The resounding success of "Casablanca" (1942), brought about an avalanche of movies hoping to capitalize on the elements of its success.
For an exotic location, Casablanca was already taken, but Tangier would do. Great, a caper in Tangier, with international tentacles; an American star (Jack Palance) and his girl (Joan Fontaine); a bunch of non-native baddies; and the French police lurking in the background.
The movie was written and directed by Charles Marquis Warren (helped develop "Rawhide" and "Gunsmoke" for TV).
I won't get into the plot. You can look it up or simply watch the film on YouTube. Warren must have had quite an imagination, because the narrative was not too bad. The problem with the movie was in the execution. Palance fell flat as a romantic lead. The script was flimsy. Direction failed to bring out the best in Fontaine and in the key supporting cast. What we got was a rather dull and boring film. The drama came across as superficial and was not very convincing, so the thriller effect does not come across as it could have.
I watched this movie to discover how Arabs were portrayed, but there was not much depiction of the natives. The movie was not interested in the natives. Tangier was just a stage and even then, much of the events take place outside the city proper.
The movie was shot in its entirety at Paramount studies. The studio created quite a sophisticated replica of the narrow streets of Tangier, complete with costumed extras walking back and forth, and donkey-driven carts.
The greatest claim to fame for the film m, however, was that it was the second of only two 3D films shot in Technicolor.
The film is rated 5.3 on IMDb.
