DESERT LEGION

US, 1953, 86 minutes, Colour.
Alan Ladd, Richard Conte, Arlene Dahl, Akim Tamiroff, Oscar Berrigi, Leon Askin, Anthony Caruso, George J.Lewis.
Directed by Joseph Pevney.

This is one of those very popular action shows produced by Universal Studios in the early 1950s. It is a star vehicle for Alan Ladd as he was turning 40 (and, in fact, released in the same year as his classic, Shane). Richard Conte is always a reliable villain. And Arlene Dahl adds glamour.

The setting is Algeria and the Foreign Legion where Alan Ladd plays the commander, under the major played by Leon Askin. They are commissioned to find a rebel leader. However, Ladd and his militia are trapped in the mountains with all dead except for Ladd. He wakes, mysteriously, in the presence of Arlene Dahl, in a mysterious city ruled by a benign leader. Then, mysteriously also, he is returned to headquarters.

He wants to return to find this mysterious city in the desert, takes with him a comic assistant, Akim Tamiroff, and discovers something of a Shangri-La? in the desert. One of the guests is an aristocrat, played by Richard Conte.

If Universal Studios had a playlist for all the genre conventions of desert action that should be introduced within 90 minutes, then Desert Legion has them all.

The city in the desert is exotic, wealthy, every convenience, dance spectaculars. The leader of the city is a former legionary who rules benignly. Arlene Dahl is his daughter and, despite a rocky start on the part of Alan Ladd, the love theme is inevitable. And, inevitably, the aristocratic visitor turns out to be the rebel chief. While there had been a siege in battle at the beginning, there is also a duel in the middle between Ladd and Conte, quite exciting in so far as there is one spear and, after its thrust into a hard surface, the opponent has the opportunity to draw it out and then thrust. No surprise in who wins.

And, at the end, returning to the mountains where the first action took place, the legionaries are again besieged by the hostile rebels – but, Alan Ladd, overcoming the guards and getting weapons, the ruler finding his older rifle from his legionary days, come to the rescue – with another fight, on mountain cliffs between hero and villain. The old ruler is killed – bequeathing the city to Alan Ladd to rule along with his daughter as his wife.

While it looks a bit old in style, it moves along at a pace which is enjoyable – with its echoes of Beau Geste and Lost Horizon.