The Man from Cairo
                          
Director: Ray Enright
Year:  1953
Rating: 6.0
I kept waiting for Peter Lorre to make an appearance in the film. It is just that kind of spy noir back alley film in an exotic location that he used to inhabit so well. Throw in Sydney Greenstreet as the man behind the curtain and this might have been a classic. But no such luck. George Raft sort of takes on the role of the tough talking American that should have gone to Bogart but Raft had already lost enough films to Bogart while at Warner Brothers and was on the back nine of his career. The fact that this is a Lippert Production filmed in Italy speaks to that. Lippert Production was sort of a refugee center for American stars past their prime, but it also produced some good low budget films - in particular some British noir films in co-operation with Hammer in the 1950's.



This one dances around like a pinball though in the end not making all that much sense. The French decide to hire an American detective to go to Algiers which they still ruled at the time to look for gold that was stolen in WW II. The folks trying to smuggle the gold out hear about this from an informer and when George Raft shows up everyone in Algiers assumes he is the American in question. He isn't but his style of belligerently spitting out dialogue and wearing dark suits and white ties would make me think the same.




He gets pulled into the mystery and people begin to die around him in not so nice ways. He also gets tangled up with a femme fatale (Gianna Maria Canale who was in a bunch of Peplum films) who even more mysteriously falls for Raft. It must be the way he smokes those Lucky Strikes. Look for a very quick glimpse of Irene Pappas in one of her earliest films - but don't get too attached to her because she is killed a few minutes into the film. I am still not sure what took place in this film and how all the characters were related to one another but it goes so fast you don't worry about it much.