I grew up listening to Gordon MacRae sing The Desert Song on an album that also featured him in the musical Roberta. The soprano in both cases was Lucille Norman, and both recordings were wonderful. So it was with great interest that I watched "The Desert Song."
Having myself appeared in "The New Moon," I can tell you that on stage, these operettas only work if done tongue in cheek. If one were filming them for today's audiences, I suspect they would have to be done that way as well.
However, for beautiful music, "The Desert Song" is operetta at its best.
The story is not unfamiliar -- just think Superman or Zorro.
Shiek Yousseff (Raymond Massey) secretly plots to overthrow the French, all the while pretending to be their friend. Opposing him are the Riffs and their leader, El Khobar. El Khobar is in reality Professor Paul Bonnard who is making a study of the desert. The Riffs' attacks on supply trains keep the villages in food.
General Birabeau (Ray Collins) of the French Foreign Legion arrives to investigate, and his daughter Margot (Kathryn Grayson) accompanies him. He hires Bonnard to tutor her. Margot, meanwhile, has eyes for a Legionnaire captain, Claud Fontaine (Steve Cochran). El Khobar kidnaps Margot until he can convince her that Yousseff is not on the side of the French, but Yousseff's men attack the camp and take Margot prisoner.
This is different from the actual operetta, in which Birabeau has a son, not a daughter; his son, Pierre, is actually the Riff leader The Red Shadow. In the operetta, Margot is engaged to Claud Fontaine, but the Red Shadow is in love with her.
Gordon MacRae and Kathryn Grayson lend their beautiful voices to songs such as "The Desert Song," "One Alone," and "Romance." Grayson is not quite bubbly enough as the flirty Margot. I can't believe that with that size voice, she sang Butterfly on an opera stage, but I guess she did.
It's a pretty production, with Dick Wesson, playing a reporter, providing some comic relief. In the operetta he has a girlfriend, Susan.
This is the kind of movie where you enjoy the music and the singing. Well worth watching.
