Would you please put a shirt on. – Bengazi (1955)
Bengazi (1955) Review – Desert Adventure or Noir Disaster?
IMDb.com lists Bengazi (1955) as a Film Noir. Is it?
Let’s start at the beginning.
Hello to all of the classic people who are returning. I am glad you are back. I want to welcome any new visitors. Today, on Classic Movie Review, we are taking on Bengazi (1955). IMDb.com has this movie rate at 5.1,[1] which I feel is generous. On Rottentomatoes.com, has nothing on the Tomatometer and only 10 percent audience score.[2]
This was a hard watch, and by that, I mean, it is not very good, and I had to force myself to go back and keep watching. It’s terrible. It has some decent actors, many of whom have strong Film Noir credentials. So, let’s go there.
Actors – Bengazi (1955)
Richard Conte played the rough criminal John Gillmore. We first discussed Conte in the great anti-war movie They Came to Cordura (1959). He was also featured in two Film Noirs, The Blue Gardenia (1953) and Thieves’ Highway (1949). Later roles include the crime drama Ocean’s Eleven (1960) and The Godfather (1972).
Victor McLaglen played Robert Emmett Donovan, an older drunk. I have mentioned McLaglen in several reviews, but only as a director, not an actor. These films include Chisum (1970), McLintock! (1963), The Undefeated (1969), and Hellfighters (1968). His best-known acting role is probably as Squire Danaher in The Quiet Man (1952).
Richard Carlson, an American actor, was in the role of Scottish Inspector Levering. I first covered Carlson in the classic horror film Creature from the Black Lagoon (1954). Carlson has good sci-fi cred with It Came from Outer Space (1953) and The Valley of Gwangi (1969). He also appeared in Film Noirs Fly-By-Night (1942), The Amazing Mr. X (1948), Behind Locked Doors (1948), and The Sound of Fury (1950).
Mala Powers played Aileen Donovan, a doe-eyed child trying to reconnect with her father. Powers has a long history of Film Noir and noir adjacent films. These films include Edge of Doom (1950), Outrage (1950), City That Never Sleeps (1953), Death in Small Doses (1957), and Man on the Prowl (1957).
Great tough guy character actor Richard Erdman played Englishman Selby. Erdman had a big role as the barracks chief in the POW film Stalag 17 (1953). Of course, that film was directed by Billy Wilder, the director responsible for Film Noirs Ace in the Hole (1951), Sunset Blvd. (1950), The Lost Weekend (1945), and Double Indemnity (1944).
I have covered Erdman in several Film Noirs, including The Devil Thumbs a Ride (1947), Cry Danger (1951), and The Blue Gardenia (1953).
Pedro Gonzalez Gonzalez had a tiny role as Kamal. Gonzalez is best known for showing up in the background of John Wayne movies. As far as noir, he had a bit in Borderline (1950) and The Ring (1952).
Hillary Brooke was cast in the tiny role of Nora Nielson, essentially a woman lying in bed. Brooke has many Film Noir and noir adjacent films. These films include Ministry of Fear (1944), Strange Impersonation (1946), Bodyhold (1949), Confidence Girl (1952), Mexican Manhunt (1953), and The House Across the Lake (1954), AKA Heat Wave.
Story – Bengazi (1955)
The story begins with John Gillmore (Richard Conte) and Basim (Jay Novello) stealing a lorry from a military compound in Benghazi, Libya. Military Insp. Levering (Richard Carlson) visits Gillmore’s bar, suspecting that he is responsible for the lorry theft.
Levering has a strange interaction with Nora Nielson (Hillary Brooke), Gillmore’s live-in girlfriend.
Later, Levering is present when ex-military and recidivist criminal Selby (Richard Erdman) is released from prison. Selby is ordered not to leave the city limits.
Gillmore’s partner, Robert Emmett Donovan (Victor McLaglen), determines that Gillmore stole the lorry and wants to go along for the forthcoming adventure. Gillmore agrees and tells Selby that he knows where a hoard of gold is located. It is in a mosque near a desert oasis. Gillmore says that if Donovan contributes 100 gallons of gas, he can join for one-third of the take.
