The Man From Cairo
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''The Man from Cairo'' is a 1953 British/Italian/American international coproduction
film noir Film noir (; ) is a style of Cinema of the United States, Hollywood Crime film, crime dramas that emphasizes cynicism (contemporary), cynical attitudes and motivations. The 1940s and 1950s are generally regarded as the "classic period" of Ameri ...
starring
George Raft George Raft (né Ranft; September 26, 1901 – November 24, 1980) was an American film actor and dancer identified with portrayals of gangsters in crime melodramas of the 1930s and 1940s. A stylish leading man in dozens of movies, Raft is remembe ...
. Released in Italy as , it also went under the alternative English titles ''Cairo Incident'', ''Adventure in Algiers'' and ''Secrets of the Casbah''.


Plot

The French government is investigating the location of bullion stolen during World War 2, the gold reserves of the
Free French Free France () was a resistance government claiming to be the legitimate government of France following the dissolution of the Third French Republic, Third Republic during World War II. Led by General , Free France was established as a gover ...
transported to Algeria in 1940. One consignment worth $100 million, had been ambushed, the only survivor being General Dumont, who escaped before he could be tried. Five agents who attempt to find the hoard are later murdered. Therefore an American agent, Charles Stark, is called in and, while passing through Cairo in order to establish his cover story, runs into his friend Mike Canelli, an ex-serviceman who had served in Algeria for three months in 1942. Canelli continues on to Algiers and is drugged while visiting the room of a night club dancer. Nearly arrested for her subsequent murder, he is only released when the singer's friend, Lorraine Beloyan, fails to identify him as the visitor. Afterwards the two fall in love and arouse the suspicion of the gang of thieves while trying to solve the crime themselves. The climax comes when Lorraine is kidnapped and taken on board a freight train, from which Canelli rescues her while the police, led by the disguised Dumont, intercept the train, arrest the criminals and retrieve the stolen money. As Charles Stark arrives at the airport in Algiers to complete his assignment, Canelli is departing with Lorraine and hands his friend a newspaper with the headline reporting that an American tourist has already solved the mystery.


Cast


Production

The film was produced by Bernard Luber, who had just made ''
Loan Shark A loan shark is a person who offers loans at Usury, extremely high or illegal interest rates, has strict terms of debt collection, collection, and generally operates criminal, outside the law, often using the threat of violence or other illegal, ...
'' with Raft. It was shot on location in Algeria and Italy and was made for $155,000, with $80,000 in deferrals. Leading lady Gianna Maria Canale, a previous runner-up in the 1947 Miss Italy competition, had the distinction of the largest age gap between Raft and one of his leading ladies.


Reception

In a contemporary review for ''
The New York Times ''The New York Times'' (''NYT'') is an American daily newspaper based in New York City. ''The New York Times'' covers domestic, national, and international news, and publishes opinion pieces, investigative reports, and reviews. As one of ...
'', Howard Thompson found the film to be formulaic though having "a sleazy, authentic-looking backdrop." In his view it was "lethargically directed by Ray H. Enright, herethe action soon levels off to a dull, unsurprising trot." As for the acting, "Mr. Raft is…still the same competent, brisk and unimaginative performer ndthe rest go through their assigned motions. It takes all of them a long time." A later critic concurs that the plot is dull and Raft comes over as "a tired, bored and boring hero".John Howard Reid, ''Mystery, Suspense, Film Noir and Detectiver Stories on DVD'', Lulu Books, 2009,
p.123
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References

{{DEFAULTSORT:Man from Cairo 1953 films 1950s English-language films English-language Italian films 1953 crime films British black-and-white films Film noir Films shot in Algeria Films directed by Ray Enright British crime films Italian crime films American black-and-white films Italian black-and-white films American crime films 1950s American films 1950s British films 1950s Italian films English-language crime films