The Plot.Capt. Gerard, greatest lover in the Foreign Legion, is assigned to escort an emir's daughter to her father's mountain citadel and find out what he can about the emir's activities. Gerard enjoys his work with lovely Cara, but arrives to find rebellion brewing. Can the garrison be reinforced in time? Stupid plot for a stupid movie that is totally miscast. The sets look like the same sets laurel & Hardy used when they when into the Foreign Legion.

This is an odd film from the onset due to the odd casting choices. First, having an older (and decidedly lazier) George Raft in the romantic lead seemed silly, though most of his manly roles at this point his his career seemed to think he was 10-15 years younger. Second, and this is the most serious, who would have thought that Marie Windsor could look like the Emir's daughter?! She looks about as North African as Zsa Zsa Gabor and sounded like a débutante! The film begins with Raft being asked to go on a special mission to escort the sultry Ms. Windsor to her father at his fortress. Why was Raft chosen? Well, according to the film he is some sort of super-stud ladies' man and the Commanding Officer wanted Raft to romance Windsor and get her "on our side"!! Really. I'm not making this up, folks! George Raft is a major stud in this film(!). Naturally, at first they don't get along but then later they are quite snuggly (a standard cliché in such films). When she discovers that her Daddy, the Emir, is a nasty jerk, she helps Raft. What a dame. Well, more like what an anachronistic dame--one who acts like no woman in her situation would have acted like.After the romantic stuff, the film becomes a movie about French Foreign Legion troops being besieged in the desert--like BEAU GESTE, ABBOTT AND COSTELLO IN THE FOREIGN LEGION, BEAU HUNKS and a dozen other films. NO surprises here and it looks almost like a slow motion and dull version of the standard "White man in the desert" film.

Let me start by saying this was not a "Beau Geste" by any means - it was set in Morocco and the locations looked very good, but that is the end of the "penny section!" I had always found George Raft to be completely wooden, and he proved it again in this one, but he did show me he was a very good dancer (clearly the highlight for him in this epic!). And well into his 50's when this was made took away any believability for him to be a romantic hero. The role, had it not been made on a shoe string, needed a Tyrone Power or a Errol Flynn to make it worthwhile. Marie Windsor looked like she wanted to be somewhere else, while Akim Tamiroff was clearly the best performer in the cast. Seeing Raft "act" makes me so glad to rejected the leads in "High Sierra" and "The Maltese Falcon" - had he not done so, they would not be genuine movie classics.

When I read the book The George Raft File I was shocked to learn that this Foreign Legion epic was actually shot in Morocco in actual locations with the cooperation of the Moroccan Royal Family and the Legion. If the French were looking for a recruiting tool for the Foreign Legion, they'd have been better doing a remake of Paramount's Morocco or Beau Geste.Some elements of those two films get into Outpost in Morocco. The story such as it is has George Raft in a role that should have been Tyrone Power's if it had been a better script seducing lovely Marie Windsor, daughter of one of the local sheiks. Windsor's father is Eduard Franz who's stirring up rebellion against the French. Can Marie stop it and save her beloved Raft at the same time. If you care you might give this a look.This film has the look and feel of a tax write off. Everybody here just goes through the motions. Raft is too wooden to seriously be considered as a romantic figure and Windsor does so much better when she's playing bad girls. Akim Tamiroff as a transplanted Cossack in the Legion comes off best, a dubious distinction for this film.I guess the American cast also did it for a free trip to Morocco. Good a reason as any.