Before they can leave, Aileen Donovan (Mala Powers) arrives in Benghazi looking to reconnect with her estranged father, Robert Emmett Donovan. She is interviewed by Insp. Levering, who warns her about the dangers of the city.
Aileen meets her father, and they have a cute reunion. Later, Gillmore reminds Donovan that they are leaving at midnight for their desert adventure. Donovan tells Aileen that Gillmore is forcing the older man to go along. Aileen confronts Gillmore about the trip. He kisses her. She slaps his face. Donovan gives Aileen a ticket to leave and says he will meet her soon.
Levering and his man, Peters (Maurice Hill), are in the bar watching the comings and goings. Kamal (Pedro Gonzalez Gonzalez) is darting around in the background. Levering quizzes Aileen about her father and then tries to get a date with her.
In the lorry, Gillmore and Donovan pick up Selby outside the city wall. Selby says he shook off the cop who was following him. Levering is shown the dead body of the cop back in a city alley.
The trio stops in the desert to wait for sunrise before continuing their journey. Isn’t that backwards? Gillmore sees that Selby is wearing the dead cop’s watch. Gillmore gives Selby a thorough slapping. Donovan stops the fight and takes a pistol from Selby.
In the morning, the trio parallels the road and drives in the sugar sand. At one point, they have to camouflage the vehicle with a tarp when a military search plane flies over. Later in the day, the three criminals reach the mosque and oasis. This part of the movie invokes a Sahara (1943) vibe. At the waterhole, Donovan passes out, showing that his heart is failing.
While they were distracted, Selby escaped to the mosque after stealing all the pistols. Gillmore and Donovan run for the lorry, but Selby staggers out of the building first. He then falls, showing a knife stuck in his back.
Gillmore searches the mosque and determines that the attacker was a single guard who was left to watch the building. The guard escaped into the desert after the stabbing. Donovan brings Selby inside for medical treatment. Donovan tries to get Selby to give him the location of the gold. Selby won’t provide the information to his criminal partners.
Selby dies. They bury him inside the ruins. Gillmore is ready to leave before the Bedouins arrive. Donovan insists they stay and look for the gold. Donovan goes on the roof to watch while Gillmore goes to the lorry. He has a large machine gun in the back that he brings to the roof. Donovan lights a cigarette, and the Bedouins open fire. Gillmore fires back with the machine gun, and things quiet down.
In the morning, they realize the lorry is gone.
Aileen goes to the airport to leave for Tripoli. Levering stops her from boarding the plane. This is where it gets weird. For some reason, he loads her on a search plane with himself, Peters, and a pilot. Levering is all cop in the plane.
Desperate for water, Donovan signals the search plane. The pilot, who must be the greatest since James Stewart’s plane went down while on route to Benghazi in The Flight of the Phoenix (1965), lands the plane on the rolling sugar-sand dunes.
The plane is fired upon by the unseen Bedouins. The plane explodes, and the pilot is killed. This movie is now giving me Beau Geste (1939) vibes.
Gillmore gives Levering the lowdown on their situation. They are cut off from the water and are only holding the Bedouins with the machine gun. Aileen gives her father a pretty severe tongue-lashing.
Gillmore and Donovan come clean and tell about the Bedouin’s gold that Selby found.
Aileen makes a break for the water and is pinned down by gunfire. Gillmore makes it to her, and they eventually reach the waterhole. At the waterhole, Aileen realizes that Gillmore is not the bad guy after all.
I like bad boys, and I cannot lie.
Donovan thinks he can make a break and get help during the Muslim’s evening prayers. Gillmore and Aileen use the prayers to make it back to the mosque. Donovan heads over the dunes but is shot by an unseen gunman.
Gillmore and Peters bury Donovan outside the building. Peters has some kind of existential attack and makes Gillmore promise he will not bury him outside in the desert. Gillmore agrees.
Aileen has a mini meltdown as well. Gillmore says she is crying for a man she doesn’t know. He finally says he loved Gillmore even though he had faults.
That night, the Bedouins begin firing at the men on the roof. I notice they only guard one side of the mosque and are attacked only from that side. I think I see a flaw in the attack plan. Levering tries to climb to a higher elevation and is shot in the leg. Finally, Gillmore gives a blast with the machine gun and stops the attack.
