Blandly entertaining WWII spy story about George Sanders getting involved with Nazis and intrigue in Damascus. Although filmed near the end of the war, the story takes play at the outset of WWI, with the Allies and Nazis both vying for Arab support. Petty low budget and nothing all that special except for the presence of the effortlessly suave Sanders, who manages to make this film worth checking out.
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blanche-227 March 2009George Sanders experiences some "Action in Arabia" in this 1944 RKO film that also stars Virginia Bruce. Sanders is a reporter in Damascus who wants to find the killers of a fellow reporter. He uncovers a Nazi plot of the Germans attempting to turn the Arabs against the Allies.
It's not much, but there's some great action, and if you're a fan of George Sanders, he's at his elegant best in this, beautifully dressed and very smooth.
There are nice performances from an able supporting cast that includes Gene Lockhart, Alan Napier (that's Alfred the Butler on Batman), and H.B. Warner.
A small propaganda film, reminiscent in its way of Casablanca, but pleasant enough. -
In the Arab world there is a saying that Allah grants wisdom but only the foolish ignore it. In this movie, The vast area of the Middle East is slowly being foolishly drawn into the second world war and both sides are doing their level best to secure the help of all the tribes. In this Philip MacDonald story George Sanders plays American News Correspondence Michael Gordon who arrives in Damacus with a colleague who is soon murdered. Directed by Leonide Moguy, our hero is unable to understand why. Because he is a newsman, Gordon is Keen to discover the reason. Unfortunately, the police and several interested officials wants him to leave on the next day's flight. In the meantime, he ties into the local network of Spys, counter spies and assassins, each with their own agenda towards their approaching war. This Black and White movie has all the traditional mystery and drama who with it's plethora of exciting cast members, such as Virginia Bruce, Gene Lockhart and Robert Armstrong makes for a great film. ****
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planktonrules28 May 2017Reporter Michael Gordon (George Sanders) is passing through Damascus, Syria from an assignment. Another American reporter arrived along with Gordon...and soon this other reporter is discovered dead! Michael is determined to get to the bottom of whoever is responsible for his murder...and the trail soon heads to a pretty lady, some Nazis and even the chieftain of the Bedouin tribes! And, again and again, Michael slips in and out of one dangerous situation after another but you know he'll be okay, as he's the hero!
This is a decent film--mildly interesting but made even better by the lovely performance by George Sanders, who is, as usual, very smooth and engaging. Well worth seeing and a bit better than the typical wartime propaganda film. -
gorgo-2283918 February 2017This movie pops up quite regularly on late night TV-and every time I get sucked into watching it. A cut above usual B grade movies with some very good stock footage of Arabic life the plot is the usual spy Vs spy yarn -but I have to say its very enjoyable. The cast is likable with a number of familiar faces all going earnestly about their business. The real star for me are the Art directors and set decorators. They did not have much to work with on the back-lot but have created that quintessentially Hollywood interpretation of what Damascus would or rather should look like. This is great entertaining action-er that's enjoyable its Casablanca inspired introduction to the final shoot out where the good guys triumph. Well worth a look at any time of the night.
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jcravens427 December 2017I watched this because it came on after a movie I watched on purpose. I meant to turn it off, especially because it looked so incredibly low-budget right from the get-go... but I didn't turn it off and, five minutes in, just couldn't stop watching. There are so many snarky, clever, laugh-out-loud lines! There is also as much intrigue and eccentric characters as in Casablanca (and some of the same actors as well). You will need to know a bit about the history of the time to get the plot, but all you'll need to like the film is to listen and drink in George Sanders absolutely awesome performance - this is my favorite of his films. It's low budget and a bad print, but the perfectly-cast Sanders and the hilarious one-liners make it worth the watch.
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Two Western journalists are on their way home through Syria when they see a familiar face talk with the daughter of an Arab leader. When one follows the man later that night, he is found dead. His colleague Michael Gordon investigates and finds clues pointing to a plot to pervert the leadership of the tribes and lead them with the Nazi's against the allied forces.
I watched this film simply because the title caught my eye in the schedules. Given the fact that the screening occurred while other channels were covering the war on Iraq as part of their news cycle, I initially assumed it was a documentary of some sort. A look to see it was a film made decades ago suggested that the schedulers had maybe been guilty of bad taste. However watching it there was little to support this thought.
The film is set in the Middle East which, in this film, spreads from Iraq across into Africa ending in Morocco. The politics of the area are difficult now and were still complex when this film was made, so the plot decides to mostly ignore internal issues and focus on the bigger picture of the Nazi threat. By doing so it becomes a bit of propaganda that almost works quite well, but mostly means the plot becomes quite straightforward. The film focuses on the potential for the Nazi's to use the tribes to sweep through the Middle East and Africa and Gordon's investigation to stop it. Mostly the film is very talky and even the action scenes are quite pedestrian (despite the music played loudly thought them), this would be OK if it had a bit more twists and turns but really it goes where you expect it to. This is not to say it is bad but it is pretty unremarkable.
