Let's Start Things Off with "Good" Treatment of Turks, in Western Cinema

Seems like the American silent film period was a heyday when it came to depicting Turkey in the cinema. (In sharp contrast to these days, when the movies rarely show anything Turk-related... and if they do, it is almost certainly in the form of villainy or evil.) To wit:

War in Turkey (1913) 
Charlie in Turkey (1919) 
Somewhere in Turkey (1918) 
Mutt and Jeff in Turkey (1913) 

How fitting we have to go back all the way to 1917 to get an example of a film where Turks appeared to have been portrayed as decent human beings. This would be FILLING HIS OWN SHOES, which I never heard of until I read the article above.

 

Poster for “Filling His Own Shoes”

Directed & co-written by Harry Beaumont and starring Bryant Washburn (Ruggles), Hazel Daly and Louise Long (as "Bülbül"), the comedy is about Ruggles (according to Janiss Garza, of the "All Movie Guide") " joining the Turkish forces in the Balkan war. When he rescues a Turkish military chief, the dying man bequeaths him a fortune and three girls from his harem, which Ruggles must marry off. He takes the girls -- Roxana (Virginia Valli), Rosa (Helen Ferguson), and Bülbül (Louise Long) -- to Paris to find them mates. Bülbül decides she wants Ruggles and causes a lot of trouble between him and Ruth. Finally, all three harem girls are married off to titled Europeans, and Ruggles is able to wed Ruth."

Well.... okay. It's not exactly steeped in reality, what with the "harem" angle. But this is as good as it's going to get.

A decade later in the silent era, another effort would showcase Turks (I'm concluding the characters' Turkish nature from the title) in not the harshest of lights... TURKISH DELIGHT (1927). Rudolph Schildkraut plays "misogynist New York rug dealer Abdul Hassan" who "inherits the throne of a small, Middle Eastern principality." The sultana has it in for him and his niece, and there is a big, crazy chase scene at movie's end.

 

BACKGROUND TO DANGER (1943)

Young Turhan Bey

Old Turhan Bey

Filmed during the brief respite from anti-Turkish madness, the World War II years, where I presume the Allied forces did not want to get on neutral Turkey's bad side; one reason why this was the rare Hollywood film where Turkey was not featured as the bad guy. Directed by Raoul Walsh, and starring George Raft, Peter Lorre and Sydney Greenstreet, this was Warner Brothers' follow-up to CASABLANCA that did not live up to expectations. Istanbul is yet another of the characters, always good as a mysterious locale of intrigue where spies converge... and converge they do, with Nazis, Soviets and the plucky American, who is helped by his Turkish "sidekick," played by Turhan Bey.

Turhan Bey played plenty of Arabs

Turhan Bey is the only Turkish star who became a household name in American cinema. Characterized as a suave leading man, his career was short-lived after appearing in one too many "Casbah" movie. Half-Turkish (his attempt at the language in BACKGROUND TO DANGER was pretty pitiful), he retired to the land representing the other half of his heritage, Austria. After a forty year absence from the screen, he resumed his career for a few more ventures. The only other Turkish "celebrity" in the United States I'm aware of is Richard Bey — who hosted a syndicated Jerry Springer type of daytime TV talk show years ago.

The only other Turkish celebrity from the United States?

 

This Italian film, starring Steve "Hercules" Reeves is perhaps the only Western film where a Turk emerges as a true hero. Funny thing, too, as I don't believe the Turkish character in Tolstoy's novel was particularly heroic. Hadji Murad is not an Ottoman Turk, just one of the many Turkic-types from the Caucasus in line for the Russians' centuries-long assault. Here are excerpts from an insightful description I appreciated from "The Internet Movie Database," called, "An inadvertently unique historical film":

Perhaps the only heroic Turk in Western cinema....  not even referred to as a Turk

The wonderful thing about this film is its decision to cover a subject area that is largely unknown to Western audiences. Indeed, we Westerners didn't have any idea about this area of the world until the fall of the Soviet Union... Now the Turks are not the heroes in this film, per se (not the Turks of today's Turkey, or the then-Ottoman Empire) but various Turkic tribes in the Caucasus (in the film, they're referred to as "tribesmen," "Caucasian," once as "Muslims," or -- derogatorily by the Russians --as "Savages." Probably using the word "Turk" would have been risky, as the Western audience might then lose its sympathy for the film's heroes). In the declining years of the Ottoman Empire, mighty Czarist Russia instigated many wars against the Ottomans, taking good advantage of their weakened state.

