User Reviews

It's obvious that old scripts never got shredded in the B movie industry. They got name changes, different locations and certain action scenes moved around to make the film seem fresh. With evil local ruler George Keymas suppressing his people, the mysterious "flame" travels the countryside trying to bring his rule down. Thinking he's killed the flame (a foreign legion officer), he now tries to bring down their successor, unaware that this rebel is actually a woman, the very diminutive but buxom Denise Darcel, who gets help from the British officer Patric Knowles. With her bullets over Bombay and his military skill, they seem a natural pair to bring Keymas. Two bumbling traitors betray her identity, putting the whole mission in danger. With a narrative that's often silly and forced, this is barely passable as an action adventure, made in a comic strip manner with one note villains and dashing heroes too good to be true. This might have appealed to me more when I was 13, but now, it goes overboard in it's idiocy and predictability.

What would otherwise be a very routine Sam Katzman opus is considerably enlivened by a screenplay by the "B" picture prolific Robert E. Kent/"James B. Gordon". Well, I guess all of us have at least one good story in our heads – or maybe it was actually mainly the work of story-writer Sol Shor whose movie credits are far more impressive, ranging from Dick Tracy Returns, Zorro's Fighting Legion, Adventures of Captain Marvel, and Ghost of Zorro to this effort which happens to be his last. Anyway, the screenplay provides some neatly pointed comic opportunities for players like George Keymas, Joseph Mell, Gregory Gaye and Edward Clark, so it ends up as a moderately entertaining Saturday matinée item with attractive Technicolor photography (a split credit to Ray Cory on exteriors and Henry Freulich for the studio footage). The movie has enough action to satisfy the kiddies, but maybe a bit too much romance for the youngsters who are also not likely to appreciate that the screenwriters are also aiming at a tongue-in-cheek approach, so it doesn't really matter that Patric Knowles is a bit old for the hero and Denise Darcel a bit too plump for a Hollywood heroine. I'll also agree that the sets look a little too glossily pasteboard, but it must be admitted that the various twists and turns of the plot do make for a suspenseful climax. The comic business with the two spies also offers fair entertainment, despite the fact that Seymour Friedman's direction, whilst moderately capable, is also serenely dull.