The Sigmund Romberg-Otto Harbach-Oscar Hammerstein, II operetta from the Twenties, The Desert Song is given an update and World War II worked into the plot about the Caucasian leader of the Riff tribesmen of Morocco in revolt against the French Colonial government. It's in this version that the real Riff leader from the Twenties, Abdel Krim is acknowledged as reporter Lynne Overman is phoning in a story as he tells them that the new leader of the Riffs is a mysterious masked man named El Khobar.
In this version Dennis Morgan is a saloon entertainer in Gene Lockhart's place by day and by night, he's the mysterious El Khobar. Like Humphrey Bogart's Rick Blaine in Casablanca he's an anti-fascist, unlike Bogey he doesn't have to be coaxed back into the fight, he's fighting the good fight albeit from a secret identity. Gene Lockhart stands in quite nicely as the intriguing saloon keeper for Sydney Greenstreet. The Ingrid of the piece is Irene Manning, another entertainer who matches her soprano to Morgan's tenor. Most movie fans remember Irene best from Yankee Doodle Dandy where she played Fay Templeton.
Which brings us to the Claude Rains part, the guy who's chasing El Khobar for the Vichy government, Bruce Cabot. This film contains the most charitable view of Vichy that I've ever seen on the screen. My guess is that this one came from the top as we were probably still in negotiation with the Vichy government in what was unoccupied France.
The Nazis have set up a dummy corporation in Switzerland which is funding a railroad to Dakar, the western most part of Africa, then in French West Africa. Victor Francen is the duplicitous Arab sheik who's cut a deal with them. They will build a railroad using slave labor from the Riffs who are Francen's enemies. All this under the French noses. The fact that a couple of Teutonic looking gentlemen are around Francen doesn't give anyone, but Morgan and his allies a clue, is a bit much.
Morgan and Manning sing The Desert Song score beautifully, the main songs are all retained for this film. That's the main reason to see this dated film. In fact with events moving as rapidly as they were in North Africa starting in September, 1943, this version of The Desert Song dated before it hit the screen.
For myself, I certainly recognized some of the interior sets that were used on Casablanca. I'm not sure which came out first, but since everybody comes to Rick's, you'd best be going there unless you like operetta.
