I was the seven-year-old boy, Bobby Fairy, who played Lord Chatham's son in early life. With admitted bias, I see the movie for its time, genre and budget, as a pretty good adventure film. There are a few places where the film itself has deteriorated since 1936.
The picture has a strong Edgar Rice Burroughs plot and the lead actors are believable. Jon Hall's athletic training shows in fight scenes.
The movie's exterior scenes were all shot on a vacant desert area near Yuma, Arizona. The cast and crew stayed in a hotel in Yuma and rode by bus into the desert area each day in the very early morning to take advantage of the first light. The bus was followed by trucks carrying camels, horses and equipment.
Acting in this adventure movie was very exciting for a little boy. In preparing for one scene I fell from a camel. With difficulty, the director finally persuaded me to be remounted with my actor father.
I was accompanied to the Arizona location by an adult escort (my real father) and a tutor required by California law.
My agent had given me a stage name (Bobby Fairy) only slightly different from my real name, Bobby Fairey, when I was 7. I am now (2012) 83, a semi-retired lawyer and may be the only surviving member of the cast. Robert A. (Bob) Fairey
The picture has a strong Edgar Rice Burroughs plot and the lead actors are believable. Jon Hall's athletic training shows in fight scenes.
The movie's exterior scenes were all shot on a vacant desert area near Yuma, Arizona. The cast and crew stayed in a hotel in Yuma and rode by bus into the desert area each day in the very early morning to take advantage of the first light. The bus was followed by trucks carrying camels, horses and equipment.
Acting in this adventure movie was very exciting for a little boy. In preparing for one scene I fell from a camel. With difficulty, the director finally persuaded me to be remounted with my actor father.
I was accompanied to the Arizona location by an adult escort (my real father) and a tutor required by California law.
My agent had given me a stage name (Bobby Fairy) only slightly different from my real name, Bobby Fairey, when I was 7. I am now (2012) 83, a semi-retired lawyer and may be the only surviving member of the cast. Robert A. (Bob) Fairey