Flame of Araby (1951)

User Rating:

4.9/10   

Director:

Charles Lamont

Writer:

Gerald Drayson Adams (writer)

Release Date:

19 December 1951 (USA)

Genre:

Adventure

Plot:

An Arabian-nights princess and a Bedouin chief contend over possession of a stallion, but unite to oppose the Corsair Lords.

Plot Keywords:

Horse | Arabian Nights | Beautiful Woman | Arabian | 1001 Nights

Cast

Maureen O'Hara	...	Princess Tanya
Jeff Chandler	...	Tamerlane
Maxwell Reed	...	Prince Medina
Lon Chaney Jr.	...	Borka Barbarossa (as Lon Chaney)
Buddy Baer	...	Hakim Barbarossa
Richard Egan	...	Captain Fezil
Dewey Martin	...	Yak
Royal Dano	...	Basra
Susan Cabot	...	Clio
Judith Braun	...	Calu
Henry Brandon	...	Malik
rest of cast listed alphabetically:
Neville Brand	...	Kral
Richard Hale	...	King Chandra

Also Known As:

Flame of the Desert (USA)

Runtime:

77 min

Country:

USA

Language:

English

Color:

Color (Technicolor)

Aspect Ratio:

1.37 : 1

Sound Mix:

Mono

Certification:

Finland:K-16 | Sweden:15

Filming Locations:

Alabama Hills, Lone Pine, California, USA

Company:

Universal International Pictures (UI)

Not her Maureen's Best, but her beauty & presence is always a pleasure!

I am writing this because another wrote a throughly shoddy review which is undeserved; complaining about hair color & other unimportant things, whilst going on & on about Maria Montez, not that I am being disrespectful towards her, not at all, but as much as I too enjoyed the Jon Hall/Maria Montez movies, but ne'er could Maria Montez ever compare to Maureen O'Hara. I just this moment, finished watching the movie 'Bagdad', this other reviewer wrote a similar review for that movie also & it is just a pitiful.

I do not consider any of the parts overacted, nor do I find it odd for a Bedouin princess princess to have Flaming Red Hair. Where did it say that she was Bedouin, only a Bedouin princess. For all we know her mother could be Irish (like Maureen), just as Cleopatra VII had no Egyptian blood within her veins, or more currently, (1810) the current dynasty of Sweden (the Bernadottes) originally were French (Jean-Baptiste Bernadotte, a Marshall of France, during the time of Napoleon I), was elected heir to King Charles XIII of Sweden.

But aside from these justifications regarding hair color, we must remember that things like hair color are not important things to consider when reviewing a movie, but only whether or the the movie was entertaining. In that regard I can say that I shan't be clambering to see this one again, or 'Bagdad' either. The sets were beautiful, the costumes even more so, but the movie itself, just wasn't that good. But this is the fault of the script, not any other.