PRINCESS OF THE NILE
US, 1954, 70 minutes, Colour.
Debra Paget, Jeffrey Hunter, Michael Rennie, Michael Ansara.
Directed by Harmon Jones.
Just matinee material from the 1950s, at a time when this kind of costume romp was popular and Cinemascope was making its mark. This one is rather absurd in its characters and action as well as sometimes banal or anachronistic in its dialogue, of reliance on one stage and calling the dancer wench (or hellcat).
The film belongs to Debra Paget especially because of the many dance sequences she is given in the short running time, which were described at the time, and since, as ‘scantily clad’. And they are rather gymnastic in style.
The setting is the 13th century in Egypt, not the time of Cleopatra, as we might have been led to expect. The caliph of Baghdad reigns supreme over the Middle East. There is an uprising in Egypt, led by a Shaman who is poisoning the prince and taking control of the country. There is a Bedouin leader who is in league with him, trying to blame the local rivals in the eyes of Baghdad. He is played by Michael Rennie.
Debra Paget appears first as the local dancer but then is identified as the princess who is leading the rebels. She swims out of the palace pool into another
which leads her to the club where she dances under another name. She has a number of handmaidens (with the scantily clad attraction as well). Needless to say, she is a feisty princess and attacks an unknown noble, stabbing him, later discovering that he is the son of the caliph. He is determined to find out who stabbed him and killed his assistant. The Bedouin leader insists it is an Egyptian whereas he himself killed the assistant.
There is intrigue, there is dancing, there are sword fights, there are betrayals, everything working out politically and romantically at the end.
The film was directed by Harmon Jones, who had a career in television direction after making some films in the early 1950s including as young as you feel, the bloodhounds of Broadway.
Not particularly memorable and not particularly good.