Sanders plays it as usual upright, tough and gentlemanly, he also is quite stiff and unanimated. This works well for the majority but I would have liked a little more heart in it. The support cast are all OK but are strangely (or perhaps not so strangely) made up of mostly white characters playing Arabs only the crowd shots appear to use non-white faces. This isn't a major detraction but it is a distraction at times esp when supposed Arab princesses are played by white women who would be more at home shopping in Manhattan.
Overall this is a sturdy little film that is short but still feels a little too long. The straightforward plot and talky nature make it feel a little dull at times but there is just enough going on to hold the interest. -
ksf-23 July 2008Action in Arabia opens with an introduction by the narrator, while displaying a boundary map of Africa, europe, and the middle east as of 1944. Starring the dashing George Sanders (from All About Eve) and Gene Lockhart, we go running around Syria looking for those Nazi's during WW II. Also look for H B Warner (who had played the great "Chang" in Lost Horizon, and JC in "King of Kings"). There has to be a lovely lady at the center of these things, and here its Virginia Bruce playing Yvonne Danesco, the wife of a crooked gambler, at the very least. People start getting knocked off, and away we go! Because we're off in a far away land, and chasing spies, its quite exotic, but according to IMDb, its mostly all filmed in LA. Scoping out the cast list, apparently Bud Wiser played "the man"...... actually, the beer WAS first; it has been around since 1883! Directed by Russian turned Frenchman Leonide Moguy, this was only one of the three English speaking films he did between 1936 and 1961. With some arabic ,german, and french language thrown in, a fun war-time adventure.
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DKosty12315 July 2016RKO produced this and a fair portion of it appears to be shot on their studio lots which makes sense considering this is 1944. George Sanders who played Simon Templar in the movies dons a formal white jacket here and stops a Nazi plot to unite Arab tribes against the allies.
Lenore Albert, well known to people as a fem-me fa-tale in Abbott & Costello meets Frankenstein, is the main lady involve with the conspirators. Alan Napier also known as Alfred the butler on the 1960's series Batman has a role in this one as well.
The director, interestingly enough, is a Russian National who only did a few US films as most of his other work was in Europe. While the film moves along quite quickly, there is not much to distinguish this one from many of RKO's B Pictures in the 1940's. It appears to have been cloned from WB's Casablanca but with a more minor cast.
It is an interesting war film archive but not a really distinguished production unless your a George Saunders fan for who it is a must see. -
Newspaper reporter George Sanders hurries through the airport--he's heading home from an assignment but is keeping his eyes open. In the first moments of his stay in Damascus, he encounters a number of questionable characters:
Lenore Aubert, inscrutable and beautiful in an exotic outfit complete with tall head wrap. Virginia Bruce, who hangs around the hotel looking nervous and appears to have some connection with Gene Lockhart, a gambler with dubious morals.
Robert Armstrong gets to the point as an American foreign service agent sent to keep Sanders from stirring up local mischief:
"You're a troublemaker," Armstrong tells Sanders bluntly. Sanders replies: "That's what Herr Goebbels said about me once. I was deeply flattered."
The plot is fairly straightforward. One of Sanders' colleagues is found murdered; Sanders sticks around to investigate. Soon Sanders realizes he is working to identify and thwart Nazi operatives. Determining who's who among the other players is neither simple nor safe.
Sanders is excellent--suave, clever and tough, this character is more serious-minded than the Saint or Falcon. Some good aerial photography over the desert adds excitement as the action builds.
Mystery, thriller, patriotic WWII picture....Overall, a solid and efficient production. -
bkoganbing10 December 2014The action of this film never got anywhere near the Arabian peninsula for a film titled Action In Arabia. I guess the alliteration got to the folks at RKO when they titled this film as the scene of the action is Damascus.
Which was after World War I Syria was a French mandate per the Versailles treaty. When France fell in 1940 the various colonial possessions had their own internal battles as to whether to declare loyalty to the Vichy regime or the Free French of DeGaulle. Then there were the various Arab tribes not to mention the Druse people in Syria who were not mentioned in the film all of them having their own idea on which horse to place their bets.
George Sanders is an American reporter who had been covering the backwoods theater of Iraq during World War II. He's stopping in Damascus, but he also recognizes Alan Napier as a Nazi agent on the plane with Lenore Aubert who is the daughter of influential sheik H.B. Warner. He sends a colleague with a bead on the story who unfortunately gets killed following it up.
Now Sanders is on a mission to see what's going on. With the help of Virginia Bruce and her father Gene Lockhart who we really never trust simply because its Gene Lockhart and you know the roles he's normally cast in. There's also Robert Armstrong of the American Foreign Service who's a bit thick but comes through in a crisis.
