Sirocco (1951) **1/2

Release Date: June 13, 1951

Running Time: 98 Minutes

Starring: Humphrey Bogart, Lee J. Cobb, Märta Torén

Directed By: Curtis Bernhardt

What happens when the Hollywood studio system attempts to make a exotic location film without actually going to that location? You run the risk of getting a film that is so fake looking that it undermines anything else you do in it. With a good production crew and the right casting you can overcome that problem. That wasn’t done in 1951’s Sirocco, a film that cry’s out in every scene that it was filmed entirely on Hollywood sound stages. This is a real disappointment as there are many good elements to this film but they do not add up enough to overcome the movie trickery. 

The movie takes place in Damascus 1925 during the French colonial rule in Syria. French soldiers are dealing with guerrilla warfare against the native Syrians who are being supplied with weapons and ammunition via smugglers. Military authorities initially plan to retaliate against the killing of French soldiers by executing five Syrians for every French man killed. Colonel Feroud ( Lee J. Cobb) convinces his leader General LeSalle (Everett Sloane) to alter that plan and simply detail them for 48 hours instead. 

Feroud is interested in negotiating peace between the French and Syrians. He calls together five of the city’s profiteers and accuses them of overcharging for their goods including much needed food. When he informs them that they will be selling their supplies for greatly reduced rates only Harry Smith (Humphrey Bogart) appears willing to go along with it. An investigation into Harry’s background shows him to be a WWI war hero. 

Feroud presses for an audience with Syrian rebel leader Emir Hassan (Onslow Stevens). General LaSalle refuses to let him make contact in person so when Feroud sends another soldier in his place that man turns up murdered. Meanwhile, Balukjiaan (Zero Mostel) has been picked up by the French soldiers and accused of gunrunning for the Syrians. He denies it, pointing his finger at Harry Smith instead. Harry, who has begun making advances towards Violeta (Märta Torén), mistress to Feroud, finds out he has been fingered and must flee the country. Violeta wants to go with him after pleading with Feroud to allow her to leave and getting denied. Reluctantly, Harry agrees to take her with him.

This could have been a stellar film. It has all the right elements, intrigue, colorful characters, a gruff and selfish leading man who can be seen as both amoral and having a conscience. When pressed late in the film to choose between certain escape and the very real possibility of his death, he doesn’t take the easy road even though there is nothing standing in his way. This makes Harry a bit of an enigma, a man who we don’t quite know how to take. On the one hand he is selling guns and ammunition to the rebels, profiting off the killing of French soldiers. On the other, he is willing to risk capture and execution to help Violeta escape the country. It’s also his plan, a plan that has a high risk of his own death, that frees Feroud from the Syrian rebels once Feroud manages to secure a meeting with the rebel leader and is taken captive. 

As mentioned above, nothing here feels authentic. Films like The African Queen used real locals to build a sense of realism. Films like Casablanca, tied down to studio backlots and sound stages benefited by casting real refugees from across the globe to lend an authenticity to the background characters. Sirocco does none of this. None of the French have even a hint on an accent. We’re expected to believe that these men are French soldiers when they don’t even come across as even generic European, let alone French. The sole exception is Swedish born Märta Torén who breathes fresh air into her scenes and really sells her deep unhappiness with her lot in life. Everyone else in the main cast is American and doing nothing to disguise it. 

Sirocco struggles to build up any genuine excitement in it’s story, then squanders what little it has is melodrama and scene after scene of people talking rather than doing. With interesting dialogue this can work but it doesn’t have that going for it either. It bogs down in scenes that barely move the plot along and take too long to do even that. In the end it falls short of being boring but is never quite lively, either.