Konterr Brilliant and touching

BoardChiri Bad Acting and worse Bad Screenplay

Verity Robins Great movie. Not sure what people expected but I found it highly entertaining.

Anoushka Slater While it doesn't offer any answers, it both thrills and makes you think.

mark.waltz Unaware that this had been considered unavailable for many years, I had sought this out and for years only had a badly edited black and white version of this from some local TV station somewhere that looked as if it had been copied down half a dozen generations. That was horrible to try to watch even though I hung on to it just for the privilege of having. Nobody in the movie collecting business knew of any color prints available, and even the 1929 version appeared to have been locked away as well. The 1953 version did make its way to VHS, and a 20 minute short ("The Red Shadow") appeared on TCM in it's early days. Out of the blue this version from the war era came out on home video in all its colorful glory, but unfortunately, what I witnessed upon my discovery of the original print may not have been worth my search.The mixture of the glorious score (greatly cut) and the setting of World War II did not mesh in my opinion, and perhaps this is an operetta best left to recordings than stagings, having failed with Broadway revivals both in 1946 and 1973. It's silly and inappropriate as war propaganda, and reminded me more of a Maria Montez/Sabu adventure with songs. Dennis Morgan was fine as a romantic lead, but his singing after a while is grating. Irene Manning was fine as a B leading lady or the other woman but fails to impress in her one A lead. Bruce Cabot is serviceable as Manning's suitor, and Lynne Overman is a notch above the annoying Dick Wesson in the 1953 remake. The new songs aren't memorable in the least, but the original score does get a good recording from the Warner Brothers sound department. War musicals work better with real entertainers putting on a show, but mixing sword and sandal with Nazis and Sigmund Romberg sadly fails.

willieb-3 The 1943 and 1929 version of the film have been shown on television - though only in black and white, and not for many years. In the 1950's when studios started to see television as a source of revenue - and a cheap one, at that, where they could make some coins by releasing what ever films they had not yet managed to destroy to this new "boob tube". The result was any number of films that should not have seen the light of day, were broadcast regularly - though in the case of many 3 strip tech prints - one of the strips was used to make a b&w 16mm neg - and the prints hat are available are from that source. The 1929 & 1943 versions of the desert song have been circulating for years and if you look hard enough - you'll find them - the quality varies, and they are always in B&W, but its better than nothing (there's even a B&W DVD on the market of the Nelson Eddy version). BTW another film that was release to TV, that should not have been was Richard Dix's Ghost Ship - though recently the rights to that have been sorted out.

ricrutch Dennis Morgan and Irene Manning beautifully sing "One Alone" and "The Desert Song" together. Dennis Morgan was a fine actor. Bruce Cabot and other supporting actors played excellent roles. This movie has never been shown on television because of a copyrights dispute over one song that was added to this 1943 version. An entertaining adventure plot with excellent background music.

amadeus-10 I saw this quintessentially sappy flick for the first (and only) time in March 1944 when I was an 18 year old infantryman in the US Army. Sort of reminded me of a Tarzan-type film with a desert instead of a jungle setting. No thundering herds of elephants and savage lions and tigers and bears (oh my!). In their place, camels, horses, and evil Arab tribesmen threatening poor Dennis Morgan and his minions.Whereas Tarzan would scream out "UNGAW-A-A" to summon his animal friends, in this flick a good guy would bellow out a minor-key riff of 4 notes -- AH-AHHH! AH-AHHH!. Then beyond the horizon and off-screen would come a thunderous male-voice response -- in perfectly voiced 2-part harmony. Then the sound of horses' hooves (camels', too? I can't remember)and again a hearty minor key response of AH-AHHH! AH-AHHH! -- as the good guys came to the rescue and Dennis Morgan crooned some totally inane lyric as the savage Berbers fled. (No wonder we all rooted for the Arabs)That's all I can remember. Time mercifully blots out the rest. All I remember is that stupid chant and the horses coming over the horizon. Then a cut to Dennis Morgan on his steed, waving the troops into the fray. This made such an impression on us GIs that for several weeks all one could hear in the barracks was the minor-key war cry: AH-AHHH! AH-AHHH! (And, of course, the appropriate response). We were all ready to join the French Foreign Legion. Instead a few months later, after the June 6, 1944 Normandy invasion, most of us ended up in France where there were no camels, alas. Only German tanks.