Cast overview, first billed only: | |||
Cary Grant | ... |
Michael Andrews
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Claude Rains | ... | ||
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Gertrude Michael | ... | |
Kathleen Burke | ... | ||
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Colin Tapley | ... |
Lt. Prescott
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Margaret Swope | ... |
Nurse Rowland
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Billy Bevan | ... |
Cpl. Foster
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Georges Renavent | ... |
Turkish major
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Jameson Thomas | ... |
Cullen
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Nick Shaid | ... |
Haidor
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Meyer Ouhayou | ... |
Armenian patriarch
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Frazer Acosta | ... |
Armenian officer
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Malay Clu | ... |
Armenian guard
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Robert Adair | ... |
Sergeant in general's office
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William Brown | ... |
Sgt. Bates
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In World War I, British-officer Michael Andrews is captured by a band of Kurdish raiders on the Eastern Front, and is rescued by a man calling himself John Stevenson, although he refuses to tell his name to Andrews. The two men form a strange friendship, and help save an entire Kurdish village from a massacre and also avert a surprise attack on the British army-unit stationed there. Andrews suffers a wounded leg and is sent to the British military-hospital in Cairo. He falls in love with a nurse, Rosemary Haydon, and she with him, but she is married although she has not seen nor heard from her husband in over three years. It is at this point that the man who saved Andrews' life turns up to claim his wife, who is Rosemary. The latter bids adieu to Andrews who does not know that the man he considers his best friend is also the husband of the woman he loves. But, by pure coincidence and chance, both Andrews and Rosemary's husband come face-to-face again in a remote garrison that is under... Written by Les Adams <longhorn1939@suddenlink.net>
This is a pretty bog-standard tale, and you've almost certainly seen it done before. Two men who fall in love with the same woman during wartime. Claude Rains plays the stodgy but noble-minded husband while Cary Grant is the suave outsider. Yadda, yadda, yadda.
What is absolutely WONDERFUL about this movie is that the studio tried to save money by recycling scenes from an earlier, silent version of the same (?) film. On paper it made a sort of sense, the earlier film had enjoyed a bigger budget with lots of extras and so on. Unfortunately no-one took into account the film stock and frames per second differences between the two films.
So there you are, watching what seems like a low-budget pot boiler. Suddenly you're thrust into a blurry, gritty shot of hundreds of natives moving VERY quickly and jerkily for a couple of seconds. And then we're back to normal tempos and film stock.
OK, it's not much to write home about but it's quite a fun effect.