The Desert Song

The first of three versions of The Desert Song is this early talkie from Warner Brothers which outside of some desert outdoor shots is essentially a filmed stage play. That is valuable unto itself because it is a filmed record of a hit Broadway operetta of the time.

One of Sigmund Romberg's best musical scores with lyrics by Oscar Hammerstein, II and Otto Harbach is attached to one of the silliest of plots. But very popular for the time because the news of the Riff rebellion in Morocco was reported in American media and because Rudolph Valentino had made the Moslem inhabited desert quite the romantic place with The Sheik. As I said in two previous reviews of the other filmed Desert Songs, it's a salute to French colonialism.

The Desert Song finds John Boles as a kind of desert Zorro. The French occupiers know him as Pierre in his Clark Kent clumsy identity. But when he dons the red mask and cape he becomes the Red Shadow, leader of the Riff revolt. Boles to use the English expression has truly 'gone native'.

The fiancé of Captain John Miljan of the Foreign Legion, Carlotta King, is in from Paris and yearning for some real romance. Which Boles in his Red Shadow guise gives her in abundance. As Pierre she can't see him for beans.

In the meantime we have Myrna Loy as the desert siren Azuri who's getting dumped by Miljan, doesn't like it, and is working an agenda all her own.

Providing comic relief are Johnny Arthur and Louise Fazenda. Arthur came across as a kind of Eddie Cantor like milquetoast character who is the society columnist for his American newspaper who somehow was sent to cover the Riff Rebellion and doesn't like it at all. Arthur and Fazenda worked very well together.

Carlotta King did her one and only film with The Desert Song. She left the screen and lived to the ripe old age of 102. There has to be some kind of story there. She was in fine voice with a Jeanette MacDonald like quality. Jeanette incidentally was making her screen debut over at Paramount around the same time in The Love Parade.

Forget the silly plot and concentrate on the wonderful songs of Romberg- Harbach-Hammerstein and you can enjoy The Desert Song.

I was seven years old when my mother took me to a theater in suburban Atlanta. The opening scene, lasting several minutes, was in Technicolor. It portrayed the Red Shadow with his brilliant scarlet robe flowing as he lead his band of "Riffs" on horseback through the rugged desert country. It was magnificent and unbelievable. In 1930, a movie in color was in the realm of science fiction. I've never forgotten the experience.

It was the best of times, the worst of times(Dickens);"The Singing Fool" and the "Jazz Singer" rescued W.B. from bankruptcy but the advent of sound ruined actors who failed to make the transition:e.g. John Gilbert's squeaky voice. 1929 saw the great crash and the onset of Depression.It was also the time of Abd-El-Krim who fought the French in Morocco and may have been the inspiration of this operetta.

The titling looks so very much like a silent,plus the 10 min.intermission.The stiffness is forgivable,considering some facts: silent actors still had to declaim and gesture;synch.sound had to be filmed in booths,restricting movements(no blimps those days),and the camera crane and boom had only just arrived.

Carlotta King is in excellent voice,but has a distinct almost UK elocution resembling Margaret Dumont's.I still think that John Boles' acting as the R.S. is as passionate as one could wish, his portrayal as the inane Pierre overplayed until his father tells him of Margot's intended trip with Fontaine,when his disappointment is obvious.The music keeps to the imported Viennese style except the Riff Song and one or two others.The "Desert Song" duet is a delight and the difference with this film and other musicals is that the background music is there all the time and keeps the action going,not just dialog interspersed with a song or two.I think that their voices compensate for any acting deficiencies and the sincerity comes over very well.The two later versions do not match it in content, and given the choruses and dances the production values for the time are great.The original was partly in Technicolor,I am informed.I disagree about Benny's gaiety:the term was unknown in those days and would not have been implied.I saw this historic masterpiece in Brighton UK in '30,and wish there was a decent video.

After five years and viewing the two later versions, I think that this primordial effort in filmed operetta is far too severely criticized.I agree with all the observations by other IMDb critics, but there are particularly expansive film production values: good tenor and bass voices among the soloists and choruses,such as those of Sid El Kar and Ali Ben Ali,including the choral settings of "One Alone", "Eastern and Western Love," and let's not overlook Clementina and her ladies in "Castanette", "On the streets of Spain","There is a key.".etc.,and much else.Much would be very non-PC today. The writers have not overlooked comedy in the shapes of Johnny Arthur and Louize Fazenda as Bennie and Susan.Bennie's reaction after a bad experience with a horse is priceless.(see the film, I'm not telling you) It's funnier still when he is dressed in an overlong night shirt, and when Ali Ben Ali, the much turbaned,whiskered,ear-ringed,feathered tribal chief and he argue about Bennie's future. He is much funnier than the newspapermen in the later versions,Lynn Overman, and a later forgotten actor; while Ali Ben Ali's wide-eyed ogling with Clementina is quite farcical. I liked John Boles' rendering of "Then you will know",but in the whole contrast with later musicals (and really this is operetta with some sung dialog) Boles is much more dashing than many later singing heroes unless you include the energetic prancing in "Seven Brides for seven brothers". Louize Fazenda and Arthur make a very comic couple and are full of wisecracks: "Why do men marry their secretaries?" Susan (Fazenda)"Well, if you're going to let a man dictate to you,you might as well marry him" On the whole, this is a large scale,very musical and unusual operetta,full of choruses,combining "the desert magic",horses,exterior scenery, men in uniform,very much ahead of its time. But this very essence of romance has its serious moments;the characters,so different from the pasteboard casts of other works, are almost three-dimensional:they have pasts,presents,futures and personal philosophies. Thus Margot,asked by her fiancé why she wears riding habit quips: "I don't suppose you noticed there was a moon out tonight" Gen.Birabeau" See,Margot wants to be carried off by a shiek,as in the story books.." Margot:" I know that Frencnmen are only shieks to the women they don't intend to marry." In the serious episodes, the "Red Shadow's", Pierre's, tentative nervousness during her solo of the "Desert Song" is well portrayed; Captain Fontaine,the fiancé, gets down to business in "I MUST go,Margot"; finally,the epitome of drama shows,when informed by a legionnaire of the "signal fires",Fontaine points up his revolver,fulminating,"A challenge! This will be his last!" In sum, a great orchestration of exotic choreography,comedy,romance,betrayal,crisis and resolution which significantly outperforms its successors decades later.

I remember seeing this film in 1929 when I was 8 years old and how dramatic and thrilling it was. John Boles was a wonderful singer and actor who appeared in many great movies in the 30's.