Desert Legion is a 1953 American adventure film directed by Joseph Pevney and starring Alan Ladd.
Desert Legion | |
---|---|
Directed by | Joseph Pevney |
Screenplay by | Irving Wallace Lewis Meltzer |
Based on | novel The Demon Caravan by Georges Surdez |
Produced by | Ted Richmond |
Starring | Alan Ladd |
Cinematography | John F. Seitz |
Edited by | Frank Gross |
Music by | Frank Skinner |
Color process | Technicolor |
Production company | Universal Pictures |
Distributed by | Universal Pictures |
Release dates |
|
Running time | 86 minutes |
Country | United States |
Language | English |
Box office | $1,650,000 (US)[1] |
Ladd stars as a soldier in the French Foreign Legion who stumbles across a lost city in the desert mountains of Algeria in North Africa.
The film was made by Universal Pictures, and based on a 1927 novel The Demon Caravan by Georges Arthur Surdez.
It was Alan Ladd's first film for Universal since becoming a star. It was a one-picture deal and gave Ladd a percentage of the profits, a relatively novel thing at the time.[2][3] (He split profits with the studio 50–50.[4]) Joseph Pevney was assigned to direct.[5]
Ladd had broken his hand during a fight scene towards the end of his most recent film The Iron Mistress, but recovered to begin work on Desert Legion on 7 July 1952.[6]
Akim Tamiroff joined the support cast. It was his first Hollywood film in three years.[7]