When in the brig on charges, Foreign Legion Sgt Mike Kincaid learns from a Riff prisoner of an impending attack on the outpost of Tarfa. In exchange for freedom, Kincaid and his men offer to run a series of distracting missions across the territory to keep the enemy busy until help can arrive. When he also learns that the leader of the Riffs, Caid Hussein, plans to marry Mahla, a girl from another tribe, in order to combine the two tribes against the French, Kincaid kidnaps her and flees into the desert sparking anger and a chase from Hussein and a growing love for Kincaid in Mahla.
Featuring the chest and jaw of Burt Lancaster, this is just one of many foreign legion films that were so popular at one time in Hollywood. The plot is fairly enjoyable despite not having any great development or depth to it; it provides movement and direction sufficient to keep the audience watching without ever requiring much of them and for this reason it works. Of course this is not to say it does anything special, because it doesn't but it does do what you would expect from a foreign legion picture of the period sand storms, heroic sacrifice, bare chested heroes, torture, attacks on forts and so on. Sadly with this territory comes the usual problems standard acting, poor characters, obvious plotting, clunky romances and a lack of real audience engagement; for me these did limit the effectiveness of the film and just made it blend with an average crowd.
The acting is roundly average to match the material. Lancaster is sturdy and heroic with a good charisma and presence; hardly an interesting performance but appropriate for the genre I think. Support is not so good. Naturally Lawrence and Mohr are white actors in ethnic roles but the problem is that they don't perform that well on any level Lawrence is unconvincing and Mohr is only acceptable as the bad guy. The rest of the cast provide some comic relief and generally give the film a rambling feel.
Overall this is a standard genre film, nothing more nor nothing less. Those who like the matinée feel of the foreign legion film will enjoy it as such but just don't expect it to do anything above and beyond the call of duty as the characters, plot, action and delivery are all fairly average and prevent the film from standing out from the crowd.
