La Caravane du désert

Great entertainment with several interesting aspects. Tailored for Robeson's self-preferred Black Superman persona, this movie has scenes of Robeson ordering Wallace Ford ("Old Pa" from Patch of Blue) to tend to his camel, and Robeson commanding an army into battle. All this is done with a genial sense of humor that keeps it fun! Robeson is a man on the run, who is also a college-educated doctor. Remember, this was 20 years before Sidney came along.

Putting the opening scenes aside, this film turns most of Hollywood's favorite racial conventions upside down. Robeson is the one and only action hero in this film, he has a tiny white sidekick who provides comic relief and he gets the girl. The girl is played by a dark skinned actress while her "Arab" brothers are all white, but otherwise it is less groan worthy than many modern films. It has few pretensions, is well written and has lots and lots of footage of camels. Even the plot twist that another reviewer complains of is sort of plausible. And Robeson sings "Mammy's little baby loves shortnin' bread" to a baby and leaves out the "pickaniny" lines, so even that isn't really objectionable.

This is another Paul Robeson film I watched on a DVD set collection of his selected movies. In this one, he plays a World War I soldier who despite saving some lives, also disobeyed orders of a superior officer and accidentally killed him. So he gets court martialed but then manages to escape. Unfortunately, that also means the officer in charge of guarding him (Henry Wilcoxon) will serve five years in prison for supposedly aiding him. Robeson then stows away with another drifter (Wallace Ford) before they settle in a desert area. I'll stop there and just say this was another compellingly told drama from Robeson and, of course, he gets to display his fine singing voice as well. So on that point, I recommend Jericho. P.S. I just found out this Wallace Ford was the same one whose last role was that of an alcoholic grandfather in Sidney Poitier's A Patch of Blue.

It's only 75 minutes long, so, even if you don't find it as good as I did, you haven't really wasted that much of you life. It's really quite a good adventure film starring the famous black actor Paul Robeson. He made this film as a part of a package deal with British backers, because he felt that he would be able to play less stereotypical roles. Other blacks in the film don't get this posh treatment, as they speak pidgin English, throw dice, and scare easily, but, for the most part, Robeson maintains all of his dignity (the most he does is sing `Mammy's little babies love shortnin' shortnin', but, who knows, that might not have seemed harmful in 1937). Robeson plays Jericho Jackson, an intelligent soldier trained as a doctor. During a crisis on his ship, Robeson tries to knock out a superior officer who has gone nuts and accidentally kills him. Sentenced to death, he escapes, which gets a friend of his who has vouched for him (Henry Wilcoxon, Marc Antony from Cecil B. DeMille's 1934 movie, Cleopatra) thrown in jail. Robeson runs into the North African desert, where he becomes a leader of a tribe of nomads. A wise-cracking white man (Wallace Ford) becomes his best friend. When Wilcoxon is released from prison, he attempts to search out Jericho in order to reclaim his own honor. It's a pretty good story, although it ends rather lamely. Robeson sings some damn fine songs and his acting is great. The on-location cinematography, by John W. Boyle, is really beautiful. He captures a lot of great shots of a caravan moving slowly up and down the desert terrain. 8/10.

In this film, Paul Robeson is Jericho, a black soldier who is condemned to die after accidently killing a superior officer whilst carrying out a heroic feat in rescuing fellow black soldiers trapped aboard the same ship that has been torpedoed. The army has no sympathy and he gets an unfair punishment. He has an ally in Henry Wilcoxon (Captain Mack) who allows him one last moment of freedom to attend a concert whereupon he escapes. Wilcoxon is held responsible and gets 5 years in jail. On his release, he is determined to seek out Robeson and arrest him so he can clear his name.

The film has a different setting as we find ourselves in the African desert following a salt caravan. It's basically a camel train of around 20,000.00 camels where different tribes meet up for a market place trading in salt. There are warring factions within these tribes and it's educational. I knew nothing about these salt caravans. I just thought a caravan was a dodgy home on wheels. No, this is the original caravan idea.

It is nice to see a black actor in a mainstream lead role - I can't think of any other film from this period that does this. It is a bit forced, though when Robeson says to his white desert companion "Look after the camels, boy" without any hint of humour. That's just tacky, I'm afraid - not revolutionary. It can be seen as petty racism that is what the film is trying to fight against. Very dumb thing to include in the dialogue.

The film loses its way for a bit in the 2nd half but the different setting makes it memorable and unfortunately, whilst Robeson has a good voice, the songs he sings aren't up to much. Watch out for the worst beginning to a film ever as news headlines are flashed quickly during the credits inducing epileptic fits and migraines for everyone watching and Kouka has the weirdest accent you will ever hear. She is the woman Robeson meets in the desert.