Candlelight in Algeria

You can get this film from Movies Unlimited. However, it is not 85 minutes long as advertised in IMDb and other places. It's about 63 minutes long, but the story seems complete enough. The interplay between the American heroine and her English secret agent boy friend is snappy and sassy. If you have ever wondered why James Mason was once considered the "Cambridge edition of Clark Gable", then look no further than this film. I particularly like the scenes where he is running around with a fez on his head for no apparently good reason. This was one of three films Mason did where he played the "good" guy (before the Brits figured out he'd be much more of a box office hit playing slightly sadistic anti-heroes). The other two are "Hotel Reserve" and "Secret Mission".

This is all adventure while the war is only a decoration. Lovely Carla Lehmann, reminding very much of Carole Lombard, is a very American Kansas girl who accidentally gets mixed up with a brazen English adventurer (James Mason) who has taken some forbidden pictures of some very secret German maps, which he is being chased for as he tries to smuggle them out of Algeria. They team up and eventually end up in the exotic Casbah, where anyone can hide or disappear forever. There is a lot of good humour here, the dialog is flippant and exhilarating, the wit is constantly on a high level and good mood, and Carla is doing surprisingly well. The Germans are not all complete dumbbells here, doktor Muller is quite awesome in his perfect politeness, and the exploration of intriguing environments in Algiers is quite entertaining, and eventually the invasion of North Africa starts rolling on. The spirit of the film is ironic with some detachment, and there are some really hilarious scenes with French and German officers in their very different approach to women. It is not a great film, but it is entertaining enough.

Candlelight in Algeria from 1944 is a British film about the invasion of North Africa by the Allies. It stars a skinny, mustached James Mason and Carla Lehmann.

Lehmann plays Susan, an American from Kansas who meets Alan (Mason) on the run from the Germans, when he breaks into her house. He asks her to steal a camera which has film showing the meeting place of the Allies to plan the invasion.

When the Germans arrest her, Alan rescues her, but the Germans are in pursuit.

Very good and atmospheric film, with Lehman resembling Meryl Streep in some angles. Mason had a remarkable career in British films before hitting a big over here; in this film, he is a scrappy freedom fighter.

British spy Alan Thurston (Mason) is trying to get hold of a camera to bring to the British Consulate in Algiers. It has pictures of the location of a top-secret meeting place of the Allied commanders regarding the invasion of North Africa. Tailing him is RNO (repugnant Nazi official) Dr. Muller, who knows of the camera. Thurston breaks into the Algerian residence of American civilian Susan Foster (Carla Lehmann), with Muller in hot pursuit. Thurston persuades her to help him in his quest for the camera, since he is too notorious and would be arrested on sight in Algiers. There then follows a tense and taut cat-and-mouse game with Nazi officials and our two co-heroes.

The picture is extremely well-done and the suspense doesn't let up for the entire 82 minutes (by my watch). There is a romantic interlude in The Casbah, where Thurston has sought refuge and has taken Ms. Foster, reminiscent of 'Pepe Le Moko", in which similar circumstances occur. Ms. Foster, it turns out, is from Kansas, fulfilling the prophesy of my headline. Walter Rilla plays Dr. Muller in despicable fashion, a Nazi civilian official feared by everyone in the picture except Thurston.

Despite the grim circumstances the mood of the picture ranges from deadly serious to lighthearted, especially during exchanges between Mason and Lehmann (the deadly serious passages belong to Rilla). I agree with a reviewer above that Mason was a dashing adventure hero - too bad he became typecast as humorless and overbearing. I don't understand why this movie is so lightly regarded and why it hasn't been shown on TV or in revival houses. Note to IMDb directors: Your rating is too low. It is better than a similar movie, "Five Graves To Cairo", made the previous year. You should at least use the median figure instead of the weighted one.

Maybe be a piece of fluffy propaganda, but it's an enjoyable adventure movie, with a suitable spunky American heroine and a charming British spy. Part of the plot takes place in Alger Casbah, like Pépé le Moko but on a smaller scale. A sweet but determined French girl named Yvette makes an impression, thanks to her small role of the doomed lover.