to Arabs to murder Americans. H.B. Warner has a great supporting role playing the British diplomat. He is best knoiwn for having played Christ in the biblical silent epics. Joan Woodbury plays an attractive lead, in real life she was the wife of Henry Wilcoxon. Parkyakarkus, a radio actor of the time essentially plays himself. If you have no idea who he is, he looks, sounds and acts like Jack Oakie. Walter Woolf King essentially plays the male lead, and does a good job.