THE BARBARIAN (1933) starring Ramon Navarro and Myrna Loy is/was an agreeable, no-brainer "B" movie with "A" movie stars of talent, esp. Loy.
It's a desert romance story of which the 20's were packed (both Valentino SHIEK movies, THE DESERT SONG and others less famous).
None of the Arabs had dark skin, and all of the Oases had unpolluted water holes and half moons shining through the sweeping palm trees and all the sand looked like White Sands, New Mexico with huge (but firm, easy to walk on) sand dunes.
Hollywood's idea of the desert in "Arabia."
The movie is a "girl's movie" (called a "Chick Flick" nowadays) written by GENTLEMEN PREFER BLONDES author Anita Loos.
The movie is about a pushy (probably feminist), spoiled "half Egyptian" leading lady with an American accent about to marry an English aristocrat in Egypt (but who runs off with Ramon Navarro at the very end of the movie..... Ramon had told her when he abducted her in the middle of the movie and proposed marriage that she won't have to be part of a harem, but makes her wait for water at an Oasis waterhole until the horse drinks first, then he drinks.....she's last to drink.)
Girls buy movie tickets.
Young guys between ages 18 and 24 courting girls and trying to keep the girls happy ALSO buy movie tickets for girls!
"Keep the girls happy" is what this movie is all about.
She's a pushy, spoiled USA feminista, and the guys (two of them!) both think she's wonderful!
It's just like WHEN HARRY MET SALLY (1988) starring Meg Ryan and Billy Crystal.
They guys never learn, the girls always win.
The guys always pension off the girls at an early age (which is why marriage is so popular with young girls) and kill themselves to do it, and the girls live 30 years longer than the guys, thanks to the good life the martyr husband earned for them before he died early!
Unpardonable cynicism, but I put to you and leave it with you.
Old story, and it still goes on!
The rising races of the world (Orientals, Latinos in the USA) ALL support the ladies, lots of children, and "family values" and the disappearing races (White people loyal to each other in the USA esp.) disappear because their numbers shrink and disappear, like a water hole during a drought.
So it goes, and THE BARBARIAN (1933) shows why!
Myrna's famous bathtub "nude scene" was dull and boring, (not as good as Maureen O'Sullivan's swim with Johnny Weismuller in TARZAN AND HIS MATE 1934).
Myrna was/is a true movie star, and was the best actor in the movie. A pleasure to watch her act.
Ramon Navarro wasn't terrible, but also wasn't convincing. His career didn't continue in the sound era, and this movie shows why.
It's a desert romance story of which the 20's were packed (both Valentino SHIEK movies, THE DESERT SONG and others less famous).
None of the Arabs had dark skin, and all of the Oases had unpolluted water holes and half moons shining through the sweeping palm trees and all the sand looked like White Sands, New Mexico with huge (but firm, easy to walk on) sand dunes.
Hollywood's idea of the desert in "Arabia."
The movie is a "girl's movie" (called a "Chick Flick" nowadays) written by GENTLEMEN PREFER BLONDES author Anita Loos.
The movie is about a pushy (probably feminist), spoiled "half Egyptian" leading lady with an American accent about to marry an English aristocrat in Egypt (but who runs off with Ramon Navarro at the very end of the movie..... Ramon had told her when he abducted her in the middle of the movie and proposed marriage that she won't have to be part of a harem, but makes her wait for water at an Oasis waterhole until the horse drinks first, then he drinks.....she's last to drink.)
Girls buy movie tickets.
Young guys between ages 18 and 24 courting girls and trying to keep the girls happy ALSO buy movie tickets for girls!
"Keep the girls happy" is what this movie is all about.
She's a pushy, spoiled USA feminista, and the guys (two of them!) both think she's wonderful!
It's just like WHEN HARRY MET SALLY (1988) starring Meg Ryan and Billy Crystal.
They guys never learn, the girls always win.
The guys always pension off the girls at an early age (which is why marriage is so popular with young girls) and kill themselves to do it, and the girls live 30 years longer than the guys, thanks to the good life the martyr husband earned for them before he died early!
Unpardonable cynicism, but I put to you and leave it with you.
Old story, and it still goes on!
The rising races of the world (Orientals, Latinos in the USA) ALL support the ladies, lots of children, and "family values" and the disappearing races (White people loyal to each other in the USA esp.) disappear because their numbers shrink and disappear, like a water hole during a drought.
So it goes, and THE BARBARIAN (1933) shows why!
Myrna's famous bathtub "nude scene" was dull and boring, (not as good as Maureen O'Sullivan's swim with Johnny Weismuller in TARZAN AND HIS MATE 1934).
Myrna was/is a true movie star, and was the best actor in the movie. A pleasure to watch her act.
Ramon Navarro wasn't terrible, but also wasn't convincing. His career didn't continue in the sound era, and this movie shows why.