Outpost in Morocco

Outpost in Morocco (1949)

Actually filmed in the heretofore forbidden zones of Morocco with the roughest, toughest sons-of-adventure ... The French Foreign Legion !

Captain 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.

Date of release
1949-05-02
TMDB
5.3 / 10 (11)
Runtime
1h 32m
Genres
Action, Adventure
Director
Robert Florey

Casting

Interesting facts

Outpost in Morocco is a 1949 American action adventure film directed by Robert Florey, starring George Raft and Marie Windsor. Paul Gerard (Raft), a Moroccan Spahi officer and his French Foreign Legion garrison, holds off attacks from the native tribes of the Emir of Bel-Rashad, the father of Cara (Windsor), the woman he loves. As a rarity amongst American films of the Foreign Legion genre, the Legion cooperated with the producers. A second unit led by Robert Rossen filmed scenes in Morocco. Some of the large-scale action scenes of the film were reused in Fort Algiers and Legion of the Doomed.

Production

Outpost in Morocco was originally meant to be made by RKO Pictures in 1939, based on a story by producer Joseph Ermolieff. It was cancelled following the declaration of World War II, leading to Ermolieff suing RKO.

Ermolieff later succeeded in setting up the film with actor George Raft and producer Sam Bischoff, who had just created a company, Star Films, who had produced the film Intrigue. Outpost in Morocco would be their second film. (The company intended to make Mississippi Gambler and a fourth film set in Panama.) It was not a typical film for Raft.

Ermolieff and Star films created the company, Moroccan Films, and obtained finance from Pathe Cinemas of France.

The company got permission to actually film in Morocco using the real Foreign Legion. Raft travelled to Morocco in December 1947 with second unit director Richard Rosson, French-speaking cinematographer Lucien Androit, and French technicians. They spent nearly five months filming battle scenes and chases in Morocco, chiefly around the base at Bal Achard. Raft returned from Morocco in March 1948 with 85,000 feet of film.

The filmmakers spent the next few months sifting through the footage, actually completing the shooting script (the Moroccan footage was filmed on the basis of a long treatment), and finding local locations that matched the Moroccan footage. Interiors were shot later in the year at the Samuel Goldwyn Studio in Los Angeles. Marie Windsor was borrowed from Enterprise Films to play the female lead.

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