Sirocco

I totally enjoyed this film. I wasn't expecting much from what I had previously read (on here) and if you can try and not think about some of Bogart's other triumphs, this is a quick moving, interesting enough film with underlining truths..

Basically Bogart has been presented with a choice of doing right or wrong in a war torn city in Syria, trying to mind his own business and continue to profit himself with supplying guns to rebel fighters, he is steered towards helping the French. Of course this would also help him get out of the city and onto better places..but the story unveils complications for him..

Bogart's role is similar to his other characters but not entirely, he's definitely got that "cynic on the outside, but heart pointing in the right direction on the inside" thing going on.

Also, the film does have other strong roles, in particular the very beautiful Märta Torén as Violette, she trys to resist Bogart's outlaw charm but in the end like the rest of us, cant get enough..she is also a good choice of casting, definitely an unusual beauty about her with a presence to match.

My only glitch about this film and I noticed it right away, was that the French / Foreign army officers and in particular Everett Sloane as Gen. LaSalle speak with American and British accents. Could they not even try and break out in a French accent? What was the director thinking (You will notice in the glorious 'Casablanca', every nationality was played with the utmost truth to where they had come from, even a line or two in their given language)? However, overlooking that, this is a great film and I can't see why any Bogie fan would not dig it.

~paul browne.

Bogie's role was not really unsympathetic unless you happen to be a Francophile. This can be looked at as a prequel to Casablanca. Harry is very much like a young Rick would have been in 1925. Problem is, Bogie is 10 years older and is basically playing Rick as he was in the 20's. The woman is,though, one of the most unsympathetic creatures ever in films. High maintenance, manipulative, out for everything she can get wherever she can get it. Damn sexy too. Not by any means a great picture but if you like Bogie and you like older films, it is worth a summer night.

This 1951 Bogart vehicle, produced by the great man himself, and directed by the estimable Curtis Bernhardt, is a slow-moving rehash of some of Bogart's better known films, going back to Casablanca. This one's set in 1925 Syria, with the Trenchcoated One working both sides against the middle. He's a gun runner selling arms to the Arabs, which at the time was illegal, since Syria was controlled by the French. Bogart had an affinity with the Levant, and was most at ease in an occupied city, with terrorists, revolutionaries and criminals,--often hard to tell apart--running around, blowing up things, and making life difficult for the authorities. As usual, Bogart couldn't care less who wins as long as he gets paid.

Sirocco is a back lot picture, yet an attractive one. It was made at a time when movies of its type were getting either a whole lot bigger or a whole lot smaller. As such it was somewhat of an anachronism when it came out, and its box-office was modest. This was really the end of the line for the old-style Bogart pics, which it is the last of; and Bogie's next movie, The African Queen, filmed on location and in color, would open up a whole new career for him. I like this one better than most people do, for its cast (Marta Toren, Lee Cobb, Everett Sloan, Gerald Mohr), and its shabby fatalism. A good deal of the picture is set indoors, in cafés, hotel rooms and warehouses. There is a circular, labyrinthine aspect to the movie, as it seems at times as if all the action were taking place literally underground, with the various characters moving from cavern to cavern.

This could have been a better film; but it was made to conform to the strict rules of the Hayes Commission. One of those strict rules was that any obvious acts of "immorality" (whatever that is) must result in the demise of the person committing such immoral acts. Bogart is not a good guy or bad guy in this film; he is just a guy playing both sides of the fence to make some money. If that is immoral, then 90% of American CEOs would be killed off in any film they were in. I did not buy Lee J Cobb as a French officer as well, although the female lead did a pretty good job. The end result is a pretty watchable film that could have been much better. And the conclusion of the film is not the least bit believable, nor satisfying.

This is a most unusual movie for its time, and it is fascinating to read the comments on it here on the IMDb. Many viewers are apparently undecided what to make of Sirocco as it does not fit any of the known stereotypes. This is neither Algiers (1938) nor Casablanca (1942), there is no romance, you don't find anything exotic about the place in question (Damascus, Syria) and no great friendships are about to develop. It is basically a movie about people who are confronted with a drab and hopeless situation (messagewise I would compare it with The Sand Pebbles (1966)). It painfully reminds todays viewers of the ongoing conflicts in Afghanistan and Iraq (well, the Jasmine salesman bolts off before his handgranades go off in the cafe, the suicide bomber had not been invented yet). Western powers (they have a mandate from the League of Nations) are pitted against so called "patriots" (they have no mandate at all) in a bloody battle without a discernible cause. The Bogart character is an opportunist arms dealer and a coward to boot. At one time he really hits rock bottom in the Catacombs underneath the city as he tries to hide in his tattered Bogey-raincoat - one of the many great visual moments in this beautifully photographed nightmare of a movie with its superb set design.

The main message of Sirocco is a depressing one: If things turn bad, the efforts of single individuals are of negligible effect. We have a disillusioned French officer (Lee J. Cobb who I have never seen better). He wants to prevent a planned execution of civilians as a retaliatory act after an ambush, not out of idealistic motives or with any hope but just because he is sick of all the killing. Like all the other characters he gets bogged down by the circumstances and in the end departs on a meeting with the "patriots" with the Bogart character's help. Everyone agrees that this action is meant to be a suicide. The officer even gets out of his uniform which heretofore had the function of a corset.

Great sets and scenes abound here. Damascus is a place of eternal night - and we never get out of the place into the open. The Roman Catacombs seem to be inspired by Giovanni Piranesi's "carceri" drawings. There is a great scene in which the Bogart character buys a belly dancer's finger cymbals. Another scene begins with the focus on a visibly tender and juicy steak which the Bogart character starts cutting into. "He brings his own food", the waiter explains to other patrons who would like the same. What a better way to depict a war profiteer?

As the lines above suggest, the storyline of Sirocco is pretty sprawling and the film is more of a situation than a story. That makes it only more realistic and instructive. Our time is right for anti-war movies of this kind. In can recommend it.