La dernière charge

This adventures and lackluster desert opus deals about Paul Gerard(George Raft) a French legionnaire officer. The philander legionnaire is sent a dangerous assignment, escort an Emir of Bel-Rashad's daughter(Marie Windsor) and investigate the Emir's(Edward Franz) activities. Then Paul discovers a Mouser rifles for a possible rebellion. Meanwhile he falls in love with Cara and befriends a sympathetic lieutenant(Akim Tamiroff).

Acceptable action/adventures movie blending drama of self-sacrifice, love story and spectacular outdoors. The film concerns about the French Legion, an instrument of conquest of the North of Africa and Indochina. This regiment was employed for bloody fights and futile wars in a vain attempt to retain territories . Some moment is rather dull but in the second half is a bit more exciting with forced march and taking place in an isolate fort as well as Arab attacks. Atmosphere is appropriately depressing and and gritty, especially during the blockade when the regiment bears starvation and with no water. Evovative and adequate musical score by Michel Michelet.The picture was shot in Imperial County, California and Morocco, at the beginning the producers thanksgiving the French army for its collaboration. The story belongs a genre which has given classics, such as ¨Beau Geste(Gary Cooper)¨ and ¨Under two flags(Ronald Colman)¨ and full of humor as ¨Beau Hunks¨with Stan Laurel and Oliver Hardy. The motion picture is professionally directed by Robert Florey, a nice craftsman. He's expert on adventures genre: ¨Tarzan and the mermaids¨, ¨Rogues' regiment¨ also with the Foreign Legion and Terror genre : 'Beast with five fingers'and 'Murders in the Rue Morgue'. Rating : Acceptable adventures movie is passable at its kind , providing some of entertainment and fun.

When I read the book The George Raft File I was shocked to learn that this Foreign Legion epic was actually shot in Morocco in actual locations with the cooperation of the Moroccan Royal Family and the Legion. If the French were looking for a recruiting tool for the Foreign Legion, they'd have been better doing a remake of Paramount's Morocco or Beau Geste.

Some elements of those two films get into Outpost in Morocco. The story such as it is has George Raft in a role that should have been Tyrone Power's if it had been a better script seducing lovely Marie Windsor, daughter of one of the local sheiks. Windsor's father is Eduard Franz who's stirring up rebellion against the French. Can Marie stop it and save her beloved Raft at the same time. If you care you might give this a look.

This film has the look and feel of a tax write off. Everybody here just goes through the motions. Raft is too wooden to seriously be considered as a romantic figure and Windsor does so much better when she's playing bad girls. Akim Tamiroff as a transplanted Cossack in the Legion comes off best, a dubious distinction for this film.

I guess the American cast also did it for a free trip to Morocco. Good a reason as any.

Although "Outpost in Moroco" was made in 1949 it has more in common with adventure films that were made during the 1930's. I suppose along with "Morocco" "Beau Geste" and "under Two Flags" is makes up a quartet of American black and white French Foreign Legion films. "Outpost in Morocco" was actually filmed in Morocco with the co-operation of both the French government and the Legion. The story has the romance of the Legion with a love affair between a rebel Amir's daughter Cara, played by Marie Windsor and a french officer Captain Gerard played by George Raft. The are the desert campfire scenes, escapes over rooftops, an outpost on the frontier, desert marches and men struggling to survive through lack of water. The action sequences are very well produced and photographed. The story obviously does not take place in 1949 because there is nothing mechanized in this film. Also we get to see George Raft and Mari Wilson dance the tango in an early sophisticated cafe scene( it has a cirtain similarity to Rik's in Casablanca) - the film is probably set in the 1920's. Good fun.

The film was serialised as a strip in a British comic called "Film Fun" after its release in Britain in 1950.

A fading George Raft nearing the end of his studio career finds himself wooing Arab chief's daughter Marie Windsor in a backlot Moroccan outpost in this very ordinary adventure movie. Fortunately Akim Tamiroff is on hand to inject some life into proceedings. The downbeat ending comes as something of a shock coming after all the routine that came before it.

This effort shows that, if Raft and Windsor had had better luck of the draw, he may have gotten more light romantic lead parts (rather than tough guy things) and she might have done Kubrick-style films more and science fiction less. Raft shows a flair for underplayed humor and Windsor, clearly no fool, outclasses the usual female leads (she later served as a director of the Screen Actors Guild).