The Man From Cairo (1953)

Very very predictable, including the post credit scene !!!

Excellent but underrated film

Better Late Then Never

Like the great film, it's made with a great deal of visible affection both in front of and behind the camera.

***SPOILERS*** 1930's & 40's movie tough guy George Raft drifts into town-Algiers-as vacationing American defective Mike Canelli looking forward to see the sight of the North African nation. Only to get himself involved in a stolen gold & smuggling operation by local as well as French hoods that's been going on there since the end of WWII. At first mistaken by the city police chief Capt. Akhim Bay, Leon Lenoir, as US Government secret agent Charles Stark, Richard MacNamara, Canelli ends up being up to his neck in the gold smuggling operation that almost has him killed.It turns out that Canelli gets unexpected help from beautiful and exotic French-Algerian sexpot Lorraine Belogne, Gianna Marie Canale, whom he was introduced to in the most unusual circumstances: While she was taking a bath in her hotel-room. As it turned out that Lorraine had a recording made by the four fingered Emile Touchard, Guido Celano, the only survivor of the Free French outfit who hid 100 million in gold in the Sahara Desert in 1942 before Rommell's Afrika Corps or gangs of Arab marauders could get their hands on it. It takes a while for Canelli to convince Lorraine to take him into her confidence in getting her to believe that he's only trying to get the 100 million in gold back to the French Treasury department, as well as a $200,000.00 reword for it, not in him being a part of the criminal ring who want it all for themselves. And who are more then willing to kill anyone-like Lorraine-who gets in their way.****SPOILERS*** After getting kidnapped and worked over a number of times by members of the gold smuggling ring Canelli, battered and bruised, finally puts 2 and 2 together and with the help of the secret recording as well as the limping Professor Crespi- who it turns out is really the missing French GeneralDumont-,Alfredo Varelli,and finds out who the head man of the gold smuggling operation really is: Non other then respected French WWII freedom fighter Major La Blanc who's really international hoodlum Emile Moreau! With a train load of stolen gold about to check out of town with Moreau on it Canelli as well as Lorraine tries to stop his sudden departure only to have the local police lead by Capt Bey, who at first suspected Canelli was part of the god smuggling ring, making the pinch with Moreau, who by then saw that the gig was up, shot while trying to escape!

George Raft finished a series of pictures he made with anemic budget Lippert Studios with The Man From Cairo. And in the tradition of B movies the title has nothing to do with the film other than Raft changes planes in Cairo.Where he meets up with an old friend Richard McNamara, an American private detective who has been hired by the French government to locate some French gold that disappeared into the Algerian desert after the Nazis invaded. The bad guys mistake Raft for McNamara after Raft arrives in Algiers and the action begins.Other than a quick appearance by Greek actress Irene Papas who gets killed off right away, no other players of note to Americans are cast in this film. The Man From Cairo is slightly better than Raft's Outpost In Morocco with the action taking place in the same locale, but not much better.No one has ever accused George Raft of being a great actor, but he truly is lifeless in this film. I'm sure he was grateful for the paycheck and that's about it.One definitely for the money.

Well, that's the way this low-budget crime drama was promoted. Starring Screen Heavy George Raft (well past his prime) and filmed abroad in 1953, it was just an attempt by prolific B-movie producer Robert Lippert to exploit Raft's familiar name. Here, he is cast as a vacationer heading to Algeirs, for no reason in particular. There, he runs into considerable danger due to a case of mistaken identity. He is thought to be an agent investigating a gold theft that happened during the war. At times, it seems that almost everybody he runs into has had some connection to the robbery, (and most of them do) needlessly adding even more confusion to an already muddled plot. This is one film that needed all the exposition it could get, but, though details are hashed over endlessly, it doesn't make things any clearer. And though it was advertised as being ''filmed where it happened'', there isn't much of the expected exotic scenery. There are some sleazily authentic backgrounds, but little use is made of them. It might as well have been filmed in Idaho,for all the ''atmosphere'' it generates. This is a very claustrophobic looking production, which relies almost entirely on Raft's fast-fading charisma to keep it afloat. Sadly, he just doesn't make a very convincing hero (though he was a terrific villain) and he sounds as if he's imitating Humphrey Bogart. The rest of the cast is dubbed, including leading lady Gianna Maria Canale, who not only has no chemistry with Raft, but is almost twice his size, and moves like a robot. There is an early appearance by the great Greek actress Irene Papas,but she's wasted in a nothing role.Strangely, the movie retains enough interest to keep you watching to the end, but that's not saying much. And neither this film, nor the other Lippert quickies Raft did,generated any new interest in him. When this one reached the US, it landed on the bottom half of a double bill, supporting another Lippert production ''Sins Of Jezebel''. They are all available on DVD from VCI ENTERTAINMENT. And the transfers are better than the movies. That's pretty ironic-In most cases, it's usually the other way around. Incidentally, this one was advertised with one of the most striking posters a Lippert feature ever had. Too bad the advertising was superior to the product. Well, it's not as if THAT'S never happened before, time and time again...

i am a real sucker for casbah and foreign legion movies. they were the fodder of my childhood. i approached this one with a salutary glass of rum and high hopes. the rum stood up; the film did not.i have been waiting to add a good george raft flic to my collection of old b&w's. despite his reputation i was sure one existed somewhere. this one wasn't it. the studio forgot to hire writers: the dialogue comes across as if pronounced phonetically by actors unfamiliar with English, reading from scrawls on large pieces of cardboard dimly seen in the lower screen. actions are equally grotesque. the required motions as mechanical and stiff as if choreographed by engineers using tinkertoy models and expecting no greater dexterity from the cast.the words fresh, interesting, exciting, captivating, even interesting, have no place in describing this movie. a 'b' film that deserves every slur it has duly earned.