''The Desert Song'' is a 1953 film version in

Technicolor Technicolor is a series of Color motion picture film, color motion picture processes, the first version dating back to 1916, and followed by improved versions over several decades. Definitive Technicolor movies using three black and white films ...

Sigmund Romberg Sigmund Romberg (July 29, 1887 – November 9, 1951) was a Hungarian-born American composer. He is best known for his musicals and operettas, particularly '' The Student Prince'' (1924), '' The Desert Song'' (1926) and '' The New Moon'' (1928). E ...

's operetta. It is the third film version of the operetta, the third made by

Warner Bros. Warner Bros. Entertainment Inc. (commonly known as Warner Bros. or abbreviated as WB) is an American film and entertainment studio headquartered at the Warner Bros. Studios complex in Burbank, California, and a subsidiary of Warner Bros. D ...

, and the second in full three-strip Technicolor. Although it was released in 1953, it was not made in

widescreen Widescreen images are displayed within a set of aspect ratios (relationship of image width to height) used in film, television and computer screens. In film, a widescreen film is any film image with a width-to-height aspect ratio greater than t ...

; at that time

Twentieth-Century Fox 20th Century Studios, Inc. (previously known as 20th Century Fox) is an American film production company headquartered at the Fox Studio Lot in the Century City area of Los Angeles. As of 2019, it serves as a film production arm of Walt Disn ...

held the rights to Cinemascope, which was introduced that year in the film ''

The Robe ''The Robe'' is a 1942 historical novel about the Crucifixion of Jesus, written by Lloyd C. Douglas. The book was one of the best-selling titles of the 1940s. It entered the ''New York Times'' Best Seller list in October 1942, four weeks later ...

''.

Plot

The original plot is more-or-less adhered to, with some significant alterations. Benny is depicted as a comic

Bob Hope Leslie Townes "Bob" Hope (May 29, 1903 – July 27, 2003) was a British-American comedian, vaudevillian, actor, singer and dancer. With a career that spanned nearly 80 years, Hope appeared in Bob Hope filmography, more than 70 short and ...

-like coward, but not as a sissy. El Khobar's alter ego is that of a mild-mannered (but not squeamish) Latin tutor and anthropologist, whom Birabeau ( Ray Collins) hires to keep Margot (

Kathryn Grayson Kathryn Grayson (born Zelma Kathryn Elisabeth Hedrick; February 9, 1922 – February 17, 2010) was an American actress and coloratura soprano. Ronald Berganbr>Obituary '' London Guardian'', February 19, 2010. From the age of twelve, Grayson trai ...

) from flirting with his regiment. The conclusion to the film is slightly different, since El Khobar (

Gordon MacRae Albert Gordon MacRae (March 12, 1921 – January 24, 1986) was an American actor, singer and radio/television host who appeared in the film versions of two Rodgers and Hammerstein musicals ''Oklahoma!'' (1955) and '' Carousel'' (1956) and who p ...

) is not Birabeau's son here. After the final battle, the General's soldiers realize that El Khobar and the Riffs were actually on their side and helped in preventing an uprising. When one asks, "And where is El Khobar?", MacRae, as the professor, enters carrying El Khobar's clothes, and quietly announces "El Khobar is dead". Margot is grief-stricken, but Birabeau, suspecting the truth, mischievously says that they can all be grateful to "the ghost of El Khobar", winking as he says this. As soon as they are alone, MacRae begins to sing the song ''One Alone'' to Margot, making her realize that her boring Latin tutor and the dashing El Khobar are one and the same. She rushes into his arms. One song not by Romberg, ''Gay Parisienne'', written for the 1943 film version of the show, is retained for this film.

Casting

as Margot *

as El Khobar/Paul Bonnard, the dashing outlaw leader *

Steve Cochran Steve Cochran (born Robert Alexander Cochran, May 25, 1917 – June 15, 1965) was an American film, television and stage actor. He attended the University of Wyoming. After a stint working as a cowboy, Cochran developed his acting skills in loca ...

as Captain Claud Fontaine, El Khobar's rival for Margot's affections * Raymond Massey as Sheik Youseff, the villain * Dick Wesson as Benjamin 'Benjy' Kidd * Allyn McLerie as Azuri * Ray Collins as General Birabeau, here depicted as Margot's father, rather than the hero's *

Paul Picerni Horacio Paul Picerni (December 1, 1922 – January 12, 2011) was an American actor in film and television, perhaps best known today in the role of Federal Agent Lee Hobson, second-in-command to Robert Stack's Eliot Ness, in the ABC hit televisi ...

as Hassan *

Frank DeKova Frank de Kova (March 17, 1910 – October 15, 1981) was an American character actor in films, stage, and TV. Biography De Kova was born in New York City. He was a teacher at a school in New York before joining a Shakespeare repertory group. He ...

as Mindar * William Conrad as Lachmed *

Trevor Bardette Trevor Bardette (born Terva Gaston Hubbard; November 19, 1902 – November 28, 1977) was an American film and television actor. Among many other roles in his long and prolific career, Bardette appeared in several episodes of '' Adventures of S ...

as Neri * Mark Dana as Lt. Duvalle

Music

The film features about eight numbers from the original score, but all of the songs (unlike those in the stage version), are given to either MacRae or Grayson (or both), or the chorus.

References

External links

* * * * {{DEFAULTSORT:Desert Song, The 1953 films 1950s romantic musical films American romantic musical films Films based on operettas Operetta films Warner Bros. films French Foreign Legion in popular culture Films set in deserts Films set in Morocco Musical film remakes Films directed by H. Bruce Humberstone 1950s English-language films 1950s American films English-language romantic musical films