The thing I found interesting is that Czarist Russia is often depicted in American and other Western films as noble and heroic... I guess it's the Christian connection. In this film, based on a novel by Tolstoy, the Russians are hinted at as the bloodthirsty oppressors they were....

The one Turkish book I own identified this pic as "Haci Murad"

At the beginning of the film when Hadji Murad attacks Russian troops down a lonely road, Robin Hood-style, he meets with the "Maid Marian," Russian princess Maria. When she makes a statement regarding the superiority of Russian soldiers, Murad replies that his tribe kills only soldiers, whereas the Russians slaughter women and children. I'm reminded of the fighters in Chechnya following the same procedure (generally)... they wouldn't target innocent Russian civilians (other than terrorist attacks) during the first phase of their recent struggle, a few years ago. During the second phase, when the Russians invaded again, the Russians murder, rob and rape as indiscriminately as they have done in centuries past. Now that the Chechnyans (is it Chechens?) are no longer winning, there has been a general news black-out in the American media... but their struggle is still a continuation of freeing themselves from Russian domination in the Caucasus that "The White Warrior" is about.

ADDENDUM: Not all Muslim peoples/tribes from the Caucasus are necessarily Turkic, like the Chechens.

 THAT'S IT!

Melina Mercouri

As far as American films (which is what I'm mostly covering... I'm aware there are lots of films featuring Turks from other Western nations) where Turks are presented "positively." The best that can be said about the rest is when some feature Turks in a "neutral" way... like, say, TOPKAPI, the fun caper 1964 movie where the Turks were little more than background window dressing.

 

PASCALI'S ISLAND (1988)

Ben Kingsley

I enjoyed this one, starring the narrator of PBS's only "positive" program featuring Turks, ISLAM: EMPIRE OF FAITH, Ben Kingsley. Ben is a real pro... he is the only actor trying his hand at a Turkish character (I have encountered) whose spoken Turkish was at least understandable. And what a fine performance as Pascali, a spy for the Sultan in 1908, on a Greek island. The Greeks are the heroes at the end, firing on Turkish troops, soon to free themselves from the Turkish yoke. (What is a "yoke," anyway?) Zaim Dervis' academic MIDNIGHT EXPRESS paper tells us: "in Pascali's Island (James Dearden) Ben Kingsley plays an ugly, bold, bisexual Turkish spy who becomes tragically involved with Charles Dancer's tricksy archaeologist and Helen Mirren's Austrian painter in the middle. Due to his fanatical jealousy and denunciation, the lovers (English archaeologist and Austrian painter) are killed by the cruel, ugly, fat, bribee Turkish Pasha of the island." [ADDENDUM, 2006: The Pascali character may not have been ethnically Turkish.]

 

I barely remember this one, but I don't have a bad feeling about it... or maybe that's because I like Ben Kingsley playing Turks. Although it may be his character, Selim, might not even have been a Turk. This is mainly a love story, where the captor and the captive (Nastassja Kinski) fall for each other... like a latter day SON OF THE SHEIK.

YOU CAN'T WIN 'EM ALL (1970)

"Vera Cruz," in Turkey CLICK on PIC for another view

This adventure movie follows two mercenaries played by Tony Curtis and Charles Bronson hired by a Turkish governor to protect a shipment of gold, and his daughters. Set in the chaotic days after the empire's collapse, I only caught the tail end of the film when our two heroes were given a reckoning (they got off easily) by "The General," Patrick Magee, whom I guessed meant to represent Ataturk.

Another Bronson movie, COLD SWEAT, has our hero spotting a boat with a Turkish flag, and he says something like, "That can mean only one thing — opium."

 

THE SEVEN-PER-CENT SOLUTION (1976)

Elementary

This unusual and original Sherlock Holmes romp features Laurence Olivier as Holmes' traditional villain, Professor Moriarty... but the real villains are the Sultan and his men, on board a train. Holmes and Watson get the better of the Turks.

