The Desert Hawk

Once again Universal getting out of those sets that they created for Maria Montez and her films creates The Desert Hawk with romantic bandit leader Richard Greene romancing the Princess Scherazade played by Yvonne DeCarlo.. Fortunately Greene has two villains to contend with George MacReady and evil prince and Carl Esmond leader of a cult of assassins who work at cross purposes.

To keep DeCarlo from marrying MacReady in an arranged marriage Greene pretends to be MacReady and he has a clergyman in his gang marry them. These days we'd go to court for an annulment, but back then this is a beheading offense.

The film also has Jackie Gleason and Joe Besser playing Aladdin and Sinbad. Not those two legends from Arabian Night but a pair of burlesque comedians of those times who look jarringly out of place. Gleason looks like he crash dieted for this film, God only knows why.

Rock Hudson plays one of MacReady's henchmen and he was up and coming over at Universal at the time. Lucky this was early in his career or within two years he would have had the lead and this would be remembered as a Hudson picture.

Definitely one of Universal's lesser homages to the Arabian Nights.

Established by mutual agreement, even by third parties. Like the deceitful marriage between the two protagonists. The princesses, although against a marriage arranged by her father, is won over by the boldness and noble motivations of the deception. The disguise also serves to fight the tyrannical power of the prince, for the freedom of his starving people.

Princess Scheherazade (Yvonne de Carlo) agrees to marry Prince Murad, arranged by the caliph, her father. In reality she marries the bandit Omar (Richard Greene), nicknamed the Desert hawk, accompanied by his attendant Aladdin (Jackie Gleason) and his gang. When the real Prince Murad (George McCready) arrives at the camp protected by the garrison of Captain Ras (Rock Hudson), he reveals the deception.

Director Frederick de Cordova (6.0) gives a good adventurous pace to the film; the screenplay (6.0) is linear and fluid enough to flow quickly; from a technical point of view (5.5) one can appreciate Russel Metty's elegant photographic work; the acting (5.5) of the secondary roles is just sufficient, including Greene and Gleason, who work well within their comfort zone, while de Carlo's work in a complex and multifaceted role, an assertive and fascinating heroine, is more in-depth.

Best moments: in the casbah you can find excellent deals, obviously knowing how to judge the merchandise well: "Strong hair, thick skull... well-shaped ear. Clean, without warts... Show me your teeth". A must-see for fans of cloak and dagger and exotic settings.

'The Desert Hawk' is a bog-standard adventure epic (Arabian Nights subclass), sorely compromised by its extremely low budget but benefiting from an interesting cast. When I saw that Yvonne De Carlo was the female lead (in harem trousers, worse luck), I was worried this might turn out to be a Maria Montez-type campfest: fortunately, this film never sank to that level. Rock Hudson, in a prominent supporting role, is not as embarrassing as one might expect. Richard Greene, in his Robin Hood period, basically plays an Arabian version of Robin Hood here. De Carlo's character is named Scheherazade, but she isn't the famous Scheherazade of the 'Arabian Nights' tales: she's playing a different character with that same name.

The best and most interesting performances here are given by Jackie Gleason and Joe Besser as Richard Greene's wily assistants. Confusingly, their characters are named Aladdin and Sinbad. I kept wondering why Aladdin didn't whip out his magic lamp and summon his genie (not to mention Widow Twanky), until I twigged that the 'Aladdin' and 'Sinbad' in this movie aren't the two famous characters: they're two completely different characters with the same names as those two.

Jackie Gleason, as 'Aladdin', does well in a semi-serious role: his performance here doesn't resemble any of his well-known television characters. Joe Besser is a 'comedian' whose unfunny performances have almost always annoyed me, and who spent most of his career in supporting roles to comedians much more talented than Besser ... such as Moe Howard, Larry Fine, Bud Abbott and Lou Costello. In 'The Desert Hawk', Besser gives a genuinely impressive performance, with some dramatic ability. I was especially impressed by one scene in which Besser as Sinbad is put into a torture device (a vertical form of the rack), and stretched unmercifully. Based on Besser's other characterisations, I expected him to scream effeminately and have a tantrum ... instead, he remains stoic and endures his torture manfully. (A trivia note: Joe Besser and the famous caricaturist Al Hirschfeld lived in the same house in St Louis, Missouri during their respective childhoods ... but not at the same time.) Gleason and Besser are the two main points of interest in 'The Desert Hawk', but their screen time is quite brief.

Michael Ansara and Nestor Paiva put their facial bone structures to good use in small roles. Ben Welden (an American actor who started his film career in England) is obtrusively American in a small role as an Arab. I'll rate 'The Desert Hawk' 4 out of 10. I'm grateful that this film wasn't very campy ... but I suppose that fans of Yvonne De Carlo and Rock Hudson will be disappointed that this film isn't MORE campy.

This is a fun movie starring Richard Greene, playing an outlaw helping his people in the Middle East who coincidentally years later would find his fame playing Robin Hood on TV. It's fun, Jackie Gleason and Joe Besser provide the laughs, it has beautiful damsels in distress and nasty villains, a good matinee movie. Amusingly this movie depicts Muslims 600 years before Mohammed, which is quite incredible.

It's a fairy tale like out of Arabian Nights and very much romanticised and Hollywoodised but with above all spectacular clothing and fencing scenes. It's a comedy like out of the days of Douglas Fairbanks and Rudolph Valentino and set in the same kind of fantasy world of highly romantic splendour but totally drowned in superficiality. Richard Greene as the Desert Hawk is just a dashing adventurer like any pirate, and Yvonne de Carlo as the princess is also kept down on a very basically superficial level - she is not allowed to do much dancing. The other characters are amusing enough with their tricks, while the most impressing character actually is George Macready as one of his many suave and very wicked crooks excelling in foul play. The colours are also magnificent throughout, this is a dashing costume drama of great swashbuckling and a dazzling extravagance of costumes all the way, while Frank Skinner's music isn't too bad either. To sum it up, it's good enough as entertainment but not much more.