Baroud (1933) - film review

André Duval and Si Ahmed are fellow sergeants in the Spahis, the Algerian native cavalry of the French Army.  Duval falls in love with a native Moroccan woman, without realising she is Zinah, the sister of Si Ahmed and daughter of the Berber chieftain Si Allal.  Zinah’s other admirer is Si Amaro, the leader of a band of ruthless native bandits, who intends to wipe out Si Allal and his people in a bloody attack on their casbah…

Baroud is the last film to be made by Rex Ingram, the renowned British film director who made some magnificent contributions to the silent era of cinema.  It is also his one and only sound film, and this at least in part explains why its quality fails to match up to Ingram’s earlier achievements.  The epic battle scene at the end of the film, filmed entirely on location in Morocco, shows Ingram at his best – although the mismatch between sound and image is jarring.  Where the film is far less successful is in its characterisation – the characters are neither engaging nor convincing and for the most part the film drags for want of a decent plot.  The frequent, generally inept, comic interludes are also slightly off-putting, giving the impression that someone has randomly spliced together a serious historical drama with a crass low-budget farce.  Ingram co-directed the film with his wife, Alice Terry, and plays the role of Duval in the English version (he also made a French version in parallel).  The film was not a commercial success, prompting Ingram to give up film making and resume his career as a sculptor and writer in America.

© James Travers 2007

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