It's a decent action propaganda programmer from RKO though it should have been entitled Intrigue In Damascus. -
Basically, this is a Casablanca rip-off by RKO about passion and hidden Nazi sympathies in World War II Damascus. Ex-Simon Templer ("The Saint!") star George Sanders is on impeccable form as a New York reporter (with a British accent) on the trail of Nazi sympathisers in the desert. When his fellow reporter is murdered, Sanders (in a white dinner-jacket that predates Sean Connery's wearing of it in Goldfinger by some 20 years) sets off coolly to track down the killers, uncovering a plot in which the Nazis aim to unite the Arab tribes against the Allied forces. The story is pure hokum, but never mind. Some of the action and the audacity of the plot are breath-taking and anyone who enjoys The Saint or The Falcon films, or Casablanca, will probably enjoy it. It's only a pity Sanders didn't make more films as the hero -- this was his last. After this, he would only play the sneering villain and, eventually, become a real-life parody of his own screen persona. A pity, as he really could have been more hero than cad when the fit took him. If you like this movie, check out the novel by George Sanders (actually ghosted by Falcon screenwriter Craig Rice) called "Crime on My Hands" in which Sanders has to solve a muder on a film set. It's light, amusing and reminiscent of the Saint/Falcon films that made Sanders a star in the first place.
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bellino-angelo201420 June 2022Michael Gordon (George Sanders) is a reporter that passes through Damascus because of an assignment, and in the beginning he is seen with another reporter that after a while is found dead. So Michael decides to discover who is responsible for the murder of his friend and the trail brings him to a glamorous secret agent (Virginia Bruce) that is also in search of some Nazi saboteurs and end up being involved with the chieftain of the Bedouin tribes but ending ok despite all the dangeous situations.
While I am not into very old movies sometimes I watch them because they are often good. This was decent but nothing else, with Sanders that plays a nice guy (a rare role for him) and some funny situations. Well worth seeing despite it may look dated for 2022 standards. -
mark.waltz26 April 2020O.K., so he didn't spend his whole acting career during the period of World War II playing Nazi's, but it's nice to see him in a war propaganda film on the side of the allies and risking his life to expose a ring of Nazis in the middle east who killed his fellow reporter friend. just who are the bad guys in this film? With one exception, it's difficult to tell, and that exception is the portly Gene Lockhart, a jolly character actor who was typecast as pampas businessmen and cowards, several of them traitorous like his character here. Every time he speaks, the slime of his traitorism oozes out of his pores. He keeps trying to lure Sanders into a trap, and it's obvious is that Sanders is one step ahead of him, especially when he forces him onto a plane with him as a pilot, frightening Lockhart bye pretending that he's never flown before. That moment is hysterical just to watch Lockhart squirm.
For Sanders, the book is out on the beautiful Virginia Bruce who is a spy, but for what side? Then there's the beautiful Lenore Aubert, the daughter of a powerful Arab shiek (H.B. Warner), certain that the presence of Nazis in their country is dangerous for them. Ridiculously, Aubert where's a slew of beautiful fashions, looking completely unlike any sheik's daughter I've ever seen in a movie, and certainly against Arab law. There is indeed plenty of action in Arabia as the title suggests, but this is so outlandish and far-fetched at time that it almost seems like a serial with A-list actors. A plot twist involving Lockhart's character comes out of nowhere and contradicts everything up to that point. Even so, there's a lot of fun to be found in this anti-Nazi piece of nonsense, and between eye rolls, you will be gripping your seat as well as laughing at much of the absurdity. -
SnoopyStyle6 January 2024It's spring 1941. There is espionage and intrigue in Damascus. American reporter Michael Gordon (George Sanders) and his fellow reporter friend Chalmers are stopping over. He is being followed and observed. When his friend gets murdered, he stays to uncover the mystery and finds international intrigue.
This is an exotic spy thriller B-movie. The exotic aspect is strictly fake Hollywood. There is a large chase with a hundred camels, but I suspect that those are mostly stock footage. The spy thriller is fine and plenty twisty. The acting is solid for a B-movie. George Sanders is dapper and fits the role. He is part boy scout and part Bond. This is lower level espionage and it works well for wartime fare. -
boblipton9 January 2024Newsman George Sanders arrives in Damascus and gets involved in various Nazi-related goings-on.
