Outpost in Morocco
Director: Robert Florey
Year: 1949
Rating: 4.0
George Raft is
in the French Foreign Legion in this 1949 film. He was 54 at the time trying
to look a lot younger and desirable. Raft was once a huge star in the 1930’s
getting a weekly salary from Warner Brothers of $5,000 a week which was one
of the highest in Hollywood at the time but today he is more famous for the
films he turned down than the ones he was in. It is hard to even think of
a good film in which he was the main lead. But he turned down the lead role
in Dead End (it went to Bogart) because it wasn’t an important film; he turned
down High Sierra (it went to Bogart) because the character was killed in
the end; he turned down Sam Spade in the Maltese Falcon because it was the
director’s debut (some obscure director named John Huston and yes the role
went to Bogart); he turned down Casablanca as did a bunch of actors (yup
to Bogart) and finally he turned down the Fred McMurray role in Double Indemnity
because he wanted the character to end up being an undercover FBI agent and
Billy Wilder thought he was nuts. Though in truth both McMurray and Stanwyck
initially turned down their roles because they were worried it would be extremely
detrimental to their career to play those immoral characters.
Raft grew up in Hell’s Kitchen and many
of his early friends went into the gangster trade. He instead became a dancer
and a reputed gigolo but all his life he stayed friends with the mob – Bugsy
Siegel and Al Capone were drinking buddies. But he was also considered one
of the stupidest actors in Hollywood. When Warner Brothers was pushing Houston
to take Raft, Houston and Bogart cooked up a plan to make the film look like
it would be a louse and beneath a great star like Raft. He bought it and
Houston said he was one of the dumbest people he had ever met and a bad actor.
Warner’s got tired of Raft turning down roles and negotiated to let him out
of his contract. In negotiations Warner asked Raft what his price was to
break the contract. Raft said $10,000. Warner agreed and watched with astonishment
as Raft wrote out a check for the amount and hand it to him. Warner had been
expecting to pay Raft. After leaving Warner’s Rafts career started to slide.
Which explains I guess his taking this
role in a film that crawls along like a wounded camel. A real stinker. Those
darn Arabs are getting restless under French rule and Raft is ordered to
escort the daughter of a suspected rebel Emir to her home. On the way he
is insolent and imperious and so of course she falls madly in love. In a
really odd bit of casting the Princess is Marie Windsor. She was great in
a number of tough-ass noir films but a demure innocent Muslim Princess? Windsor
could bend steel with a sarcastic look and their romantic whisperings were
as phony as a rabbit running in the Derby. Why they didn’t pair these two
in a crime film instead is a mystery. For all its promise of perhaps being
a good adventure film, nothing really happens till the final five minutes
when there is a magnificent 100 horsemen charge on the fort.
These are tough scenes to film. I watched
a documentary on Kurosawa during the shooting of Ran and he explains how
difficult it is to capture the excitement of horses charging and choreographing
it perfectly. So, they do that well but there is basically no fight. It just
putters out. They must have run out of money. I pretty much ran out of patience
I know. Watching these old colonialist films today is rather strange – I
know I am supposed to cheer for Raft and the French Foreign Legion but should
we be? In this case though the decision was easy – rooting for the rebels
all the way.