Raiders of the Desert (1941) User Reviews (2)

Formula fluff has more sands than that fit in the hour glass.

[mark.waltz · 4/10 · 20 February 2017]

If this was "Like Sands in the hour glass, so is the waste of your time?" Not really, but it's silly, harmless fun that has to be seen to be believed. Handsome Richard Arlen and lovable fat man Andy Devine stow away aboard a boat and end up in the middle of the desert "where all the sand ends up after Bob Hope cleans his spinach." I never quite got that gag in "Road to Morocco", but it makes a heck of a lot more sense than the point of this pre- war expose of stereotypical silliness that also co-stars Maria Montez in a real do nothing part.

The actual female lead is Linda Hayes, moving to an American built city in the middle of nowhere that a desert sheik (Turban Bey) wants to take control of through force. Anyone who can throw a knife into a wooden door and pull it out as if it was only stuck in a brick of cheese (not wood) deserves a medal. Devine becomes a bit too much to take after a while, especially when he starts singing. Ancient proverbs add to the fun as Devine continues to make a fool of himself is a perfect comeuppance for his well meaning obnoxiousness. Grateful that it's under an hour, over and out.

If You Can't Wait A Year For ROAD TO MOROCCO And Want To Be Punished

[boblipton · 1/10 · 18 June 2019]

Richard Arlen and Andy Devine are on their way to California, so they stow away on a ship bound to North Africa. Once there, they follow Linda Hayes to a model city in the desert, where she has been hired by the developers as a secretary. While Arlen pursues Hayes, and Devine pursues Maria Montez, desert sheik Ralf Harolde tries to destroy the development, which threatens his command of the local tribes.

It's a pretty desperate action comedy from Universal, which seems to have settled on Arlen & Devine as their answer to Hope & Crosby. Andy sings "I'm A Big, Bad Baghdad Daddy" to Miss Montez, while accompanying himself on the ukulele, and Richard seems to spend most of his time being grouchy with Devine and modeling the extensive wardrobe he has stowed away with. Haralde's strategy for destroying the unsightly American-style city (which looks like a small hotel in the middle of the desert) seems to be to have half his force of about twenty men deal with the hundreds of pith-helmeted soldiers with artillery, while he and the others ride into town, where they can be potted from the second-story windows. Keep an eye out for John Wayne as a truck driver. No, it's a clip from the archives.