Action in Arabia

I watched this because it came on after a movie I watched on purpose. I meant to turn it off, especially because it looked so incredibly low-budget right from the get-go... but I didn't turn it off and, five minutes in, just couldn't stop watching. There are so many snarky, clever, laugh-out-loud lines! There is also as much intrigue and eccentric characters as in Casablanca (and some of the same actors as well). You will need to know a bit about the history of the time to get the plot, but all you'll need to like the film is to listen and drink in George Sanders absolutely awesome performance - this is my favorite of his films. It's low budget and a bad print, but the perfectly-cast Sanders and the hilarious one-liners make it worth the watch.

George Sanders experiences some "Action in Arabia" in this 1944 RKO film that also stars Virginia Bruce. Sanders is a reporter in Damascus who wants to find the killers of a fellow reporter. He uncovers a Nazi plot of the Germans attempting to turn the Arabs against the Allies.

It's not much, but there's some great action, and if you're a fan of George Sanders, he's at his elegant best in this, beautifully dressed and very smooth.

There are nice performances from an able supporting cast that includes Gene Lockhart, Alan Napier (that's Alfred the Butler on Batman), and H.B. Warner.

A small propaganda film, reminiscent in its way of Casablanca, but pleasant enough.

This movie pops up quite regularly on late night TV-and every time I get sucked into watching it. A cut above usual B grade movies with some very good stock footage of Arabic life the plot is the usual spy Vs spy yarn -but I have to say its very enjoyable. The cast is likable with a number of familiar faces all going earnestly about their business. The real star for me are the Art directors and set decorators. They did not have much to work with on the back-lot but have created that quintessentially Hollywood interpretation of what Damascus would or rather should look like. This is great entertaining action-er that's enjoyable its Casablanca inspired introduction to the final shoot out where the good guys triumph. Well worth a look at any time of the night.

The action of this film never got anywhere near the Arabian peninsula for a film titled Action In Arabia. I guess the alliteration got to the folks at RKO when they titled this film as the scene of the action is Damascus.

Which was after World War I Syria was a French mandate per the Versailles treaty. When France fell in 1940 the various colonial possessions had their own internal battles as to whether to declare loyalty to the Vichy regime or the Free French of DeGaulle. Then there were the various Arab tribes not to mention the Druse people in Syria who were not mentioned in the film all of them having their own idea on which horse to place their bets.

George Sanders is an American reporter who had been covering the backwoods theater of Iraq during World War II. He's stopping in Damascus, but he also recognizes Alan Napier as a Nazi agent on the plane with Lenore Aubert who is the daughter of influential sheik H.B. Warner. He sends a colleague with a bead on the story who unfortunately gets killed following it up.

Now Sanders is on a mission to see what's going on. With the help of Virginia Bruce and her father Gene Lockhart who we really never trust simply because its Gene Lockhart and you know the roles he's normally cast in. There's also Robert Armstrong of the American Foreign Service who's a bit thick but comes through in a crisis.

It's a decent action propaganda programmer from RKO though it should have been entitled Intrigue In Damascus.

Two Western journalists are on their way home through Syria when they see a familiar face talk with the daughter of an Arab leader. When one follows the man later that night, he is found dead. His colleague Michael Gordon investigates and finds clues pointing to a plot to pervert the leadership of the tribes and lead them with the Nazi's against the allied forces.

I watched this film simply because the title caught my eye in the schedules. Given the fact that the screening occurred while other channels were covering the war on Iraq as part of their news cycle, I initially assumed it was a documentary of some sort. A look to see it was a film made decades ago suggested that the schedulers had maybe been guilty of bad taste. However watching it there was little to support this thought.

The film is set in the Middle East which, in this film, spreads from Iraq across into Africa ending in Morocco. The politics of the area are difficult now and were still complex when this film was made, so the plot decides to mostly ignore internal issues and focus on the bigger picture of the Nazi threat. By doing so it becomes a bit of propaganda that almost works quite well, but mostly means the plot becomes quite straightforward. The film focuses on the potential for the Nazi's to use the tribes to sweep through the Middle East and Africa and Gordon's investigation to stop it. Mostly the film is very talky and even the action scenes are quite pedestrian (despite the music played loudly thought them), this would be OK if it had a bit more twists and turns but really it goes where you expect it to. This is not to say it is bad – but it is pretty unremarkable.

Sanders plays it as usual – upright, tough and gentlemanly, he also is quite stiff and unanimated. This works well for the majority but I would have liked a little more heart in it. The support cast are all OK but are strangely (or perhaps not so strangely) made up of mostly white characters playing Arabs – only the crowd shots appear to use non-white faces. This isn't a major detraction but it is a distraction at times – esp when supposed Arab princesses are played by white women who would be more at home shopping in Manhattan.

Overall this is a sturdy little film that is short but still feels a little too long. The straightforward plot and talky nature make it feel a little dull at times but there is just enough going on to hold the interest.