I'm giving this a six because the atmosphere and brilliant location camera work make this a fascinating experience. The "old fashioned" attitudes criticized by the other reviewer were not really that old fashioned for westerners in the early fifties! The film world didn't (and hasn't) budged much in its depiction of Middle Eastern societies. The three stories are fascinating, if not too well matched--how does a fairly conventional romance tale sit beside a very unusual story about the plague and a unique tale of two bumbling Yankee crooks stranded in a Coptic Christian town? The metaphorical language and strange subject matter does, however set this above the usual Hollywood fluff about the Middle East.
Again a six, mostly for the fascinating location work, which gives this film an amazingly authentic atmosphere.
Again a six, mostly for the fascinating location work, which gives this film an amazingly authentic atmosphere.