I would even say less than B if it were not Bogart. For Bogart fans, there is a certain amount of satisfaction, but it is hard to avoid criticism.
With Prohibition past and even WW11 gone, idealism is a short commodity and Bogart himself isn't getting any younger either, so that the character of Harry Smith is not the mingled wheeler-dealer and idealist of earlier Bogart, but seemingly closer to a vulgarian pig like so many others, wooing with blatant appeal to material goods. This is like Bogart without Bogart. In fact, Harry Smith is too tired looking to really make a foreign land seem romantic for that matter.
Also a dramatic mess is Lee J Cobb. Maybe it is just the hang of his uniform but he is not set up so much to be a tragic figure as an unappealing one. His act of self-sacrifice is nauseating rather than ennobling.
Then there is Violette, responsive to Bogart's materialistic approach. Marta Toren is so beautiful I am surprised she isn't more famous.
And I think this must have been the film Woody Allen saw when he started mocking the trench coat. Cobb and Bogart both look a little too solid in them.
Finally, the set is a little bit superficial. Fezes and shots of Byzantine copper ware practically covers it. Abbott and Costello might come around a corner any minute.
In sum I say, as a potential film to watch, it is interesting, in a nihilistic sort of way. It only lacks poetic justice.
With Prohibition past and even WW11 gone, idealism is a short commodity and Bogart himself isn't getting any younger either, so that the character of Harry Smith is not the mingled wheeler-dealer and idealist of earlier Bogart, but seemingly closer to a vulgarian pig like so many others, wooing with blatant appeal to material goods. This is like Bogart without Bogart. In fact, Harry Smith is too tired looking to really make a foreign land seem romantic for that matter.
Also a dramatic mess is Lee J Cobb. Maybe it is just the hang of his uniform but he is not set up so much to be a tragic figure as an unappealing one. His act of self-sacrifice is nauseating rather than ennobling.
Then there is Violette, responsive to Bogart's materialistic approach. Marta Toren is so beautiful I am surprised she isn't more famous.
And I think this must have been the film Woody Allen saw when he started mocking the trench coat. Cobb and Bogart both look a little too solid in them.
Finally, the set is a little bit superficial. Fezes and shots of Byzantine copper ware practically covers it. Abbott and Costello might come around a corner any minute.
In sum I say, as a potential film to watch, it is interesting, in a nihilistic sort of way. It only lacks poetic justice.