Cairo Road (film)
| Cairo Road | |
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| Directed by | David MacDonald |
| Produced by | Aubrey Baring |
| Written by | Robert Westerby |
| Starring |
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| Music by | Robert Gill |
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Production
company |
Setton-Baring Mayflower
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| Distributed by | Associated British-Pathé |
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Release date
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Running time
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95 minutes |
| Country | United Kingdom |
| Language | English |
| Box office | ₤145,502 (UK) |
Cairo Road is a 1950 British crime film directed by David MacDonald and stars Eric Portman, Laurence Harvey, Maria Mauban, Harold Lang and John Gregson. The film takes its name from the Cairo Road.
A team of Egyptian anti-narcotic agents led by Colonel Youssef Bey (Eric Portman), the chief of the Anti-Narcotic Bureau, and his new assistant Lieutenant Mourad (Laurence Harvey), recently relocated from Paris with his wife Marie (Maria Mauban), try to prevent shipments of drugs crossing the southern Egyptian border. They are constantly on alert as even camel caravans are suspect in smuggling narcotics.
The agents are investigating the murder of a rich Arab businessman named Bashiri. Raiding a berthed ship in the harbor of Port Saïd, leads them to the trail of heroin smugglers, including Rico Pavlis (Harold Lang) and Lombardi (Grégoire Aslan). One of the police agents, Anna Michelis (Camelia) is targeted by the smugglers.
Eventually, Pavlis turns on his partner, killing Lombardi but Youssef sets a trap for the Pavlis brothers, and the capture of the two remaining criminal gang leaders and their men, proves the police are competent at stemming the flow of narcotics.
The production was centred around Egypt where principal photography took place, and its cast included Egyptian film star Camelia, who died in 1950 in an aircraft crash.
Cairo Road received a reasonably positive review from The New York Times, who called it an "... unpretentious and consistently sensible little film... antidote. British restraint and taste not only have saved the day but succeeded in dignifying a battered subject... this routine picture has some sterling ingredients."
The critic from Variety said "action moves slowly in the first half and much of the story is veiled so as to obscure the plot. However, it winds up with a meaty climax."
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Wikipedia