Good concept, poorly executed.

This story has more twists and turns than a second-rate soap opera.

The film may be flawed, but its message is not.

The movie really just wants to entertain people.

I didn't know this Bogart film existed. He called it himself "a stinker", and it's certainly one of his very darkest dramas, if not the very darkest. He plays an unusually unsympathetic character, an American business man selling weapons to rebels against the French, especially grenades, which the rebels use to (not yet suicide) bombings of innocents, especially joyful tavern guests. He is totally immoral while equally totally unpolitical, he is only there to serve himself and no one else, but his acting was almost never better.His counterpart is Lee J. Cobb, who plays an unusually honest character, we are more used to seeing him as an overbearing villain, he is here a very straight French officer in the intelligence, who immediately sees Bogart for what he is and can but despise him, wishing to have as little to do with him as possible, which intention unfortunately is thwarted by the case of his wife, the beautiful Märta Torén, whom Hollywood planned to make a second Ingrid Bergman after Ingrid's fall from Hollywood, (unfortunately Märta Torén died very young at 30 from brain hemorrhage) who is bored by Cobb's uncompromising correctness and wants to run away with Bogart.The main theme of the film however is the war, the terrible civil war, which is such a cruel reality in Syria even today - this makes this film sensationally actual - we have the same problems in Syria today, bombs and grenades constantly exploding and killing innocents. There is hardly one scene in the film without the war noise of bombs exploding, and such is reality in Syria even today.The script is a marvel of complicated intelligent and interesting intrigue and quite logical all the way in all its surprising turnings. This is the main asset of the film, which is a bleak and dark nightmare journey into constantly more hopeless caverns of no escape except into deeper chaos and death. At the same time, it's a very moral film and story, honesty and good will ultimately coming through by its sheer foolish obstinacy. A film of 1951 about 1925 miraculously proves totally modern in its presentation of political problems in an Arab state, and it has been shamefully underrated and ignored. On top of that, in spite of his unattractive character, it's one of Bogart's best films and performances.

I would even say less than B if it were not Bogart. For Bogart fans, there is a certain amount of satisfaction, but it is hard to avoid criticism. With Prohibition past and even WW11 gone, idealism is a short commodity and Bogart himself isn't getting any younger either, so that the character of Harry Smith is not the mingled wheeler-dealer and idealist of earlier Bogart, but seemingly closer to a vulgarian pig like so many others, wooing with blatant appeal to material goods. This is like Bogart without Bogart. In fact, Harry Smith is too tired looking to really make a foreign land seem romantic for that matter.Also a dramatic mess is Lee J Cobb. Maybe it is just the hang of his uniform but he is not set up so much to be a tragic figure as an unappealing one. His act of self-sacrifice is nauseating rather than ennobling.Then there is Violette, responsive to Bogart's materialistic approach. Marta Toren is so beautiful I am surprised she isn't more famous.And I think this must have been the film Woody Allen saw when he started mocking the trench coat. Cobb and Bogart both look a little too solid in them. Finally, the set is a little bit superficial. Fezes and shots of Byzantine copper ware practically covers it. Abbott and Costello might come around a corner any minute.In sum I say, as a potential film to watch, it is interesting, in a nihilistic sort of way. It only lacks poetic justice.

Well, after reading the first 3 pages of comments, I can't believe anyone made it this far, but if you did, here is what I have to say...."Sirocco" is a complete waste of time , unless you can learn what not to do in a film. dull and drift-less from the first scene, "Sirocco" literally BLOWS, right out of the theatre. A complete waste of talent, and paper for the scripts, Bogart, Cobb, Sloane Corey, Mostel,Mohr can't make this clunker work, WOW ! I can't believe I wrote that, but it is a FACT.Aimless in its direction, Curtis Bernhardt(Director) , doesn't deserve to get paid for this sch-mucky remake attempt of "Casablanca."He doesn't know how to blend romance with drama or action, I guess he read the script ?, and didn't know how to make dramatic changes. Violette(Marta Toren) is the Ingrid Berman clone, and a very light clone at that. While lovely to the eye, she lacks the depth or skill in acting to create any chemistry between her and Bogey, incredible.As I stated previously, this is how NOT to make a film, and just about anyone can these days. People are often confused if this movie was filmed in the bazaar or the catacombs, it should have been filmed in the dark, and kept there ! I gave this film 3 stars , just for the cast, a negative 10 for the script. Note: for future screen writers, use this a template to build against, maybe you can reedit the film to have some dramatic tension, or rewrite scenes that would build to a climax, just not the veritable collapse that it currently does.All in all, Bogart should have saved his money, and credibility.

The 1925 Syrian occupation has virtually almost disappeared from French history books;it was overshadowed by other colonial wars such as Indochina or Algeria.When the movie begins,both the Emir and the French officer are sure to have God on their side.Actually,the story pits a noble chivalrous French dashing captain against a raider,an arms dealer,who sells his stuff to both sides (who is right anyway? the bloodthirsty Arab or those Europeans who are convinced that they civilize those people so primitive ?) The French "hero" went to the finest military school "Saint-Cyr" ,the French West Point as Bogart points out ;his values such as honor have become obsolete in this mercenary world.The best moments in what is finally a routine military melodrama (of course the officer has a woman who falls for...you' ll never guess !) are the scenes in the dark alleys or in the catacombs