Aileen tends to Insp. Levering, but she is still pretty distraught. He tells her his backstory and is still trying to date her. More firing takes place from the roof. Gillmore comes down and says they are out of machine gun ammunition.
Aileen leaves Levering and goes to Gillmore to console him. She tells him her feelings of love for him. Instead of a one-night stand, I think she is looking for a last-night stand. He says he loves her too, and then they kiss.
In the morning, Peters is dead. No wound is shown, so that’s up in the air. Gillmore digs a grave inside the mosque but soon discovers the hidden Bedouin gold.
Gillmore decides he will take the gold and leave. Aileen and Levering think he is deserting them so he can have the gold alone. He walks out onto the dunes and is soon hit in the shoulder by a round from an unseen shooter.
He then tells the tribe that he is bringing them their gold and that the two people at the mosque are innocent. He falls and drops the gold.
Levering tells Aileen that Gillmore took the gold to save them. She admits she loves Gillmore and begins sobbing.
A line of armed tribesmen crests the dune and looks down towards Gillmore.
Levering and Aileen wait in the mosque because they have no other choice. Finally, the tribesmen come over the dune and say they are bringing back the lorry, and they are free to go. Aileen sees the wounded Gillmore coming towards her. She screams his name and runs to him.
Analysis – Bengazi (1955)
Following Ball State University professor Richard L. Edwards’ seven-point outline from the TCM-sponsored “Into the Darkness: Investigating Film-Noir,” I will judge how many of the points apply to this film.
Element 1 – Postwar anxiety and societal malaise
This movie is set in the post-World War II era, and John Gillmore (Richard Conte), Robert Emmett Donovan (Victor McLaglen), and Selby (Richard Erdman) sure had a melancholic outlook on life. The film never explains how Gillmore, from New York, was left in Africa following the war, even though the Americans were a continent away when it ended. There is a very light tension between the British occupiers and the gang of criminals.
Element 2 – Guilt and dread
This was completely missing from the movie. There was never any thought given to the consequences of their actions or associations. Just floating along like a turd in the tide.
Element 3 – Psychoanalysis and trauma
While the war veterans would likely have trauma, it is not brought out in this film in any manner. They mouth some regret now and then for being drunkards or leaving their families.
The only character who even remotely fits this element is Aileen Donovan (Mala Powers), having lost her mother and found her father to be a lying drunk who is going to abandon her for a desert adventure.
Element 4 – Criminality and the limits of rational investigation
Gillmore, Robert Emmett Donovan, and Selby are certainly criminals, and they are never very concerned about their actions, except when Selby murdered a police officer. That’s where Gillmore draws the line. Harkening back to another Richard Conte film, The Godfather (1972), Don Corleone murders, runs prostitutes, and steals, but he is a good guy because he refuses to sell heroin. Same for Conte’s character here. If he draws the line at murder, he must be okay deep down.
Element 5 – Existential despair
There is no great element of despair hanging over any of the characters. They live in a backwater hellhole, but it is by their own choosing. There are brief moments where one or the other of them will reflect on their life, but it is simply a line or two, followed by no change in course.
Element 6 – The inability to separate truth from lies
There is nothing hidden in this film. Everything is out in the open, and none of the characters are fooling themselves.
Element 7 – The role of women in postwar society
There are two women in this film. The first is Nora Nielson (Hillary Brooke), who just lies in a bed and is treated poorly by Gillmore. The second is Aileen Donovan (Mala Powers). She is a doe-eyed waif who searches for love between gunfights in a desert trap. There was nothing to indicate that women had a new role in society.
Conclusion – Bengazi (1955)
I have watched this movie, so you never have to. Back to the question at hand, is this movie a Film Noir? No, not by any stretch of imagination. It fails more or less on each of the elements. Since IMDb.com lists this as a Film Noir, I am going to leave it in the list of all Film Noirs. But I am slotting this film as 1112. This places it behind the film I assumed would be the worst film, based solely on the title, number 1111, Pillow of Death (1945).
World-Famous Short Summary – She’s got a thing for bad boys
Beware the moors.
[1] https://www.imdb.com/title/tt0047872/
