Christiane Martel Movies

Director Benito Alazraki does the best he can with this low-budget, stereotyped, cops-and-criminals story set in Algiers. Love interests run high as the requisite policeman (Tito Junco) pines after the woman of his dreams and the likeable bandit (Yerye Beirute) finds solace with several different women. Sonia Furio has some standard (though rushed in production) dance scenes, as the criminals in the story are hunted down and inevitably meet their deserved fate. ~ Eleanor Mannikka, Rovi

This drama is adapted from a novel by B. Traven and contains a potent anti-capitalist message as it tells the story of a peasant who truly loves the land he lives upon. ~ Sandra Brennan, Rovi

A routine swashbuckler set during the 18th century when pirates still roamed the Spanish main, this adventure film stars popular Mexican idol Pedro Armendariz as the appropriately named Captain Tiburon (Capt. Shark). Tiburon and his first mate Taursus (Rodolfo Hoyos) bury two treasure chests on a remote island, and then Taursus betrays the Captain by shooting him and leaving him for dead, with plans to come back later and pick up the loot. The Captain is saved by the only other inhabitant of the island, a young boy named Frank (Terry Rangno, with Robert Palmer as the adult Frank). As time goes by, the two have several adventures, including a battle with an invading war party about to sacrifice a comely maiden. She of course, is saved. But the adventure is not over because Taursus will one day return for the treasure chests. This film was paired with The Sad Horse in double-billing on its release. ~ Eleanor Mannikka, Rovi

Yankee Pasha has the potential for silliness, but is commendably played straight by most of the participants (exceptions being such professional funsters as Hal March and Benny Rubin). Jeff Chandler plays American frontiersman Jason, who springs into action when his sweetheart Roxanna (Rhonda Fleming) is kidnapped by Barbary Pirates. Pursuing the villains all the way to Morocco, Jason gains the confidence of sultan Lee J. Cobb, who helps our hero thwart the megalomanic machinations of Omar-Id-Din (Bart Roberts). Mamie Van Doren is better than usual as a pampered harem girl who develops a crush on the stalwart Jason. Just as Universal's 1953 release Abbott and Costello Goes to Mars was an excuse to show of the charms of that year's crop of Miss Universe contests, so to does Yankee Pasha devote plenty of screen time to the pulchritudinous finalists of the 1954 Miss Universe pageant, including such now-forgotten lovelies as Christiane Martel, Kinuko Ito and Maxine Morgan. ~ Hal Erickson, Rovi