Adventure in Iraq

Paul Cavanagh's performance is enjoyable, but that is really all that makes this film watch-able. It is merely a dumbed-down version of William Archer's play "The Green Goddess"--previously filmed as an early talkie in 1930 and a few years before that as a silent in 1923, both versions starring George Arliss in the Cavanagh role. The story has been slightly updated and the setting has been moved from the fictional mountain nation of Rukh, just north of India, to Iraq (albeit a rather fictional version of Iraq--say what you will of Iraqis, but they are not devil worshipers). In my opinion, this version loses much of the originals' elegance even though it uses much of the play's dialog word for word. The American protagonists in this version are much more brash and far less noble than their English counterparts of the original. I found the Lux Radio version of "The Green Goddess" to be far superior to this WWII rip-off.

***SPOILERS*** Running out of gas over the vast Syrian desert in Western Iraq former Flying Tigers pilot Doug Everett, Warren Douglas, and his passengers Mr. & Mrs. George and Tess Torrence,John Loder & Ruth Ford, are forced to land. Trying to call for help from the British military headquarters located in Baghdad Doug finds out that the batteries, or tubes, of his radio are burnt out. The three then decide to walk through the burning desert to the nearest Iraqi city called Ghatsi. When there the trio are taken in and entertained by the cities ruler Ahmid Be Nor, Paul Cavenagh. Warren & Dough are dressed in white dinner jackets with black bow ties and Tess is given a complete makeover to look like an Arabian princess.

Unknown to the three is that their being held hostage and will be killed by Ahmid's men if his three step-brothers, who were working as spies for Nazi Germany, are not allowed to be set free and not be executed the next morning by the British. Ahmid who is a very refined gentlemen, being that he was educated in the most prestigious schools in England, is not into the Devil Cult that his subjects adhere too but is such a worm and coward that he'll play along with them even if it is to murder George Doug & Tess, who he has the hot's for. As for his three crazy and fanatical step-brothers Ahmid feels that a volley of British bullets to their chests is just the right medicine that they need to cure them of their insane ideas.

George and Doug and Tess finally realize what's happening when their confronted by the crazed high priest of the city ,Martin Garralaga, who demands that they be sacrificed to the Devil or Evil One, did he mean by that Saddam Hussain? as soon as the brothers are executed by the British. Ahmid using his British butler Devins, Barry Bernard, to spy on the three and make it look like he wants to escape with them. This has both George and Doug get the drop on him, and drop Devin to his death off the palace balcony, as the two together with Tess make a run for freedom to their disabled plane with a number of radio tubes that they took from Ahmid's short wave radio. Which is used to keep to be in contact with his Nazi allies in Berlin Germany.

After getting to the plane and installing the tubes Doug calls for help and the US sends a squadron of fighter planes. The planes begin to bomb the hell out of Ghatsi and it's surroundings but George is tragically killed by Ahmid's mens during the fighting. Doug and Tess are taken prisoner again and held in the palace to be executed but Ahmid, and his "Fearless Warriors", wets their bloomers as the good old USA fighter planes start to bomb the stuffing out of their city. In the end even the crazed high priest gives in to the mighty US Army Air Force, and has both Doug and Tess released unharmed. With that the gutless and and self-serving Ahmid decides to join the allies in the war against he former friend Germany to save his stinking hide. The Germans learned the hard way the saying that "With friends like Ahmid you don't need enemies" will the USA learn the same thing?

The "Fearless Warriors" of Ghatsi as well as Ahmid and the cities high priest were so scared of the US military that they actually let a number of US servicemen go into the main palace, and direct the air attacks on them, without as much as laying a hand on them. even though scores of their "Fearless Warriors" were getting killed in the bombing that the US servicemen were directing. The bravery and fanaticism of the Ghatsi Devil Cult members, which must have numbered in the thousands, evaporated as soon as the first US bombs fell? Boy things were a lot different in Iraq back then in 1943 then they are there today in 2004.

When their plane makes a forced landing in the wooded mountains of Iraq, three b-movie types find themselves at the mercy of a charming, but thoroughly evil Nazi-loving ruler of a population of Satan worshipers living in British-run Iraq. Will our two heroes and heroine survive to tell about their ADVENTURE IN IRAQ?

This lame-o remake of the entertaining George Arliss movie, The Green Goddess, can be enjoyed on a certain kinetic level, if one's sensibilities do not object to the depiction of Iraqis as being devoted to the worship of Satan, and one does not mind a hero who seems to believe that what most people need is a punch in the snout. The thing, like most Warners movies, is very briskly paced, which means that events can be silly or senseless, but they are rarely boring.

But, the problem is, there is not much to like in the leads (one guy is a drunk, for no particular reason, the other guy thinks he's John Wayne and Jimmy Cagney combined, and the gal is cute, competent, and forgettable). But the best illustration on what's gone wrong in this remake is the change in villain from first lead George Arliss (a genuine great actor) to fourth lead Paul Cavanagh (charisma free actor trying desperately not to yield to the ham acting the script cries for). Cavanagh gets plenty of screen time, but he comes across as someone trying to play Tod Slaughter playing a black-hearted Victorian villain, and not quite getting there.

So, one spends a lot of time while watching this film marveling on the insults being dispensed on the Iraqi people and Iraq from folks who clearly know little about it, and could care less. One could almost think some of those folks helped advise W in developing his foreign policy. Because the movie, and Bush's first four years of war have the same level of callous incompetence about it.

This turkey has not aged well. It will be a tough bird to swallow. The Iraq in this film is from the backlot of some studio and the Sadaam of this Iraq is a silly British-speaking nincompoop, who looks like he got lost for the audition of a card-reading game on a boardwalk machine. (Like the one in Big). The final scene is a real hoot (if you last that long). Don't waste your time.

For most of this film, I couldn't help but wish that Paul Cavanagh's scheming "Sheik Ahmid" had been played by Basil Rathbone! Not that it would have improved the story much, but it might have injected a touch more menace to this desert adventure. It's all about a group of Americans whose plane crashes and who find themselves as "guests" of the aforementioned potentate. "George" (John Loder), "Tess" (Ruth Ford) and "Doug" (Warren Douglas) soon realise that they are but pawns in a deadly game being played out around them. Can they thwart that cunning plan and escape with their lives? The first twenty minutes are actually quite good fun, but thereafter there is an awful lot of dialogue to compensate for a paucity of action, and it falls away before an ending that I found very disappointing - almost comical - especially the radio man in the throne room giving bombing instructions! Ford turns in quite a lively effort and it's still quite en enjoyable hour to pass.