Outpost in Morocco ** (1949, George Raft, Akim Tamiroff, Marie Windsor, Eduard Franz) – Classic Movie Review 12,549

The 1949 American action adventure film Outpost in Morocco stars George Raft, Akim Tamiroff and Marie Windsor. The US producers make the most of their rare permission to film in Morocco using the real Foreign Legion.

George Raft plays Moroccan Spahi officer Captain Paul Gerard (Raft), a French Foreign Legionnaire despatched to quell an Arab tribe revolt and hold off attacks from the native tribes, who falls in love with the winsome Cara (Windsor), who is the daughter of the dastardly Arab Emir of Bel-Rashad (Eduard Franz), causing much consternation in the ranks.

Outpost in Morocco is a rather dreary and tedious desert drama, with some tired performances from mostly miscast actors and a fairly absurd script that should cause a few giggles.

But it is redeemed by some impressive large-scale action scenes, filmed in Morocco by a second unit led by Richard Rosson after the Foreign Legion unusually agreed to co-operate with the producers. Lucien N Andriot’s cinematography really does make the desert locales look exciting and mouth-watering.

It is based on a story by producer Joseph N Ermolieff, who set the film up with George Raft and producer Sam Bischoff, who together had just created the company Star Films that produced the 1947 film noir Intrigue.

After the company got rare permission to film in Morocco using the real Foreign Legion, Raft went to Morocco in December 1947 with Richard Rosson, French-speaking cinematographer Lucien Andriot, and French technicians. They spent four months filming battle scenes and chases in Morocco, mainly around the base at Bel-Rashad.

Then in the US, they completed the shooting script and edited the footage, finding local locations to match it. Interiors were shot later in the year at the Samuel Goldwyn Studio in Los Angeles.

Some of the large-scale action scenes are reused in Fort Algiers (1953) and Legion of the Doomed.

Spahis were light cavalry regiments of the French army mainly recruited from the Arabs and Berbers of Algeria, Tunisia and Morocco.

The cast are George Raft as Captain Paul Gerard, Marie Windsor as Cara, Akim Tamiroff as Lt. Glysko, John Litel as Colonel Pascal, Ernő Verebes as Bamboule, Eduard Franz as Emir of Bel-Rashad, Crane Whitley as Caid Osman, Damian O’Flynn as Commandant Louis Fronval, Michael Ansara as Rifle Dispenser, Ralph Brooks as Nightclub Patron, John Doucette as Card-playing soldier, James Nolan as Colonel Pascal’s aide, Suzanne Ridgeway as Nightclub Patron, and Ivan Triesault as Tribal Leader.

© Derek Winnert 2023 – Classic Movie Review 12,549

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