The Barbarian

Originally meant to be a steamy romance filled with temptation and scandal, The Barbarian comes off today as antiquated and shocking but for all the wrong reasons. Diana Standing (Myrna Loy) is a wealthy woman from America who comes to Egypt to visit the land of her heritage. Her mother was half Egyptian. There she meets a ruthless womanizer who cons himself into being her guide. Jamil El Shehab (Ramon Novarro) has a history of romancing women and taking their money. He sets his eyes on Diana who no matter how she resists, cannot escape the watchful and menacing eye of Jamil.

Beginning in the 20s, America went wild for all things Arab and mysterious. Women fainted at the thought of men like Rudolph Valentino ravaging them in the desert, something they feared but also longed for. These kinds of stories became commonplace both in Hollywood and in trashy romance novels. Thus, we have The Barbarian. What better subject (rape, brutality, forbidden desire) for a pre-code film? Although she wore a nude bodysuit in the scene, Loy takes a bath in a tub with no bubbles and few flower petals inside to cover her. The soft focus says it all; this movie is all about sex.

Unfortunately today, many women see Novarro as a brute and a savage. Their negative reactions to him make for difficult viewing. His character was intended to be representative of the nagging desire for the unattainable, but by todays standards, Jamil is creepy and bothersome.

Despite these obstacles, the film has some undeniably merits. Novarro's singing enhances the story with a lovely ballad that strains throughout. The direction by Sam Wood leaves the audience with just enough information to tell the story, but not too much as to be smutty. One shot in particular of Diana after her rape is movingly beautiful.

I loved this pre-code romance with Ramon Novarro and Myrna Loy as it hearkened back to the days of similar stories such as Valentino's Sheik movies.

Ramon has never been sexier than as the Egyptian prince who's moonlighting as something of a cad and a gigolo, but who really only has eyes for Myrna! And Myrna has never looked lovelier than as the high class American who is initially repelled by The Barbarian who abducts her. It's no wonder that she changes her mind in the end when you get a load of her future mother-in-law! The only problem that I had with the story was that the prince abducts Myrna's character which involves her at first being taken against her will, and the trek through the desert seemed to go on forever! This is a finely acted movie with great production values, including gorgeous sets and excellent secondary performances by Reginald Denny as Myrna's fiancé and Louise Hale as Myrna's no nonsense companion! Her tart tongued barbs steal every scene she's in! Ramon has a soft, melodious voice perfectly suited for sound and he gets to sing in several languages! Also look for Myrna in a bathing scene that could only have been done pre-code! Wonderful, escapist pre-code fare!

I am constantly amazed at how sexy the precode films of 1933 are (the last year before the Production Code was enforced, which resulted in all Hollywood actresses becoming virgins again overnight), including this intense movie, "The Barbarian", the story of an inter-racial attraction between a white British woman (Myrna Loy, looking exceedingly beautiful here) and an Arab prince (Ramon Novarro, in what has to be his sexiest role ever), who disguises his true identity as part of a coming of age tribal ritual. Myrna's character is attracted to Ramon's Arab the moment she steps off the train in Cairo, Egypt. Fireworks promptly ensue between the two but it is unclear that Ramon is actually falling in love with the woman he pursues until closer to the end of the picture.

I completely disagree with another reviewer who called this movie "bilge" because of a certain scene in the desert. It is clear that Myrna finds the Arab desirable, so no real force was involved, it was mutual attraction right from the beginning. This was an important film role for Myrna Loy; she finally got to look beautiful and sexy on screen as the lead, instead of being cast in minor roles in silly exotic parts which didn't do much for her talents. It is not right to attack her memory, as the other reviewer here did, for a theme that has been repeated by Hollywood many times over the decades.

Other cast members were perfect here, including dapper Reginald Denny as the fiancée who quickly realizes the Arab's true intents, and Louise Hale as the grandmotherly Powers, who comes off with some of the most hysterically funny lines in the picture.

A wonderfully entertaining and intense film, and I give it a 10 out of 10. Excellent and very romantic. I just wish that Ramon's silent film "The Arab" from 1924, which was the basis for this re-make, was available to compare with this one, but unfortunately it is sitting in European archives and unlikely to ever be seen on video or DVD. Even "The Barbarian" is only available for viewing whenever TCM bothers to show it (usually once per year).

The team of Ramon Novarro and Myrna Loy did not strike any sparks at the box office with this throwback film The Barbarian. The property had two silent versions and it was originally entitled The Arab. Novarro and Loy were ships passing in the night on the MGM lot, her on the way up and him on the way down;.

Loy is in Egypt with her stuffy British engineer fiance Reginald Denny. But when Novarro as an ever eager Arab guide insinuates himself in their company. she's gradually drawn to him.

After that it's a throwback to the silent screen when Rudolph Valentino was stealing the hearts of women everywhere. During the Depression era 30s this sort of stuff wasn't going over.

Novarro who had a pleasant singing voice gets to sing the Love Song Of The Nile. And since interracial romance was a big old no-no back in those days a most convenient excuse is provided for the happy couple.

Some similarities for Loy to the role she later played in The Rains Came, a much better film.

Kidnapped in the Egyptian desert, a beautiful American finds herself alternately loving & loathing THE BARBARIAN who abducted her.

Taken solely as romantic adventure, this lavish little MGM film has much to offer, including good acting & fine production values. Considered only from the standpoint of the plot, the story is ludicrous, what with a heroine suffering histrionics among the sand dunes & a hero who is a completely unprincipled cad.

Ramon Novarro does well in the title role, a reprise of his silent film THE ARAB (1924). MGM's Mexican star adds yet another ethnic stripe to his thespian escutcheon, this time portraying an Egyptian prince. Looking a little like a Valentino clone, he gets to sing & act in a variety of languages. Myrna Loy, who only gets billing below the title, is excellent as the Englishwoman caught-up in the allures & entrapments of the Nile Desert. After paying her dues in roles like this, she would very soon become a major Hollywood movie star.

In the very able supporting cast Reginald Denny plays Loy's stuffy fiancé; Edward Arnold is an unctuous pasha; Hedda Hopper appears briefly as an American tourist very pleased with Novarro's attentions. Wonderful old Sir C. Aubrey Smith is well cast as Loy's eccentric uncle and elderly, tart-tongued Louise Closser Hale steals every scene she's in as Loy's peppery companion.

This film is definitely pre-Production Code vintage, a fact made plainly obvious by Loy's lounge-in-the-tub scene. Considered rationally, many of THE BARBARIAN's implications are rather disturbing. That Loy could only be happy with the man who has humiliated, beaten, abused & raped her are decidedly unwholesome ideas to come from the pen of screenwriter - and liberated woman - Anita Loos.

Novarro sings 'Love Songs of the Nile' quite well, but interminably. If it sounds suspiciously like his previous 'Pagan Love Song' hit, it may be because the two songs share the same composers, Nacio Herb Brown & Arthur Freed.