The Man From Cairo (1953)

Far from Perfect, Far from Terrible

If the ambition is to provide two hours of instantly forgettable, popcorn-munching escapism, it succeeds.

In other words,this film is a surreal ride.

The movie's neither hopeful in contrived ways, nor hopeless in different contrived ways. Somehow it manages to be wonderful

***SPOILERS*** 1930's & 40's movie tough guy George Raft drifts into town-Algiers-as vacationing American defective Mike Canelli looking forward to see the sight of the North African nation. Only to get himself involved in a stolen gold & smuggling operation by local as well as French hoods that's been going on there since the end of WWII. At first mistaken by the city police chief Capt. Akhim Bay, Leon Lenoir, as US Government secret agent Charles Stark, Richard MacNamara, Canelli ends up being up to his neck in the gold smuggling operation that almost has him killed.It turns out that Canelli gets unexpected help from beautiful and exotic French-Algerian sexpot Lorraine Belogne, Gianna Marie Canale, whom he was introduced to in the most unusual circumstances: While she was taking a bath in her hotel-room. As it turned out that Lorraine had a recording made by the four fingered Emile Touchard, Guido Celano, the only survivor of the Free French outfit who hid 100 million in gold in the Sahara Desert in 1942 before Rommell's Afrika Corps or gangs of Arab marauders could get their hands on it. It takes a while for Canelli to convince Lorraine to take him into her confidence in getting her to believe that he's only trying to get the 100 million in gold back to the French Treasury department, as well as a $200,000.00 reword for it, not in him being a part of the criminal ring who want it all for themselves. And who are more then willing to kill anyone-like Lorraine-who gets in their way.****SPOILERS*** After getting kidnapped and worked over a number of times by members of the gold smuggling ring Canelli, battered and bruised, finally puts 2 and 2 together and with the help of the secret recording as well as the limping Professor Crespi- who it turns out is really the missing French GeneralDumont-,Alfredo Varelli,and finds out who the head man of the gold smuggling operation really is: Non other then respected French WWII freedom fighter Major La Blanc who's really international hoodlum Emile Moreau! With a train load of stolen gold about to check out of town with Moreau on it Canelli as well as Lorraine tries to stop his sudden departure only to have the local police lead by Capt Bey, who at first suspected Canelli was part of the god smuggling ring, making the pinch with Moreau, who by then saw that the gig was up, shot while trying to escape!

A rather confusing set-up has Richard McNamara, an FBI agent, involved in a search with the French government for missing gold. He runs into old acquaintance George Raft who ends up involved and McNamara disappears from view. Raft gets involved in with the sexy Gianna Maria Canale who may or may not know more about the gold than she's letting on. The film never really grasps you the way a thriller of this mold really should and although there are a few exciting sequences and some tension, the result is pretty pallid. Irene Papas, in one of her earliest roles, stands out, but ultimately, she is wasted with a "nothing" part. The attempt to copy the European "new wave" fails here and the results are predictable and never intriguing.

I'm not positive, but I think this was George Raft's last role as a star lead. The movie was an Italian low-cost production. It was the best Raft's agent could do. What marquee value Raft had left in America was thought worth hiring him for to try to sell enough tickets to turn a profit. Raft was 57 when he made the movie, and looks every year of it. He's kept his weight down but his hair is gray and there wasn't much anyone could do to disguise the shadows under his eyes, the puffiness, the general air of "let's get through this so I can go home." The story is all confused, international thriller hokum. French gold reserves had been moved to French North Africa during WWII, but $100 million worth were stolen in Algeria. Seven years later the gold is still missing. Mike Canelli (Raft), visiting Algiers, knows about all this; so do several others including a singer who can't act but who has a Gina Lollabrigida chassis. The key seems to be a shadowy character with only four fingers on his right hand. After much tough talk, thrown knives, night-time visits to the casbah, a fight using an obvious double on a train and barely adequate dubbing, we learn all about Mike and the missing gold. I have a fondness or George Raft. In his declining years I wish he'd been able to do better than things like this, a movie in which everything is perfunctory. I like Raft because he was who he was, and had no pretense. He was no actor, said so himself, but through some mysterious process became a star.

i am a real sucker for casbah and foreign legion movies. they were the fodder of my childhood. i approached this one with a salutary glass of rum and high hopes. the rum stood up; the film did not.i have been waiting to add a good george raft flic to my collection of old b&w's. despite his reputation i was sure one existed somewhere. this one wasn't it. the studio forgot to hire writers: the dialogue comes across as if pronounced phonetically by actors unfamiliar with English, reading from scrawls on large pieces of cardboard dimly seen in the lower screen. actions are equally grotesque. the required motions as mechanical and stiff as if choreographed by engineers using tinkertoy models and expecting no greater dexterity from the cast.the words fresh, interesting, exciting, captivating, even interesting, have no place in describing this movie. a 'b' film that deserves every slur it has duly earned.