Directed by:
H. Bruce HumberstoneCinematography:
Robert BurksCast:
Kathryn Grayson, Gordon MacRae, Steve Cochran, Raymond Massey, Dick Wesson, Allyn Ann McLerie, Ray Collins, William Conrad, Paul Picerni, Trevor Bardette (more)Plots(1)
For today's viewer, Desert Song is the name of the Nevada motel Nicolas Cage gets evicted from in Leaving Las Vegas, but to the older generation it is one of the most enduring of composer Sigmund Romberg's popular operettas, still being revived in the post-Beatles 1970s and taken seriously even then. This handsomely mounted Warner Bros remake is easy enough on the eye, and particularly easy on the ear. But the good-looking Gordon MacRae is miscast as the young American anthropologist doubling by night as El Khobar, avenger of the desert Riffs (that's not a musical pun). Still, Kathryn Grayson sings One Alone as if her life depended on it and Raymond Massey is perfect as the cruel and villainous sheik, though Steve Cochran is wasted as a luckless legionnaire. In the 1943 version the hero fought the Nazis, this time the score triumphs over all: it's unlikely there'll be a next time. (official distributor synopsis)
(more)Cast
Kathryn Grayson
USA
Best movies:
Anchors Aweigh (1945)
Kiss Me Kate (1953)
Show Boat (1951)
Gordon MacRae
USA
Best movies:
The Pilot (1980)
Tea for Two (1950)
Oklahoma! (1955)
Steve Cochran
USA
Best movies:
The Best Years of Our Lives (1946)
White Heat (1949)
Storm Warning (1951)
Raymond Massey
Canada
Best movies:
Producers' Showcase (1954) (series)
East of Eden (1955)
Arsenic and Old Lace (1944)
Dick Wesson
USA
Best movies:
The Errand Boy (1961)
Destination Moon (1950)
Calamity Jane (1953)
Allyn Ann McLerie
Canada
Best movies:
Jeremiah Johnson (1972)
They Shoot Horses, Don't They? (1969)
All the President's Men (1976)
Ray Collins
USA
Best movies:
The Best Years of Our Lives (1946)
Citizen Kane (1941)
The Heiress (1949)
William Conrad
USA
Best movies:
Sorry, Wrong Number (1948)
How the West Was Won (1976) (series)
Arch of Triumph (1948)
Paul Picerni
USA
Best movies:
Miracle of Fatima (1952)
The Name of the Game (1968) (series)
The Apartment (1960)
Trevor Bardette
USA
Best movies:
Gone with the Wind (1939)
The Big Sleep (1946)
Gun Crazy (1950)
Frank DeKova
USA
Best movies:
The Ten Commandments (1956)
American Pop (1981)
The Jayhawkers (1959)
Peter Brocco
USA
Best movies:
One Flew over the Cuckoo's Nest (1975)
Papillon (1973)
The Name of the Game (1968) (series)
Rico Alaniz
Mexico
Best movies:
The Magnificent Seven (1960)
Viva Zapata! (1952)
Drum Beat (1954)
John George
Syria
Best movies:
Singin' in the Rain (1952)
The Killing (1956)
East of Eden (1955)
Maurice Marsac
France
Best movies:
Band of Angels (1957)
The Poseidon Adventure (1972)
Columbo (1971) (series)
Larry Chance
Best movies:
The Ten Commandments (1956)
The Rose Tattoo (1955)
Against All Flags (1952)
Tom Coleman
USA
Best movies:
It's a Wonderful Life (1946)
Somebody Up There Likes Me (1956)
The Killing (1956)
Harold Dyrenforth
German Empire
Best movies:
Morituri (1965)
36 Hours (1965)
The Andromeda Strain (1971)
Charles Perry
USA
Best movies:
To Kill a Mockingbird (1962)
The Incredible Shrinking Man (1957)
Advise and Consent (1962)
John Roy
USA
Best movies:
Some Like It Hot (1959)
Witness for the Prosecution (1957)
White Heat (1949)