Les fuyards du Zahrain

Here's a movie that few have watched in which you can regale your old-movie- watching friends with the mention of this flick. Lots of action for a 1962 low budget film. A younger Jack Warden does a fine job as does a young Madlyn Rhue. Yul Brynner is...well... Yul Brynner. A nice cameo by James Mason too! One can only imagine if this film had a bigger budget. Unless you're an expert on global dessert terrain the last scene is really the only one where it is apparent this was shot in California and not in the middle east. Definitely worth watching!

This not a review per se. I saw it a long time ago when it first came out, at our local drive-in theater. I have been looking for it from time to time ever since because I liked it. It was exciting, had a great chase scene and held my interest throughout.

Time has dimmed my memory - that, and the fact that I was partially distracted at the time (I was at a drive-in, recall), and so I have lost the main thread of the plot.

And so, I just wonder, why has it not been released in any format? Many, many worse have been available in many forms. I am always shocked when I stop by this site and see the dismal grade this picture has been awarded. I would like to see it again to find out if I really liked it or if the extracurricular activities attendant to drive-in going affected or enhanced my viewing pleasure.

Yul Brynner, condemned revolutionary, leads a band of escaped convicts and their hostages across the believably Arabian - but actually Mojave - desert, encountering film-stealing James Mason on the way. No more plot than that, but they do enough for it not to fizzle out. It's not bad at all - solid, not gung-ho, and plenty of truck-driving action.

It certainly jumps straight into a decent jeep/truck chase, and if you enjoy watching a bright yellow truck being mightily abused, and cringeing when it doesn't topple over, you'll love Escape From Zahrain. At the end, the appearance of a P-51 strafing our plucky travellers is also an exciting bit of cinema. In the middle, there's solid character conflict, Yul demonstrating why he's the boss.

The sound stage sequences definitely look as though they were filmed on the (cheap) Star Trek lot, but the actual desert sequences are really good, as far as trucks being driven across the desert goes. Yul Brynner appropriately regal (permo-turban), Sal Mineo reprising 'Rebel Without A Cause', Jack Warden doing 'Trusty American Slob', and Madlyn Rhue making up the numbers as a nurse. Anthony Caruso as an unstable psychopath provides a bit of light relief.

There are a few cynical digs at American meddling in oil-producing states in the Middle East. But the appearance early on of Jay Novello rolling his eyes indicate what direction we'll be going in this slick retread of 'The Wages of Fear' in which the stirring footage shot by the second unit fights a losing battle with scenes that look as if they were shot on the same soundstage as 'Star Trek'.

Yul Brynner adds yet another still-life to his gallery of mysterious non-Europeans, while Madlyn Rhue fresh from playing a young jewess in 'A Majority of One' here plays a nice Arab girl. Jack Warden convincingly plays an Ugly American, but Lynn Murray's noisy score feels obliged to keep reminding us this is all taking place in the Middle East.

Most of the bit players (including our old friend Vladimir Sokoloff) are dubbed; except of course the authentic Anglo-Saxon who briefly appears unbilled as 'Johnson'.

I just discovered that there's a new book coming out by Richard Matheson. It's called "Unrealized Dreams: Three Scripts by Richard Matheson." It's being released by Gauntlet Press (you can find them online.) The book features Richard Matheson's original screenplay for "Appointment in Zahrain." This film was originally to star Clarke Gable. Unfortunately, Gable died shortly after filming "The Misfits." Matheson's screenplay was never produced. Eventually, "Escape From Zahrain" was produced from Michael Barret's original novel, "Appointment in Zahrain." Too bad the film is unavailable for viewing on either VHS or DVD. I'd love to see this film.