Sadly Over-hyped

At first rather annoying in its heavy emphasis on reenactments, this movie ultimately proves fascinating, simply because the complicated, highly dramatic tale it tells still almost defies belief.

It's simply great fun, a winsome film and an occasionally over-the-top luxury fantasy that never flags.

The best films of this genre always show a path and provide a takeaway for being a better person.

I think the only saving grace for this film is that is when it was made...1933. Basically you get a suave young lady coming to Cairo to marry her husband. She seems to love him enough then a ruthless womanizer who happens to be a guide/thief in Cairo continually professes his love for her but she resists.They let you know early on that he's a inveterate womanizer but by the end the Myrna Loy character falls in love with him. I mean after he lies to her consistently and she knows it, constantly undermining things between her and her husband, and she knows it...constantly kissing her and she doesn't expect or want it...then the peak of it all, he kidnaps her and forces marriage from her from his tribe. She says yes then turns the tables on him at the ceremony. She gets to leave his ways and she then informs the Egyptian authorities who then set out to catch him (Of course they don't).After all this you already know the ending. There's 2 to 3 minutes left and she finally gets alone in her room ready to get married to her future husband and guess who arrives? You got it, Mr. Charm himself. We then proceed to see them floating down the Nile lying in each others arms.I can only think of this film as offensive to women, in 1 way, is this character so weak minded that she would leave her future husband she loves for a guy who does everything he does to her in the way of lying, cheating and kidnapping and then she decides.."Oh well, I'll go with him cause now I love him."? It's just ridiculous. I can see why this one isn't very popular. It's a dud.If you wanna see where Myrna Loy starts to shine, fast forward a year and start on the "Thin Man" movies. They're a class unto themselves.

I love lurid, trashy pre-Codes. Love 'em a lot! And I usually love Ramon Navarro. But I hated him in this movie, and I hated this movie.We are supposed to believe that Myrna Loy's character (Diana) loves Ramon Navarro's character (Jamil), but we are never given any valid reason as to *why* she might feel this way about him. Jamil is a creep, through and through. Not a charming cad. Not a dangerous bad boy. Just a creep.Jamil lures Diana to a house under false pretenses and lures another man "Pasha" there too, letting Pasha think that Diana is hot for him and wants to meet for a tryst. Jamil then hands Pasha a whip as Pasha enters Diana's room. Off-screen we hear three blood-curdling screams. Pasha has used the whip on Diana. Niiiiiiice. (insert eyeroll here)Jamil then abducts Diana and takes her across the desert. In the evening he rapes her. OK, there I said it. Do not believe the other reviewers who say that Diana wanted it. She didn't, and the movie makes that clear to us. She rescinds from Jamil's touch and tries to fight him off. In the next scene (after the deed has been done), we see her sitting down with her clothes torn and tears on her cheeks. Jamil approaches her and she recoils and flinches in fear. So you tell me: rape or consensual sex? And at the end of the flick, she runs out on her own wedding to a fairly nice guy who clearly loves her, and runs off voluntarily with Jamil. Why???? The movie gives us not one good reason why we should root for this couple or feel sympathy for Jamil.It was just disgusting and vile. And not in a good way, like oh say Kongo or Three on a Match or Sign of the Cross or The Unknown or any other late 20s / early 30s really great lurid films are. This one was just pure trash. Don't waste your time!

I can't believe the reviews so far on this movie on IMDb. So far, one reviewer gives it a score of 1 and two others a 10!! The simple fact is that very, very , very few films deserve a 10 or 1 but reviewers routinely throw these numbers about without thinking. After all, there's no way that anyone could place this movie among GONE WITH THE WIND, THE BEST YEARS OF OUR LIVES or even STAR WARS just as there is no way this film deserves the same rating as BABY GENIUSES or PLAN 9 FROM OUTER SPACE!!! Like most movies, a realistic score would definitely be somewhere in between.Now this isn't to say that the film reviewers were totally wrong. The one perceptive person who thought the movie was evil because it propagates "the rape myth" is 100% correct--the film is terrible because it seems to indicate that the way to a girl's heart is to kidnap and probably rape her--or at least whip her into submission!! In the 21st century I cannot understand how anyone could rate a movie that treats women like cattle with a score of 10! And, people who would kind of scare me.On the other hand, the film is gorgeous. The cinematography and costuming is incredible and made Myrna Loy (often the "nice girl" in films of the 1930s) into an incredibly alluring figure. Her bathing scene is simply one of the sexiest scenes in screen history--not so much for what it showed, but how it showed so much without showing everything as well as not being pornographic but artful and beautiful. She was, in many ways, like a modern Venus de Milo. Plus, when Ramon Navarro isn't busy trying to rape Ms. Loy, he is a very, very dashing and gorgeous figure himself. So beautiful and compelling that he was like a better and more romantic version of Valentino from THE SHEIK. Plus, given that Mr. Navarro was in real life gay, he deserves a lot of kudos for his convincing romantic scenes. The problem, though, is that the writers didn't know what to do with this romantic figure. One minute he is kind of funny and clever, the next he is an ardent suitor, the next he is selling her into sexual slavery and the next he's a sex offender trying to rape her!!!! The fact is the movie strongly implies he DID rape her (though it is a bit vague in this respect). And, having this confusing package ruins the wonderful romantic elements of the film. After all, what's romantic about a rapist or spousal abuse?! This is in the end, a complete muddled mess that could have been a wonderful film. With a re-write to remove the sick aspects of the film (the physical and sexual abuse AND Ms. Loy's ultimate choice to run away with this sick, twisted freak after being abused), it could have been among the most memorable and romantic films of the age. As it is, mostly it will be remembered for the pre-Code titillating bathing scene with Ms. Loy.

Kidnapped in the Egyptian desert, a beautiful American finds herself alternately loving & loathing THE BARBARIAN who abducted her.Taken solely as romantic adventure, this lavish little MGM film has much to offer, including good acting & fine production values. Considered only from the standpoint of the plot, the story is ludicrous, what with a heroine suffering histrionics among the sand dunes & a hero who is a completely unprincipled cad.Ramon Novarro does well in the title role, a reprise of his silent film THE ARAB (1924). MGM's Mexican star adds yet another ethnic stripe to his thespian escutcheon, this time portraying an Egyptian prince. Looking a little like a Valentino clone, he gets to sing & act in a variety of languages. Myrna Loy, who only gets billing below the title, is excellent as the Englishwoman caught-up in the allures & entrapments of the Nile Desert. After paying her dues in roles like this, she would very soon become a major Hollywood movie star.In the very able supporting cast Reginald Denny plays Loy's stuffy fiancé; Edward Arnold is an unctuous pasha; Hedda Hopper appears briefly as an American tourist very pleased with Novarro's attentions. Wonderful old Sir C. Aubrey Smith is well cast as Loy's eccentric uncle and elderly, tart-tongued Louise Closser Hale steals every scene she's in as Loy's peppery companion.This film is definitely pre-Production Code vintage, a fact made plainly obvious by Loy's lounge-in-the-tub scene. Considered rationally, many of THE BARBARIAN's implications are rather disturbing. That Loy could only be happy with the man who has humiliated, beaten, abused & raped her are decidedly unwholesome ideas to come from the pen of screenwriter - and liberated woman - Anita Loos.Novarro sings 'Love Songs of the Nile' quite well, but interminably. If it sounds suspiciously like his previous 'Pagan Love Song' hit, it may be because the two songs share the same composers, Nacio Herb Brown & Arthur Freed.