Fort Algiers
Cast & Crew
Lesley Selander
Yvonne De Carlo
Carlos Thompson
Raymond Burr
Leif Erickson
Anthony Caruso
Film Details
Technical Specs
Synopsis
A French Legion outpost in North Africa is attacked by Arab troops led by the Amir, who instructs his aide, Yessouf, to kill all Legionnaires and swear his men to secrecy. Some time later in Paris, Yvette Del Mar refuses the request of French Army general Rousseau to go on another secret intelligence mission because of her brother's death at the North African fort, and the earlier loss of her only true love. Yvette relents, however, and is soon in North Africa posing as a nightclub singer and entertaining the Amir. At the same club, Legionnaire Chavez encounters his friend Jeff Brown, a dismissed Army officer who transferred to the Legion. Later that evening, Jeff is stunned to see his former girl friend, Yvette, entertaining the Amir in her dressing room. Jeff confronts her, unaware that Yvette is a spy, but she slaps him and he leaves. The Amir, unaware of the undercover operation, invites Yvette to his palace in Algiers, along with two French Army officers, Major Colle and Lt. Picard, who are working with Yvette. At the same time, Jeff's troop is sent to Fort Algiers. Because of his previous experience with the Signal Corps, Jeff is assigned to replace a French spy who was captured by the Amir's men. Yvette is now a favored guest of the Amir and rides alone into the desert to deposit a message in a tree, which is then relayed to the fort. Following the note's instructions, Jeff and his friend Kalmani, a sergeant demoted to private, ride into Algiers disguised as locals, and attempt to sell a pocketwatch in a bazaar shop. At the shop, Yvette, dressed in Arab garb, astonishes Jeff by making contact using the agreed upon code, and slips him the palace blueprint. That night in the palace, Yvette conceals a tape recorder in the Amir's meeting room and listens as he announces to local leaders his plans to regain the foreign-run oil fields, work them with his own men and, anticipating an aggressive French response, enlist the world's sympathy for his people. Sheik Haroun protests that the plan is actually a revolt and walks out, but is murdered by Yessouf. Jeff and Kalmani sneak onto the palace grounds where Yvette transmits information about the Amir's plans by Morse code using a flashlight. The Amir finds Yvette's listening device, however, and confronts her. When Jeff sees the Amir mistreating Yvette, he sends Kalmani back to the fort with the news. Jeff rescues Yvette just after the Amir strikes her, and he and the Amir struggle until the Amir is knocked unconscious. Yvette and Jeff escape just as the palace guards reach the room in time to subdue a fire that accidentally started during the fight. The Amir then decides to move up his plans to attack the oil field. When Yvette and Jeff pause to rest in the desert, she reveals that the superior officer he had struck two years earlier, the act that caused his dismissal from the Army, was a traitor she had been assigned to track. Jeff and Yvette now reunite with a kiss, and continue on to the oil field. Kalmani, meanwhile, has been wounded by a pursuer, but makes it to the fort alive to warn them about the Amir's plot. At the oil field, Jeff orders the workers to create makeshift grenades from beer bottles and nitroglycerine and to wire the desert with dynamite. When the Amir and his men converge on the oilfield, Yvette sets off the dynamite as they approach. After many Arabs are felled in the explosion, Yvette joins the oil workers as they man guns to repel the attack. The Amir is killed during the attack, after which the Legion arrives to quell the retreating Arab forces. Later in Paris, Yvette is given the rank of Knight of Legion of Honor, and she then bids the general a final farewell as she departs with Jeff.
Director
Lesley Selander
Cast
Yvonne De Carlo
Carlos Thompson
Raymond Burr
Leif Erickson
Anthony Caruso
John Dehner
Robert Boon
Henry Corden
Joe Kirk
Lewis Martin
Leonard Penn
Bill Phipps
Michael Couzzi
Charles Evans
Sandra Gale
Robert Warwick
Joseph Grandby
David Leonard
John Milton
Thomas Monroe
G. I. Warren
Burt Wendling
Phil Van Zandt
Max Wagner
Crew
Edward L. Alperson Jr.
Jack R. Berne
Howard Bristol
Mary Chaffee
Olga Collings
Yvonne De Carlo
Martin Eisenberg
Joseph N. Ermolieff
Clarence Eurist
John G. Holden
Max Hutchinson
Raoul Kraushaar
Esther Krebs
Boris Leven
Francis D. Lyon
Jack Masters
Michel Michelet
Michel Michelet
John Seitz
Theodore St. John
Frederick Stephani
Yvonne Wood
Film Details
Technical Specs
Quotes
Trivia
Notes
The film's opening and ending cast credits differ in order. According to publicity information in the copyright records, the film's battle scenes were shot on location in North Africa. A January 27, 1953 Hollywood Reporter news item notes that some scenes were shot "along the coast." Fort Algiers marked Argentinian actor Carlos Thompson's American feature film debut.
