''Escape from Zahrain'' is a 1962 American

Panavision Panavision Inc. is an American motion picture equipment company (law), company founded in 1954 specializing in cameras and photographic lens, lenses, based in Woodland Hills, Los Angeles, Woodland Hills, California. Formed by Robert Gottschalk a ...

adventure film The adventure film is a broad genre of film. Some early genre studies found it no different than the Western film or argued that adventure could encompass all Hollywood genres. Commonality was found among historians Brian Taves and Ian Cameron in ...

directed by Ronald Neame and starring Yul Brynner. The film is based on the novel ''Appointment in Zahrain'' by Michael Barrett (1960) and is produced and distributed by

Paramount Pictures Paramount Pictures Corporation, commonly known as Paramount Pictures or simply Paramount, is an American film production company, production and Distribution (marketing), distribution company and the flagship namesake subsidiary of Paramount ...

Plot

The film is set in the fictional state of Zahrain, located in the

Arabian Peninsula The Arabian Peninsula (, , or , , ) or Arabia, is a peninsula in West Asia, situated north-east of Africa on the Arabian plate. At , comparable in size to India, the Arabian Peninsula is the largest peninsula in the world. Geographically, the ...

. An officer in the security service of a despotic regime arranges to murder a jailed revolutionary leader (Brynner) while he is being transferred between prisons. The leader's supporters stage a rescue, intending to subsequently flee across the desert to the Protectorate of Aden. In the chaos of the rescue two condemned prisoners, a common criminal with no interest in politics (Caruso) and an American oil worker (Warden), join the leader and the mastermind of the breakout (Mineo) in getting away. Later they encounter an educated nurse (Rhue) who they are compelled to take along, and a jaded British intelligence agent ( James Mason) who they are confident will not reveal their whereabouts. Together they provide different perspectives on the Middle East of the early 1960s.

Cast

* Yul Brynner as Sharif * Sal Mineo as Ahmed * Jack Warden as Huston * Madlyn Rhue as Laila * Anthony Caruso as Tahar * Leonard Strong as Ambulance Driver * Jay Novello as Hassan

Production

The film was based on the novel ''Appointment in Zahrain'' which was published in 1960. Paramount bought the novel prior to publication and gave the job to adapting the script to Dudley Nichols. In October 1960 Paramount's then-chairman Jack Karp announced Richard Matheson was doing a script and

Edward Dmytryk Edward Dmytryk (September 4, 1908 – July 1, 1999) was a Canadian-born American film director and editor. He was known for his 1940s films noir, noir films and received an Academy Award for Best Director, Oscar nomination for Best Director for ...

was going to direct the film. By May 1961 Yul Brynner was attached as star, with Ronald Neame to produce and direct and Sal Mineo to co star. Robin Estridge wrote the script. Filming began June 1961.

References

External links

* {{Dudley Nichols 1962 films 1960s action adventure films Films directed by Ronald Neame Films set in Asia Films set in fictional countries Films set in the Arabian Peninsula Films produced by Ronald Neame Films scored by Lyn Murray Films with screenplays by Dudley Nichols Films set in deserts Films based on Australian novels American action adventure films 1960s English-language films 1960s American films English-language action adventure films