As we know from the TV series "Dallas", the oil business is filled with treachery, sabotage and betrayal. For oil man Jack Holt working in the Arabian desert, the audience learns very quickly of the nature of his ruthlessness. He has women desperate to trap him (the exotic Raquel Torres) as willing to kill him if they fail, and women willing to cheat on their husbands with him, even if the husband is Holt's best friend. The betraying wife is none other than Fay Wray, married to Donald Cook, once Holt best friend, who tells them both off in a very dramatic fashion, making points about how power corrupts and creates immorality in one soul when they seek to gain what is not rightfully theirs.
It seems there are no lessons to be learned for Holt, one of the oddest leading men of the 1930's. Hard-looking and almost maniacal in appearance, he could show softness when the plot called for it but in this case, there is very little redeemable about his character. Wray seems to be going where she knows that riches will follow, even if it means cheating on a husband who very much loves her even if he is disgusted by her actions. Her character proves herself to be very amoral
The featured cast is filled with character actors whose faces you may recognize but names you won't know, and they include Noah Beery as an Arab sheik and Edwin Maxwell as one of the many victims of Holt's ruthlessness. This isn't a great film by any nature but it does have a few memorable moral lessons to share, and Holt's powerful performance shows a man on a path of self-destruction that he is unable to control and that will destroy him if he doesn't wake up. Its exotic setting is another highlight that adds depth to the complicated plot.
It seems there are no lessons to be learned for Holt, one of the oddest leading men of the 1930's. Hard-looking and almost maniacal in appearance, he could show softness when the plot called for it but in this case, there is very little redeemable about his character. Wray seems to be going where she knows that riches will follow, even if it means cheating on a husband who very much loves her even if he is disgusted by her actions. Her character proves herself to be very amoral
The featured cast is filled with character actors whose faces you may recognize but names you won't know, and they include Noah Beery as an Arab sheik and Edwin Maxwell as one of the many victims of Holt's ruthlessness. This isn't a great film by any nature but it does have a few memorable moral lessons to share, and Holt's powerful performance shows a man on a path of self-destruction that he is unable to control and that will destroy him if he doesn't wake up. Its exotic setting is another highlight that adds depth to the complicated plot.