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| ADVENTURE IN IRAQ
(aka: THE GREEN GODDESS)
(director: D. Ross Lederman; screenwriters: George
Bilson/Robert E. Kent/from the William Archer play
The Green Goddess; cinematographer: James Van
Trees; editor: Clarence Kolster;
music: Heinz Roemheld; cast: John
Loder (George Torrence), Ruth Ford (Tess Torrence),
Warren Douglas (Doug Everett), Paul Cavanagh (Sheik
Ahmid Bel Nor), Barry Bernard (Devins), Peggy Carson
(Timah Devins), Martin Garralaga (High Priest);
Runtime: 65; MPAA Rating: NR; producer:
William Jacobs; Warner Bros.; 1943) "Is so goofy it becomes endearing." Reviewed by Dennis Schwartz A low-budget B adventure story that prides itself in how dumb it is about Iraq, yet is so goofy it becomes endearing. It's a remake of both the George Arliss silent version of The Green Goddess (1923) and his talky version in 1930, as the celebrated Brit thespian revises a role he played on the British stage. The William Archer play was a hit in both London and New York. Veteran middling studio B film director D. Ross Lederman ("Two-fisted Law"/"Tarzan's Revenge"/"Texas Cyclone"), of note for directing Tim McCoy cowboy films, has no problem keeping it dumb; writers George Bilson and Robert E. Kent have no problem updating it to a World War II story. A
plane based in Cairo is en route to Alexandria when it
runs out of gas and crash lands in the remote isolated
Iraqi desert near Syria. The unharmed survivors
are the pilot Doug Everett (Warren
Douglas), the radio operator George
Torrence (John
Loder) and his passenger wife Tess
Torrence (Ruth
Ford). Unable to make contact
with Cairo because the radio tubes are
damaged, the trio take a short hike to a
nearby castle spotted from the air. They are
greeted by the cultured and hospitable Sheik
Ahmid Bel Nor (Paul Cavanagh), who
speaks a fluent English with a
British accent because he was
educated in Great Britain. The
wealthy and lecherous sheik supports
on his grounds a tribe of
devil-worshippers that in turn back
his kingdom. The trio soon learn the
sheik has an alliance with the Nazis
and that 3 of his brothers captured
by the British are soon to be
executed as Nazi spies. Rather than
arrange for a swap, the devious
sheik seeks to execute the trio to
curry favor with his devil-worshiper
subjects. The western trio bribe the
English butler Devins (Barry
Bernard) to send a
message to Cairo on the radio, but
when he double-crosses them they
execute a daring escape and two of
the three live through the ordeal
when they find a way to radio Cairo,
in their downed plane, about their
predicament and the Brits send an
air patrol mission to bomb the
sheik's site. REVIEWED ON 9/14/2012 GRADE: B- Dennis Schwartz: "Ozus' World Movie Reviews" © ALL RIGHTS RESERVED DENNIS SCHWARTZ |