Cairo ** (1963, George Sanders, Richard Johnson, Faten Hamamah, John Meillon, Eric Pohlmann) – Classic Movie Review 8,203

The 1963 black and white Egypt jewel treasures heist caper thriller film Cairo is one of MGM’s three attempted remakes of the 1950 classic The Asphalt Jungle, with the supposedly ‘perfect’ robbery this time effectively transferred to Egypt.

‘Sensuous and Sinister Sin City!’

Director Wolf Rilla’s 1963 black and white Egypt jewel treasures heist caper thriller film Cairo is one of MGM’s three attempted remakes of the 1950 classic The Asphalt Jungle, with the supposedly ‘perfect’ robbery this time effectively transferred from America to an Egyptian backdrop – the national gallery museum in Cairo containing the priceless treasures of King Tutankhamun [Tutankhamen].

By staying close to the original W R Burnett novel and the movie script by John Huston and Ben Maddow, and by the strong casting George Sanders (as The Major) and Richard Johnson (as Ali), it makes fair entertainment as an above-par support feature, even if it seems considerably less realistic than The Asphalt Jungle, being more of a caper heist thriller than a serious insiders’ character study of a crime. Though it moves the setting to Egypt and changes the characters, it is a more or less a scene-by-scene remake of The Asphalt Jungle,

Director Rilla includes his dad Walter in the cast (as Kuchuk), along with Faten Hamamah, John Meillon, Eric Pohlmann and Ahmad Mazhar. It is the only English-language film of Faten Hamamah, then Egypt’s most popular female star, married to Omar Sharif from 1955 to 1974. She gained the title of the ‘lady of the Arabic screen’.

The Major is in Cairo to pursue his plot to steal the jewellery from the King Tutankhamen exhibit and enlists the help of Willy (John Meillon), Ali (Richard Johnson), Nicodemos (Eric Pohlmann), Kerim (Ahmad Mazhar) and Kuchuk (Walter Rilla) to carry out his supposedly fool-proof plan.

Cairo is written by Joan LaCour Scott, based on the novel The Asphalt Jungle by W R Burnett, is made by Lawrence P Bachmann Productions for Metro-Goldwyn-Mayer British Studios, and was released on 21 August 1963 by MGM. In the UK it was released as the lower half of a double-bill and not press-shown to critics. It was shot in mid 1962 with some location shooting in Cairo, as well as in the studio at Arabian Studios, Cairo.

It reunites the star (Sanders), producer (Ronald Kinnoch) and director of Village of the Damned (1960). The executive producer Lawrence P Bachmann was the head of MGM’s British Studios.

Richard Johnson recalled: ‘It wasn’t a very good film, I’m afraid, but George Sanders and I had a lovely time, George entertaining at the piano every night at the Shepheard hotel overlooking the Nile and telling the most outrageous stories about his contemporaries in Hollywood.’

The other two versions of the tale are the blaxploitation movie Cool Breeze (1972) and The Badlanders (1958), a Western with Alan Ladd.

Raymond Durgnat reviewed it in Films and Filming, comparing it unfavourably to the 1950 movie, though Bachmann said no British critic spotted it was a remake of The Asphalt Jungle. Of course he tried to ensure this by not press-showing the film to critics.

The cast are George Sanders as Major Pickering, Richard Johnson as Ali, Faten Hamama as Amina, John Meillon as Willy, Ahmed Mazhar as Kerim, Eric Pohlmann as Nicodemos, Walter Rilla as Kuchuk, Kamal el-Shennawi as Ghattas, Salah Nazmi as Police Commandant, Shwikar as Marie, Mona Saxena as Bamba, Abdel Khalek Saleh as Assistant Minister, Said Abu Bakr as Osman, Salah Mansour as Doctor, Mohamed El Sayed as First Officer, Yousuf Shaaban as Second Officer, Ezzat El Alaili as Third Officer, Mohamed Abdel Rahman as Fourth Officer, Nahed Sabri as First Dancer, and Aziza Hassan as Second Dancer.

Running time: 91 minutes.

© Derek Winnert 2019 Classic Movie Review 8,203

Check out more reviews on http://derekwinnert.com