Jessica Dani This is one pre-Code movie I will miss should I ever come across it again.****This may contain spoilers**** The reviews seem to be divided between whether Myrna's character (Diana) is British or American. The movie tells us she is half Egyptian.Whatever her nationality, what she endures is much more obvious. Lured to a house under false pretenses by Roman Navarro's character (Jamil), where she is subjected to being whipped (we hear the off screen screams), a whip that Navarro himself hands to Edward Arnold (Pasha), she is "rescued" by her betrayer and bought back. This leads to a trek across the desert with Jamil wistfully repeating "you called for me". Right, Diana called for him rather than her no where to be seen fiancé or the police.Then after a fight with some of Pasha's men sent to bring back Diana, Jamil, the winner of the fight, makes Diana walk across the desert to the oasis.After all of this comes the much debated scene. Jamil grabs her and forcefully kisses her, completely with pulling hair scene. She tries to fight him off. Did he or did he not rape Diana?The movie makes this very plain in the very next scene. A close up of Diana, face tear stained, eyes vacant, she recoils when Jamil talks to her, offers her a cloak to cover herself for the rest of the trek in the desert. He graciously offers to let her ride the horse this time.At his father's camp, Jamil reveals he is a prince and that he adores Diana, even wanting to marry her. She goes so far as to go through the ceremony until it is her turn to drink from the wedding cup. She throws the water in his face and storms out. Humiliated, Jamil grabs a whip and strikes her. A second whipping! Yes, this is love. Then he relents and sends her home.Back with her people, and her fiancé, Diana is getting ready to be married that day. The movie gets in one more subtle hint to what happened to Diana. Her close confident, overcome by emotion at seeing her friend ready to be married responds to Diana's request to be alone by saying "yes, your last moment of virgin solitude" then turns away from Diana suddenly realizing the import of her words indicted by her gasping and whispering "virgin".And at the end of all of this, Diana runs away with Jamil!Another reviewer commented that we shouldn't judge a movie made so long ago by our century's standards. I disagree adamantly. Eighty years or eighty centuries, rape is rape, abuse is abuse.Skip this one and watch one another of Myrna Loy's pre-Code movies such as "Penthouse" or "When Ladies Meet".

nomoons11 I think the only saving grace for this film is that is when it was made...1933. Basically you get a suave young lady coming to Cairo to marry her husband. She seems to love him enough then a ruthless womanizer who happens to be a guide/thief in Cairo continually professes his love for her but she resists.They let you know early on that he's a inveterate womanizer but by the end the Myrna Loy character falls in love with him. I mean after he lies to her consistently and she knows it, constantly undermining things between her and her husband, and she knows it...constantly kissing her and she doesn't expect or want it...then the peak of it all, he kidnaps her and forces marriage from her from his tribe. She says yes then turns the tables on him at the ceremony. She gets to leave his ways and she then informs the Egyptian authorities who then set out to catch him (Of course they don't).After all this you already know the ending. There's 2 to 3 minutes left and she finally gets alone in her room ready to get married to her future husband and guess who arrives? You got it, Mr. Charm himself. We then proceed to see them floating down the Nile lying in each others arms.I can only think of this film as offensive to women, in 1 way, is this character so weak minded that she would leave her future husband she loves for a guy who does everything he does to her in the way of lying, cheating and kidnapping and then she decides.."Oh well, I'll go with him cause now I love him."? It's just ridiculous. I can see why this one isn't very popular. It's a dud.If you wanna see where Myrna Loy starts to shine, fast forward a year and start on the "Thin Man" movies. They're a class unto themselves.

Gwenhwyvar Ramon Novarro and Myrna Loy get caught up in a torrid romance in one of the last of the pre-code "sheik" films. To anyone who has not seen "The Sheik" or "The Son of the Sheik", the two most famous examples, the plot is simple. Sexy Arab guy (or white guy posing as an Arab) falls for a Western girl and abducts her across the desert sands where red hot (for the time) romance blooms. Fan magazines of the 1920's would gravely discuss the pros and cons of the "cave man approach" to love. "The Barbarian" must have seemed like something of an anachronism when it was released in the early 30's.Myrna Loy plays Diana, an American girl with an Egyptian mother. Neatly removing any objections to an interracial romance, this sets the stage for Jamil to enter her life. Novarro's character is a prince posing as a driverman. What exactly he is prince of is unclear since the script will alternately talk about Egypt, Mecca and Tehran as his domain. Quite a cosmopolitan, it seems.But to Diana, he is a servant and she treats him accordingly. That is, when she is not swooning over his admittedly pleasant singing. But station is station and Jamil's love for Diana takes a decidedly warped turn when the inevitable abduction occurs.There seems to be disagreement among the viewers as to whether or not Jamil forced himself on Diana. It seems pretty clear to me that he did. Whether or not she liked him at the time is up to the opinion of the viewer. That does not, however, alter the fact that she was raped. If the viewer believes that she liked him, merely add "date" before the verb. Same crime, different circumstances. For an interesting comparison, try seeing the "love" scene in the equally silly "Fountainhead".The rest of the film concerns the reactions of Diana's fiancé (Reginald Denny), who isn't really given much to do but stand about and look outraged, and the rest of the cast, who are divided into pro and anti-Jamil camps. Which man Diana will choose is fairly obvious if you know anything at all about Hollywood movies of this time. After all, he IS a prince and she IS half-Egyptian and they DID, well, you know...So, how was it? Myrna Loy is lovely and tries her best but one gets the impression that she is smarter than the script, provided by the overrated (and supposedly liberated) Anita Loos. As for Ramon Novarro, he is a personal favorite for his silent work but he is miscast here. Novarro, by all accounts, was a very pleasant man and he just is not convincing in the smoldering roles. He just seems too nice. He was far better with sincere, heroic characters and in light comedy. Sadly, his dark good looks and last name ending in a vowel condemned him to a certain number of Latin Lover roles. He is very charming at the beginning of the film, when is character is more of a rascal. I particularly liked the scenes of him romancing female tourists in English and German! Is it worth it? Yes, for the glimpse of pre-code Hollywood and just how much they could get away with. It is fun to see big stars in non-typical roles. It will certainly start many discussions of race and gender relations in classic Hollywood. My interest is, frankly, more for research than entertainment. If the plot sounds romantic to you, go for it. If it horrifies you, stay away. If you're like me, you will enjoy the context and theory of the film more than the film itself. It would certainly make a fascinating selection on a DVD set concerning race in early Hollywood. Hint, hint.PS, does anyone know what language everyone is speaking? It doesn't sound like Arabic but I am no expert.

sunlily I loved this pre-code romance with Ramon Novarro and Myrna Loy as it hearkened back to the days of similar stories such as Valentino's Sheik movies.Ramon has never been sexier than as the Egyptian prince who's moonlighting as something of a cad and a gigolo, but who really only has eyes for Myrna! And Myrna has never looked lovelier than as the high class American who is initially repelled by The Barbarian who abducts her. It's no wonder that she changes her mind in the end when you get a load of her future mother-in-law! The only problem that I had with the story was that the prince abducts Myrna's character which involves her at first being taken against her will, and the trek through the desert seemed to go on forever! This is a finely acted movie with great production values, including gorgeous sets and excellent secondary performances by Reginald Denny as Myrna's fiancé and Louise Hale as Myrna's no nonsense companion! Her tart tongued barbs steal every scene she's in! Ramon has a soft, melodious voice perfectly suited for sound and he gets to sing in several languages! Also look for Myrna in a bathing scene that could only have been done pre-code! Wonderful, escapist pre-code fare!