Le Nouveau Chant du Désert

As I said in my summary, I would heartily recommend this movie to anyone who wants to see a classy movie. It has a very worn plot, but its simplicity would appeal to anyone who is tired of seeing violence and sex on the screen. It is like anything goes!! Kathryn Grayson, and Gordon McCrae sang beautifully. I've seen other movies that they have sung in and they always put on a good show. As far as the scenery, it was very authentic, and the color was awesome. I haven't seen the movie since I saw it in the Music Circus, and the Theatre, but I will never forget the red in the costume that Gordon McCrae wore, and the white of the desert sands. You would have never guessed that this man wearing glasses was the one who would come to the rescue of Kathryn Grayson. I wish that they would show it on AMC or TCM; I'd love to see it again even if it's shown on a small screen.

Though it seems many criticize this in comparison with the stage play, I have always been in love with this movie version. The characters are fun (especially Benjy), the music is heavenly (I could sing it all day!), and the plot is nonstop action. I look at the play and this movie almost as two different shows completely, since there are, admittedly, many differences. Here, Margot is the general's daughter (as opposed to his child being the Red Shadow/El Khobar). Pierre is now Paul. Captain Fontaine's first name is Claude. Benjamin Kidd's nickname is now Benjy instead of Bennie, and his secretary Susan is absent. And there's an evil sheik, making two different foes for the Riffs: The Legionaires and the sheik and his men. All in all, I find the movie quite satisfying.

This is the third screen version of the operetta and, as far as the singing goes, probably the best. Gordon MacRae is in splendidly robust baritone voice as the mild-mannered anthropologist who is asked to tutor the General's daughter (Kathryn Grayson), all the while being the leader of the Riffs being sought by her French legionnaire boyfriend (Steve Cochran). The well-worn plot rambles on interspersed with some action scenes, silly comedy and exotic dances--all in keeping with the spirit of the desert adventure. The two leads are charming in their roles and Raymond Massey is on hand as an evil sheik. Good color photography and location filming make it a pleasant film to watch--but it's the music by Sigmund Romberg that makes it all worthwhile. Grayson is especially good when she renders "Gay Parisienne" before an army of soldier admirers and gives her most flirtatious and colorful performance since 'Kiss Me Kate'. Gordon MacRae firmly established himself as singer and actor, revealing a sense of humor along with his splendid singing voice. Well worth seeing for fans of musical comedy.

I have to say from the outset I'm a sucker for operettas. I like music as long as it has a melody and there's nothing more melodious than an operetta. The Desert Song is filled with wonderful melodies and Gordon MacRae and Kathryn Grayson sing them to perfection in this third film adaption of the Romberg-Harbach-Hammerstein operetta.

The real surprise for most people is that the Riffs are quite real. A hardy fighting group they were led in the teens and twenties of the last century by a romantic hero very much like the Red Shadow(El Khobar)named Abdel-Krim. They are the indigenous folk who inhabit in and around the Atlas mountains of Morocco and what was at that time Spanish Morocco.

During the post World War I years American correspondents reporting from those wars were pretty much on the side of the Riffs who were seeking independence from France and Spain. Spain which was not a combatant in World War I took the brunt of the fighting. And Abdel Krim led them on a merry chase for a decade. The Spanish army was beaten at every turn. A guy named Francisco Franco got his first military combat in the Riff Wars.

Eventually the French entered the war in a big way and Abdel-Krim became a prisoner. He went into exile after release and died in the mid 60s. He was a warrior, Abdel Krim in the tradition of Saladin of the Crusades, not at all like today's terrorists. He never made war on civilians. The guy most responsible for his capture was Marshal Phillippe Petain who led the French army, his most notable activity between both world wars.

No doubt in my mind that Abdel-Krim was the model of our hero. Of course since this is the west doing the story we make the hero a Frenchman named Paul Bonnard who by day is a mild-mannered archaeologist from a French University by day and the fearsome lion of the desert by night. Gordon MacRae even dons glasses in his Paul Bonnard mode, just like Clark Kent.

And the leading lady is Margot, daughter of the French commandant and a typical 1920s flirt. In this version that would be Kathryn Grayson.

But it's the wonderful romantic music that Sigmund Romberg wrote that will make the Desert Song last forever. The main songs, The Desert Song One Alone, the Riff Song and Margot's soliloquy Romance are done in fine style by the leads. I wish more of the score got into this version.

Doing operetta, of necessity a lot of it is tongue in cheek. As villains Raymond Massey and Frank DeKova seem to be having a great old time, hamming it up.

Kathryn Grayson got to do a lot of classic operetta and opera while she was at MGM. Gordon MacRae had a terrific baritone voice and sad to say in his case, he didn't come along in the 1930s or he could have done a lot of the operetta that was being filmed then.

One more thing about Abdel Krim. I can't prove it, but I think he was the model for Rudolph Valentino's The Sheik and we all know how popular that was.

For us operetta fans of all ages.

Spritely, joyous, full of heroics, romance and beautiful music, beautifully performed by Gordon McCrae and Katherine Grayson, a truly lovely actress, "The Desert Song" is simply one of the finest musicals of the first half of the twentieth century, and this 1953 version, the third filming by this studio, is by far the best. From the "Drum, drum, drum of Hobart's in the sand," as the Riffs ride across the vast trackless desert at the beginning of the film, the music seems almost continuous. On of the few disappointments of the film is the haunting "Azuri's Song" from the original musical, but the quality of acting, with Ray Collins, Raymond Massey, Frank De Cordova and William Conrad, assure that the action never becomes dull. This is the way musicals should be filmed and the direction J. Bruce Humberstone, who cut his teeth on the first Charlie Chan movies of the thirties makes it all come together in a real treat. Sit back and enjoy as El Khobar and the Riffs go riding across your living room.