La spada del deserto

Richard L. Bare is best remembered for creating and directing the Joe McDoakes comedy short series at Warner Brothers. With that in mind, Sam Katzman hired him to direct this 1001 Nights potboiler as a comedy ... or perhaps the script was emended without telling the boss; as any follower of the incomparable S.K. will tell you, anything is possible in a Sam Katzman production.... except excellence.

In this one, perpetual Arabian Nights villain Turhan Bey is promoted to hero, Gloria Grahame is promoted to ingénue and Cesar Romero gets the role that would have gone to Anthony Quinn if that actor wasn't off elsewhere getting Oscar nominations. All the actors are clearly playing their roles tongue in cheek, to go along with the handling of the music, but everyone reads their endless lines in a breathless manner, especially when they are dying.

Unfortunately the entire production is treated in such a contemptuous fashion that the joke wears thin very soon. Turhan Bey would flee to Vienna and earn a living for the next forty years as a photographer. Gloria Grahame would have Lee Marvin scald her face with coffee for her sins. And Sam Katzman would continue to to produce more dreck.