meritcoba "Syria in turmoil. History repeats itself? Or eh pre-repeats itself?" Henry said. He inspected the carpet that had just been led (by him personally) on the floor of their garage turned movie theater. It was a dark red that was a bit darker than the vintage theater seats with wooden armrests and wooden backs which he had bought from a sale."Only not in the same way. This is the inhabitants rebelling against the French. Now it is Syrians rebelling against other Syrians.""I gather from the movie. When was this again? 1925?""Yes.. I was not even sure if that really happened so I looked it up. And indeed there was a revolt in 1925 that lasted to 1927 against the French. The rebels, or freedom fighters - depending on your point of view - actually beat the French several times.""I also looked up something! You know what Sirocco means? It says here, that it is the name for a wind that comes from the Sahara and gains hurricane strength when it reaches the Mediterranean and North Africa." Henry lifted his Nokia Lumia. "Cool. A reference to the rebellion, I guess. A rising storm.""That might be.""Has a bit of a Casablanca flair over it, although there is no such similarities as between Dead Reckoning and the Maltese Falcon. There is a conflict that serves as an interesting background against which the story enfolds. There are some colorful people that fill the scenes. But there are differences. In this Bogey plays a shady character with doubtful morals who repents a bit at the end. His adversary, the French colonel could be considered the good guy who wants the killing to stop, but at the same time his relation has with his wife Violette has turned sour. A kind of relation develops between Violette and Bogey, but it is not something like in Casablanca, where it is a passionate love affair. So there are some superficial similarities.""But did you like the movie?""Did you?""Well. No.. not really.. It seems a bit lackluster.. There is never any great dialog or any great scenes. It works, but it isn't a captivating intriguing story. It is a bit like stale bread. You can eat it.. but it won't be a remarkable good experience. It just misses everything that makes it great.""I see..""So how about you?""Let's say… I am curious about the next movie.. it has got to be better," Henry laughed.www.meritcoba.com

SipteaHighTea The film was awful went it came to the fighting between the French and the Syrians. There should have been a lot more gun fire between the French and the insurgents. There should have been a lot more explosions of French artillery shells bombarding the city. They show the city against the background of a early sunrise; however, there was no heavy columns of smoke that resulted from the French artillery shells exploding in the city There was also no sound of French airplanes and having them bomb and machine gun the Syrians' positions.In addition, the way the French troops move around the city was terrible. In a combat situation, troops would have their rifles at port arms so they be ready to bring their weapons to a firing position just in case they get fire upon. They would not be walking around the city with rifles on their shoulders and walking in a parade ground formation.One person stated that the American people during the 1920s never heard of the Syrian revolt. I suspect one reason why the Americans never heard about it that the American press was concentrating on Prohibition, robbers like Pretty Boy Floyd, John Dillinger, organized crime like Al Capone, labor strikes that occurred after World War I, and the communist scare of the 1920s. Even if it was printed in the paper, it was just a sideshow event that never got much notice. I bet that today most Americans still don't know about the revolt in Syria. The only time we paid attention to Syria was during the various Arab-Israeli Wars and Syrian intervention in Lebanon.It was and still easier to concentrate on doing war movies against the Japan and Germany since we won those wars.

Terrell-4 We know Bogart liked to keep working. The movies he made in the late Forties through the mid Fifties, however, sometimes give "work" a bad name. He veered effortlessly between fine movies that to this day continue to challenge, satisfy or do both and movies that are nothing more than nearly forgotten commercial hackwork. He knew what he was turning out; he called Sirocco a stinker. What an odd and undiscriminating selection process he and his agent must have had. In 1950 he makes Chain Lightening but then makes In a Lonely Place. In 1951 it's Sirocco and then The African Queen. In 1953 it's Battle Circle and then Beat the Devil (maybe a confusing failure, but not hackwork). With Sirocco Bogart gives us Harry Smith, a gunrunner who finds himself in Damascus. The year is 1925. The French run things. A lot of Syrians don't like that at all. They're called "rebels." Harry? He doesn't care one way or another as long as he's paid. Harry is tired, sour, cynical and a skeptic. He doesn't believe in anything except money and the value of his own hide. He's Bogart. Harry quickly finds himself involved with a martinet of a French general named LaSalle (Everett Sloane) who thinks shooting five Syrians for every dead French soldier will be educational for everyone; a sympathetic French colonel named Feroud (Lee J. Cobb) who thinks he can avoid bloodshed if he can just sit down and talk things over with the rebel leaders, especially Emir Hassan (Onslow Stevens); and Feroud's mistress, a cool drink of water named Violette (Marta Toren), a beautiful woman who seems to be aroused more by the prospect of shopping than the prospect of making love. In other words, a courtesan to scriptwriters, a sophisticated prostitute to the more realistic; something akin to a wealthy CEO's trophy wife. Harry meets Violette, wants her and comes close to falling for her. This sets up some tension between himself and Colonel Feroud. All the while Harry is trying to extricate himself from an arms deal gone very, very wrong. By the end of the movie no one has gained much of anything, although it appears Violette will have the time to do more shopping. At one point in Sirocco Violette says to Harry Smith, "What a man! You're so ugly! Yes, you are! How can a man so ugly be so handsome?" Ugly? Quasimodo, that's ugly. Bogart may not have been handsome, but he had style, a unique screen personality and the good fortune to star in three -- count 'em, three -- iconic career-making movies in less than two years. High Sierra, The Maltese Falcon and Casablanca carved Bogart's screen persona so deeply in granite that even hackwork like Sirocco scarcely makes a chip. When we see Harry we're really seeing Roy, Sam and Rick. There's no reason to watch this movie unless you're fond of Bogart and have an hour and a half to waste. But if you watch, remember Everett Sloane. He was a fine, fine actor who seldom found memorable parts in Hollywood. He was a member of Orson Welles' Mercury Theater and came to Hollywood with Welles. He wound up in the Fifties doing a ton of television shows. He killed himself in 1965 when he was 55. My best memories of Sloane include Mr. Bernstein in Citizen Kane (1941); Arthur Bannister in The Lady from Shanghai (1947); Mario Belli in Prince of Foxes (1949); Dr. Eugene Brock in The Men (1950); and, powerfully, Walter Ramsey in Patterns (1956).

dbdumonteil The 1925 Syrian occupation has virtually almost disappeared from French history books;it was overshadowed by other colonial wars such as Indochina or Algeria.When the movie begins,both the Emir and the French officer are sure to have God on their side.Actually,the story pits a noble chivalrous French dashing captain against a raider,an arms dealer,who sells his stuff to both sides (who is right anyway? the bloodthirsty Arab or those Europeans who are convinced that they civilize those people so primitive ?) The French "hero" went to the finest military school "Saint-Cyr" ,the French West Point as Bogart points out ;his values such as honor have become obsolete in this mercenary world.The best moments in what is finally a routine military melodrama (of course the officer has a woman who falls for...you' ll never guess !) are the scenes in the dark alleys or in the catacombs