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Friday, December 20, 2019

THE STEEL LADY (1953)

With a solid international rep from VARIETY/’25 (German/UFA), writer/director E. A Dupont had another prestige item in England on PICCADILLY/’29 before sound & Hollywood reduced him to journeyman status & irregular employment. Yet three decades later, no apologies needed on this penultimate effort, a swell Tall Tale ‘boy's own’ adventure, a sort of Near East Western with oil prospectors on the frontier; Bedouin nomads as hostile locals; and a prop plane doing cavalry duty on a last minute rescue. Neatly handled on a tight budget, Dupont gets strong work from rough, tough Rod Cameron when his scouting plane goes down in the Sahara Desert, stranding Rod & crew (radioman Tab Hunter, tippler John Dehmer, grousing Richard Erdman). With water & hope fading, they stumble upon a buried WWII tank lost for a decade, and holding a secret cache of priceless jewels stolen from an Arab Sheik. Yikes! I mean . . . Yippee! Soon, those ‘friendly’ Bedouins they thought were giving them a hand (and water) show their true colors: they’re out to grab the gems before the rightful Arab tribe hears of the rediscovery. Silly, but good fun most of the way, with our little crew acting noble or ignoble as needed to keep things interesting. With cinematographer Floyd Crosby, just off HIGH NOON/’52, finding plenty of atmosphere, it’s worth a look . . . just not too closely at that palm tree cyclorama backing the desert oasis!

DOUBLE-BILL: With a big budget & all-star cast, FLIGHT OF THE PHOENIX/’65 has a similar vibe.

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