Yankee Pasha

Salem, Massachusetts, 1800. Mountaineer Jason Starbuck rides into town with furs to sell and dreams to fulfill. He falls in love with Roxana, who breaks her previous engagement and leaves for France to await Jason. Roxana's ship is attacked by pirates and she is sold into slavery in Morocco. Jason follows her to Morocco and must win the support of the sultan in order to continue his efforts to locate and rescue her.

Yankee Pasha starts off as a western with a mountain trapper getting into a horse race and falling for a woman, then later the location changes to sea with ships and pirates and then has a dollop of the Arabian nights adventure with harems cooing "oh master" - I liked the mix of these genres, keeping things fresh. It's got the usual Arab orientalist stuff but it's quite an entertaining romantic adventure with pirates, scimitars, beautiful women, shooting out on horseback and a sword clashing conflict. It's very much like a colourful pulp novel, all decked out in Technicolor.

Jeff Chandler is always a likeable presence, his films are always entertaining and his star presence is well-matched by red-haired Rhonda Fleming (she wears this daring white bikini number that had my red corpuscles running over time!) who looks suitably feisty and stressed when in the company of the evil Omar Id-Din (Rex Reason plays him in a comic book fashion). The training segment and the friendship of Chandler with Hassan should've been touched upon longer as it would strengthen the scene when Hassan comes to the rescue of Chandler who is imprisoned by Omar Id-Din.