User Reviews

Veteren Italian actor, Renzo Merusi, directed just three films, one in the 50s, one in the 60s and this in 1971 and his inexperience shows. My viewing was not helped by being an inferior print and certainly the pleasant score and stunning scenery would be better appreciated on a finer print. Nevertheless there is not much original here and far too many horse (why not camels?) and jeep chases across the sands of North Africa. One of the most interesting points is that the lovely Edwige plays the child of a native mother and English father, she herself being of a mixed marriage. She's great, although she never seems to sport the costume that appears on the poster and the rest of the cast adequate. But there is nothing inspiring here and too many telescopic lens shots and distant killings, all to little avail.

Edwige is really a supporting player in the film which plays out as more of an unlikely drama than an adventure for treasure story. Watching it from a Greek full frame VHS tape was not the way to see it but was/is the only way to at the time of this writing. There are shots where people who are talking are totally out of the frame and some closeups that are almost impossible to figure out.

But for those curious to see it this will be one way to see, if not really enjoy, it for now. It doesn't seem to be a great film though even giving it the benefit of the doubt. Though it does feature nudity in a few brief instances it's not an exploitation film or geared that way. This is not a fun Edwige starring and disrobing fest. So then what should you expect? Well that's hard to answer but it does have some virtues.

The long, mostly dialog free, opening chase sequence has promise and features the very odd "weapon" of a gold guitar!?! The most interesting character is a multi-ethnic character that seems to be the villain but gains sympathy as the story progresses--slowly. Then we just meet a series of characters and the film turns into a talk fest. There seems to be no real villain or ticking clock, no race against time. or pressing danger to the film that seems to amble along. For a film called Desert of Fire there are no scenes of people trapped in the desert. Edwige doesn't even appear in many scenes or at all for the first nearly 30 minutes of the film. The music score is quite good, if a bit repetitive, but much of the story is inside of rooms or tents and is dialog driven. There is one quite impressive explosion in the film. But the film never takes off, though it improves whenever Edwige is on screen which isn't enough to really say starring her, though of course that's how they sold the film at the time. She looks great and gets to do some real acting and yes it's true that she does spend much of her screen time in a kind of ridiculous mini dress, but mostly she's just not around.

The drama of her character being a half breed and especially her hard riding gun shooting mother is interesting, but the film is kind of stuck and never really becomes either a drama or a desert adventure film or an exploitation movie. The story also develops so slowly that the relatively simple plot becomes confusing. Much of it involves some back-story that a flashback would have really helped keep clear in your memory, but for once there is no flashback in an Italian film!!! Just when you need one too.

Certainly a widescreen good looking transfer would help a lot, but that might not be enough to turn this into a successful movie. For now have to say for a good music score and for Edwige completists only.