África de Fogo

This film takes place in Tangier in which smugglers operating in the Mediterranean have adopted as their base. To that effect, certain European countries and America have banded together to form a type of police agency to thwart these efforts with their main objective being to discover the identity of the leader for this crime syndicate. Unfortunately, after a rash of killings which has left 20 of their best undercover operatives dead they fear that they are no closer to solving this question than they were before they started. So while discussing their options at a meeting the American representative "Richard Farrell" (Hugh McDermott) proposes using a former O.S.S. agent who might be able to gain substantial information based on the fact that she is a female. And in order to protect her safety he reveals that only he will know her identity. The problem is that upon her arrival in Tangier he is killed immediately after their first meeting. So this leaves her in a hostile environment with no contacts and most importantly-nobody to trust. Now rather than reveal any more I will just say the main problem I had with this film was that neither Maureen O'Hara (as "Joanna Dana") or Macdonald Carey ("Van Logan") seemed believable in their roles. Likewise, the plot was a bit too superficial as well. In any case, while this wasn't a terribly bad movie, I just couldn't get that interested in it and for that reason I have rated it accordingly. Slightly below average.

Maureen Ohara (was Mrs. Miniver, also the queen of westerns and traveler to many foreign lands) as spy Joanna Dana. Always witty and lovely, she trades barbs with just about everyone she meets in her mission to break up the ring of pirates and smugglers in the Mediterranean. When one of her associates run into trouble, the only clue she has is a cigarette lighter. Along the way, she runs into casino/bar owner Frisco (Binnie Barnes), who gives her a job. Also look for Maureen's brother James as Danny Boy, who didn't make nearly as many films as Maureen. I kept thinking of the Wonderwoman TV show while watching this; everything seems to happen around Joanna, and given her slow reflexes, she would have been knocked off pretty quickly in real life. While some spies would keep a low profile, Joanna wears flashy dresses and lots of make up. Macdonald Carey, local boat owner (Van Logan) decides to give her a tour of the town. This film "Fire Over Africa" is also known as "Malaga" (for the town in Spain, where a lot of the action takes place.) Interesting scenery of Tangiers at the beginning, and also of Malaga, later in the film. Also interesting to note that the director Richard Sale had written the novel "Not too Narrow, Not too Deep", which was later made into "Strange Cargo" with C Gable and J Crawford.

This film looks like a Paramount or Universal Pictures item, mix-up between adventure and intrigue, modern intrigue. Maureen O'Hara presence enhances just what I said; she played in this kind of films too for Universal. She is shining here, as usual, awesome, she can be compared to today's Jessica Chastain, the redhead from modern Hollywood, who also played very recently a spy character. The main surprise is to have Macdonald Carey in a smuggler role. For once, he is not as flat and lame as usual. At least for my opinion. It is a very good time waster, full of excitement and pace. But without Maureen O'Hara the atmosphere would not have been the same.

Tangiers is yet another one of those exotic locales that connote mystery, romance, and adventure and at the point in time this film was made was under an international administration. Two years later it reverted to Spanish control as part of Spanish Morocco and now it is part of Morocco itself. So the film was dated shortly after it's release.

With some background footage of Tangiers, Malaga was shot on location with interiors done in London. Maureen O'Hara was top billed in this one in a role that Jane Russell would have normally been cast in. Like Russell, O'Hara spends most of her time busting out of the tight fitting clothing that she has to wear. I'm sure the movie goers of 1954 didn't care about the plot.

Maureen is an American agent sent to Tangiers to find out who's running a smuggling operation and take it down. Since other agents have been killed no one other than who would now be called her controller knows who she is.

Maureen's troubles begin when the controller is killed by the bad guys in the first reel. So now she's working blind not knowing who to trust.

Oh well, the location photography in Malaga looks real nice and Maureen in those tight dresses in Technicolor is a treat. Beyond that I can't say too much. Macdonald Carey looks bored, he probably came for the free trip to the Spanish Mediterranean coast. Binnie Barnes has a nice turn as a wisecracking saloonkeeper.

But there's nothing special here.

This is a classic 'B' movie, except that it is so b... awful it is really an F movie. All I can find to say about it is that Maureen O'Hara did NOT play Mrs. Miniver, as claimed by an earlier reviewer. That was Greer Garson. This is a film that makes you realise how far Hollywood has come in the last 65 years, and also how lucky Hollywood is to be able to still sell this kind of old rubbish to TV.