It's a fairy tale like out of Arabian Nights and very much romanticised and Hollywoodised but with above all spectacular clothing and fencing scenes. It's a comedy like out of the days of Douglas Fairbanks and Rudolph Valentino and set in the same kind of fantasy world of highly romantic splendour but totally drowned in superficiality. Richard Greene as the Desert Hawk is just a dashing adventurer like any pirate, and Yvonne de Carlo as the princess is also kept down on a very basically superficial level - she is not allowed to do much dancing. The other characters are amusing enough with their tricks, while the most impressing character actually is George Macready as one of his many suave and very wicked crooks excelling in foul play. The colours are also magnificent throughout, this is a dashing costume drama of great swashbuckling and a dazzling extravagance of costumes all the way, while Frank Skinner's music isn't too bad either. To sum it up, it's good enough as entertainment but not much more.
Review of The Desert Hawk