This was planned as RKO's response to Casablanca. With new found wartime prosperity, the studio spent lavishly for them, borrowing Sanders from 20th Century-Fox and hiring Virginia Bruce, Gene Lockhart, and even a couple of actors who had performed in the Warner Brothers' production. Even the background score by Roy Webb will sound familiar. What they neglected to do, alas, was to get a script that actually compared to the cobbled-together affair that Curtiz and company had to contend with. There's plenty of action in this movie, with Nazis, murders, camels racing across the desert, et c., et c. What there isn't are people caught in situations in which they have to make moral decisions, people with pasts that define their characters and dilemmas. Sanders isn't world weary. He's indifferent, a man doing his job because it pays the bills. Everyone seems a bit disconnected from what's going on, like H. B. Warner reciting Islamic platitudes while his world crumbles, or Robert Armstrong who doesn't even know how to dress for the weather at the start.
Perhaps that is the theme of this movie: pay attention! It does not begin to compare with the problems of little people whose problems don't amount to a hill of beans in this crazy world. These people can take the plane out.
This is not to say this is a bad movie. If you're looking for the sort of movie that its title indicates, it's what's on the label, and it's well presented. It just ain't what won the other movie its Academy Award. -
**SPOILERS** Dull as dishwater WWII action film with the suave debonair as well as witty George Sanders as American reporter Michael Gordon in the just liberated, from the Vichy French, Syrian capital Damascus.
Gordon comes across an underground Nazi spy ring in the city after his friend and fellow American reporter William Chalmers, Robert Anderson, was found murdered with a knife stuck in his back. With the help of the woman of mystery and intrigue in the film Yvonne Danesco, Virginia Bruce, Gordon tracks the spy ring right to the steps to the swanky hotel he's staying at run by Nazi Aagent Eric Latimer, Alan Napler. Smelling that there's something rotten in Latimer's hotel, besides the food, Gordon goes into action despite being told by the US Ambassador Matthew Reed, Robert Armstrong, to take he first plane out of Damascus the very next day before he creates an nasty international incident.
***SPOILERS*** It's when Gordon gets wind from Yvonne, who's actually a Free French spy, that the Nazis are trying to incite a Muslim revolt against British and Free French rule in the Middle-East that he finally convinces Reed to get off his duff and get the US, who at the time was neutral in the war, to put the squeeze on the Nazis and their Arab supporters! Not waiting for the calvary-the US &UK-to come to his rescue Gordon single handedly puts an end to this clear and present danger to the allied war effort by getting the word out, through his exotically beautiful daughter Mounirash (Leone Aubert), to the top Arab Desert Chief Adbul El-Rashid, H.B Warner, that something is stinking up his camp and it's not the left behinds from his camels and horses. The deal or word is that old man El-Rashid is being suckered by one of his top lieutenants the sneaky and Nazi loving Eben Kareem, Jamiel Hasson, to join in with the Nazis in their war against the regions, The Middle-East, top colonialist powers the hated British and French! It's then that old man Rashid blew a fuse and ordered his men to put an end to this traitor in their mist, Eben Kareen, who soon ended up together with his Nazi friends dead in a fiery car crash!
P.S Among all the amazing feats preformed by George Sanders in the movie the by far most amazing was how he kept his sparkling white and immaculately pressed dinner jacker from as much as getting a speck of dirt on it all throughout the film! Sanders or Michael Gordon also was able to fly a plane as skillfully as any top air ace in the RAF USAAF or Luftwaffe. All that with having just under a dozen flying lessons under his belt! As for the fierce and revolting Arabs warriors in the movie the only thing that they seemed to be able to do was run around in circles, on their camels, in the Syrian Desert with no idea to where they were going! That's until the wise old desert chieftain Abdul El Rashid finally gave them some directions where to go! -
clanciai27 January 2022Léonide Moguy was an international film director with a talent for international films, but among his best works was the Italian and award-winning "Domani é troppo tardi" with Pier Angeli, which was also marked by great masterful scenes of mass upheavals, which this film also is dominated by. It is set in Damascus in Syria, far from Arabia, in the beginning of the first world war, so don't think for a moment this is a second world war spy thriller. There are spies indeed, most of them are disposed of on the way, but George Sanders is the only character the film is worth watching for. You do miss Lawrence of Arabia here, and the film was shot entirely in California. Also there are no Turks, although the Arabs are bellicose enough, and the story is not easy to follow in its tendency to constant over-complications. It is good entertainment though, and the two ladies are both oriental dreams of delight. You can give it a chance, but don't expect any lasting impressions.
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elizabethfinklerhanasaki17 February 2024Loads of fun to watch, with an opening and at least one actor (Marcel Dalio) cribbed from"Casablanca", plenty of familiar sets and locations, and lots of familiar actors in UNfamiliar situations. See the 1960s Batman's faithful Alfred, Alan Napier, playing a shady figure. See Robert Armstrong with no jungle or giant gorilla in sight. And best of all, see George Sanders playing a hero! Golly. The script is a routine wartime tale of spies and intrigue in an exotic location with a few intelligent touches. Believe it or not, it even reflects a tiny bit of understanding of Arabic customs and practices.