Desert Legion is an adventure film released in June 1953 – from Universal-International.

It was Alan Ladd’s first film for Universal since becoming a star. It was a one-picture deal and gave Ladd a percentage of the profits, a relatively novel thing at the time. (He split profits with the studio 50-50.)

The USA gross at the Box Office is stated to be $1,650,000 so you would think is was profitable for both studio and star.

 

It’s a typical action film with Alan Ladd in the French Foreign Legion on patrol and attempting to track down a local bandit who no one can seem to locate.

On patrol one day after a couple of raiders, Captain Paul Lartal (Alan Ladd) realises too late that he has led his men into a trap. A bullet hits his forehead, and he is rendered unconscious. Meanwhile his soldiers being slaughtered by menacing bandits…

He is wounded and when he comes to he finds himself with a lovely desert princess Arlene Dahl who is nursing him back to health.   She looked even lovelier in this  lush Technicolor print

 

 

The next thing he knows he’s back at Legion headquarters with this story about a lost city in the desert.

Akim Tamiroff plays Alan Ladd’s friend and colleague who deserts him to find this lost city. Richard Conte is also in the cast

Universal made numerous films with Jon Hall and Maria Montez at that time, or just before, which we have mentioned on this site before, and so had plenty of middle eastern sets so Alan Ladd agreed to do Desert Legion using some of those same sets I would think. Action scenes include cliffhanging and a spear-throwing competition.

 

 

‘Desert Legion’ is really a romantic desert fantasy which for the most part is quite entertaining.

 The last half hour of the film was more action packed and in some way compensated for the slowness of  first hour

 

Director: Joseph Pevney

Writers: Irving Wallace (screenplay), Lewis Meltzer (screenplay)

 

Stars: Alan Ladd, Richard Conte, Arlene Dahl, Akim Tamiroff

 

 

Based on a 1927 novel by Georges Arthur Surdez who was  especially noted for his French Foreign Legion tales

 

Ladd had broken his hand during a fight scene towards the end of his most recent film The Iron Mistress, but recovered to begin work on Desert Legion on 7 July 1952.