Mission in Morocco

My review was written in August 1990 after watching the film on Republic Pictures video cassette.

A forgotten B movie from 1959, "Mission in Morocco" is a low-key but pleasurable forerunner of the more expansive James Bond films.

Lex Barker toplines as an oil company executive stationed in Morocco who's sent to Spanish Morocco to investigate the mysterious death of his colleague. It turns out that a missing piece of microfilm containing the whereabouts of a new oil find is being sought by evil Middle Eastern interests, who get a prince (Fernadno Rey) to help out.

Barker's beautiful fiancee Juli Reding gets caught up in the intrigue and turns out to be invaluable in the final reel. Though Barer is as suave as Sean Connery's early 007, Reding's integral role here is quite different from the Bond formula. Platinum blonde Reding went on to make Bert I. Gordon's "Tormented" and Roy Del Ruth's "Why Must I Die?".

Rey brings panache to his role, while the supporting cast in this British-Spanish coventure is adequately dubbed.

Film is an early scripting credit for Brian Clemens, who later became a top name in the suspense genre.