The director had also directed a silent first version of this pro--colonialist and paternalistic melodrama ;it seems that the remaining copies lack about 20 min and it shows ,particularly those of the attack of the plunderers on the village , claiming Hassina 's family's death , which treacherous Taïeb , who led the pillage ,attributes to the noble officers and their sailors from the "Fraternity "(sic) warship who have arrived too late to save the unfortunate victims.
This is an old-fashioned old hat melodrama, so far-fetched that it becomes a guilty pleasure ; the 1938 version was probably intended to glorify the French navy with the de rigueur stubborn but fair commander ,who ,in his life,made only one act of negligence .Honor is the key to a sailor's life is his motto.
The story of this poor Morrocan girl coming to study at La Sorbonne,Paris , is thoroughly implausible at the time ; then,after the massacre of her family ,nobody is able to back her studies ,and,thanks to nightclub porter (Jules Berry), she becomes a hostess ; fortunately one of her clients , an officer of the Fraternity on furlough in Paris (Charles Vanel) falls in love with her , takes her back to Morocco where she becomes his mistress; but in the shadow, wicked Taïeb ( Le Vigan as an Arab! It's worth the price of admission!)urges her to kill that officer who's (falsely) responsible with his men for the death of her dear family.
Occident VS Orient !The clash between two civilizations!claimed the trailer. The noble French heroes against the African baddies,more like!
