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Adventure in Iraq
Adventures in Iraq
USA 1943
produced by William Jacobs for Warner Brothers
directed by D. Ross Lederman
starring John Loder, Ruth Ford, Warren Douglas, Paul Cavanagh, Barry Bernard, Peggy Carson, Martin Carralaga, Bill Crago, John George, Manuel López, Bill Edwards, Eugene Borden, Dick Botiller
screenplay by George Bilson, Robert E. Kent, based on the play The Green Goddess by William Archer, music by Heinz Roemheld
American World War II Propaganda
review by Mike Haberfelner
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On the way to Cairo, pilot Doug (Warren Douglas) has to make an
emergency landing somewhere in the middle of nowhere, Iraq, and the only
option that he and his two passengers, George (John Loder) and his
estranged wife Tess (Ruth Ford) - who has of course long fallen in love
with Doug - have is to try and make it to the next village, which is ruled
by Sheik Ahmid (Paul Cavanagh). Ahmid is a well-educated and perfectly
charming man, who soon welcomes the three Americans as his guests of
honour - but he is also a Nazi collaborator, a Devil Worshipper, and he
has the hots for Tess, which is why he wants to get rid of the two men.
Eventually, George, Doug and Tess manage to escape from the Sheik's
clutches with some spare parts to get their radio running, and make it
back to the airplane - where they have a shootout with the sheik's
soldiers who kill George and take the other two back to Ahmid's palace. Sheik
Ahmid soon prepares to have his American guests sacrificed - when a
squadron of American fighterplanes arrives, bombing the Sheik's city until
he agrees to hand over his hostages. End. Barry Bernard provides some
chuckles as the Sheik's crooked but perfectly British butler. Don't
expect this film to portray Iraq in the 1940's even remotely accurately,
after all the film's settings are actually little more than an Arabian
Nights-style backdrop for a piece of World War II propaganda that has
little meaning to the film's story as such other than provide some exotic
flair. As a propaganda movie though, with all the limitations of the genre
taken into account, Adventure in Iraq is still less than
satisfying, a slickly produced but boringly told melodrama with a plot
that could be told in half the time of the film's meager 64 minutes. Not
really worth your while.
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