ma-cortes This adventures and lackluster desert opus deals about Paul Gerard(George Raft) a French legionnaire officer. The philander legionnaire is sent a dangerous assignment, escort an Emir of Bel-Rashad's daughter(Marie Windsor) and investigate the Emir's(Edward Franz) activities. Then Paul discovers a Mouser rifles for a possible rebellion. Meanwhile he falls in love with Cara and befriends a sympathetic lieutenant(Akim Tamiroff).Acceptable action/adventures movie blending drama of self-sacrifice, love story and spectacular outdoors. The film concerns about the French Legion, an instrument of conquest of the North of Africa and Indochina. This regiment was employed for bloody fights and futile wars in a vain attempt to retain territories . Some moment is rather dull but in the second half is a bit more exciting with forced march and taking place in an isolate fort as well as Arab attacks. Atmosphere is appropriately depressing and and gritty, especially during the blockade when the regiment bears starvation and with no water. Evovative and adequate musical score by Michel Michelet.The picture was shot in Imperial County, California and Morocco, at the beginning the producers thanksgiving the French army for its collaboration. The story belongs a genre which has given classics, such as ¨Beau Geste(Gary Cooper)¨ and ¨Under two flags(Ronald Colman)¨ and full of humor as ¨Beau Hunks¨with Stan Laurel and Oliver Hardy. The motion picture is professionally directed by Robert Florey, a nice craftsman. He's expert on adventures genre: ¨Tarzan and the mermaids¨, ¨Rogues' regiment¨ also with the Foreign Legion and Terror genre : 'Beast with five fingers'and 'Murders in the Rue Morgue'. Rating : Acceptable adventures movie is passable at its kind , providing some of entertainment and fun.

Robert J. Maxwell I tried to count the number of times George Raft, Cavalry Captain in the French Foreign Legion in Morocco, in the early years of the 20th century, blinked, but I didn't see any blinks at all. I wouldn't advance the proposition that George Raft never blinks in this movie. That's not it at all. It's just that I never caught him at it. Possibly because I blinked myself.Why, man, he doth bestride this narrow movie like s Colossus astride Rhodes. He wears the same expression, whether making love or shooting rebels. He looks grim always. He moves purposefully. Everything he is involved in generates the same contour of his facial muscles and, as in a Kuleshov experiment, we interpret it according to context.Excuse me for making a little fun of George Raft. He actually suits the role and the movie pretty well. It's an unpretentious and action-filled, mostly studio-bound, story of proud French soldiers opposing a conflicted culture of Islamic colonials. A leader of one tribe, Eduard Franz, is pretty hostile to the French presence. So much so that he wipes out one of their outposts, despite some friendly gestures on the part of the French. At the same time, Eduard Franz has a very pretty and sensual daughter, Marie Windsor, she of the large and doe-like eyes and a mouth that bespeaks passion. Raft has delivered her from the city to her father's oasis and they have fallen in love with each other. (Over an enormous bowl of rice.) The two of them are torn between their conflicting allegiances. Windsor has been to some extent Westernized. She's been away from the tribe long enough to have acquired one of those pointed brassieres that were to become so common in 1950s movies. Not that she needs it. She's superbly feminine and nubile beyond measure. Raft too is torn between his love for her -- his enemy's daughter -- and his commitment to La France, though he never seriously wavers.I don't want to spell out the end, but it really is a little confusing. Eduard Franz's cavalry make a suicidal line-abreast charge against a fortified position that has automatic weapons. Somehow, Marie Windsor gets mixed up in the ruckus and the conflict between enlightened Westerners and benighted tribesmen is resolved.Without being sure why, I can say that I quite enjoyed it -- the stereotypes, the shootings, the battles, the galloping horses, the eyeballs of Marie Windsor, the Russian slurring of English by Akim Tamirov. I think maybe I had OD'd on political arguments and the economic calamity that happened on the day I watched this, but -- whatever -- I loved the action and the mindlessness.All in all, a splendid way to take your mind off things.

ksf-2 One of four films George Raft did in 1949, this one takes place in dark and exotic Morocco, with his assistant Bamboule, played by Erno Verebes. Verebes and the author Joseph Ermolieff both appear to have had interesting backgrounds; Verebes was apparently born in New York, according to IMDb, made many German films, then suddenly pops up in Hollywood around 1937. Ermolieff started in Russia, moved to Paris, and also appeared on the Hollywood scene in 1937. Co-star Marie Windsor was also busy in 1949, making four films. Here she plays "Cara", the daughter of the emir, who Captain Gerard escorts back to the emir at his fortress. Cara not only dresses in a frilly, white, western-style blouse and makeup, but "forgets" to wear a veil to cover her face in public. The picture quality is pretty iffy, and shakes quite a bit of the time; someone with more expertise would probably know if this is due to poor film quality, poor photography, or just the age of the film when copied onto the DVD. I have the Treeline/Reelmedia Action Collection DVD pack from 2004. Everyone gives a pretty stiff performance here. Inevitable war breaks out, and Cara is stuck in the middle of all those she loves, although they may be on opposing sides. In spite of all the background mattes used, this gets one of its stars just for the foreign, exotic setting and the foreign legion storyline.

anthonyrwaldman Although "Outpost in Moroco" was made in 1949 it has more in common with adventure films that were made during the 1930's. I suppose along with "Morocco" "Beau Geste" and "under Two Flags" is makes up a quartet of American black and white French Foreign Legion films. "Outpost in Morocco" was actually filmed in Morocco with the co-operation of both the French government and the Legion. The story has the romance of the Legion with a love affair between a rebel Amir's daughter Cara, played by Marie Windsor and a french officer Captain Gerard played by George Raft. The are the desert campfire scenes, escapes over rooftops, an outpost on the frontier, desert marches and men struggling to survive through lack of water. The action sequences are very well produced and photographed. The story obviously does not take place in 1949 because there is nothing mechanized in this film. Also we get to see George Raft and Mari Wilson dance the tango in an early sophisticated cafe scene( it has a cirtain similarity to Rik's in Casablanca) - the film is probably set in the 1920's. Good fun. The film was serialised as a strip in a British comic called "Film Fun" after its release in Britain in 1950.