An Australian film with a fair treatment of the Turks, who enjoy some prominence in the story, unlike the more famous WWI Australian film, GALLIPOLI. The Germans come across as worse, in Nazi-fashion. The Australian Light Horse attack on Beersheba is filmed wonderfully, with the Turks taking flight in a cowardly fashion at the end. The Turkish commander comes across as somewhat noble, although he is made up to look very sinister... with dark make-up and a big old scar.

Mel Gibson exchanging glances with a Turkish POW, one of the
rare scenes in GALLIPOLI where the face of the enemy was seen.

THE USUAL SUSPECTS (1995)

Gabrielle Byrne, Kevin Spacey

A wonderfully made effort, with one of the scariest screen villains in cinematic history. (Keyser Soze, a Turkish Mafia man.) "Nobody believed he was real," the movie's narration tells us, as we witness a horrifying scene that demonstrates the villain's toughness and lack of mercy. Three rival Hungarian hoods break into his home, rape his wife and terrorize the kids. When Keyser arrives, the Hungarians demand his territory/business. However, Keyser gets the drop on them and shoots two. The third holds a child hostage, but to his horror, Keyser deliberately murders his own son. One by one, he follows up by wiping out his whole family, and lets the terrified Hungarian escape to tell everyone about his sure-to-follow growing legend. Keyser then hunts the rival gang, murdering all, including their families, and even their friends. He burns their houses and other meaningful establishments.  Then he disappears, leading to the last lines of the screenplay's narration:

He becomes a myth, a spook story that criminals tell their kids at night. If you rat on your pop, Keyser Soze will get you. And nobody really ever believes.

And you know why Keyser Soze could do all this and get away with it? It was because of his God-given roots.

He was a Turk....

 

FORGOTTEN PRISONERS: THE AMNESTY FILES (1990)

This TV film focuses on Turkey's oppressive nature because, as some Greeks, Armenians and other Turk-haters will tell you, Turkey has the worst human rights record in the world. At least in this film, the victim is a Turk, played by Hector Elizondo, who fails miserably in making sense of the Turkish language. Ron Silver plays an Amnesty International lawyer appalled by the shocking conditions in Turkish prisons, becoming determined to seek justice. Produced & Directed by Robert Greenwald, whose specialty is "socially-relevant TV movies" such as THE BURNING BED.

 

The late Lee Remick, as she appeared in 1975. She died of cancer.

A television-movie version of MIDNIGHT EXPRESS, but with a twist: the prisoner is a woman. Lee Remick, in her last role, gets framed by having an antique put in her bag, and her nightmare in the Turkish prison system begins (although she doesn't get anywhere near as brutalized as Billy Hayes... well, it is a TV-movie). An Australian IMDb reviewer comments: "Whilst much is made of Remick's blonde hair in a country of dark women, and her fear is believable, she isn't the heroic type, so her repeatedly being told how admirable she is, is unintentionally funny." I don't remember much of the film, but I do remember how the other Turkish inmates were always in awe of Lee Remick, clearly the superior human being.

  KING SOLOMON'S MINES (1985)

Pretty blond American maiden and a Lustful Turk

The RAIDERS OF THE LOST ARK rip-off with Richard Chamberlain and Sharon Stone — before she became a star — featured a double dosage of villains Westerners love to hate, a WWI era German and a Turk (dressed in the clothing style of an Ottoman era long past). At least the always wonderful John Rhys-Davies, playing the Turk (named "Dogati." Dogati... Pascali... are these Turks, or Italians?) doesn't come across as a total buffoon, and gives as well as he gets; even though his German "master," played by the equally always-wonderful Herbert Lom, keeps calling him "STUPID TURK" throughout the movie. I still enjoyed this film, regardless. Brought to us by the Israeli tag team of Yoram Globus and Menahem Golan... who would soon be replaced in anti-Turk cinematic depictions by Miramax's Harvey Weinstein. (ARARAT, coming up.)

  BREAD AND CHOCOLATE (1973)

This wonderful and ironic film explores the travails of an Italian immigrant to Switzerland, failing at practically everything. The comic relief is the stupid Turk, a fellow migrant worker who is even more of a foul-up. Our hero's "girlfriend" is yet another immigrant, who is clearly an outstanding human being. What ethnicity does she happen to be? Why, Greek, of course.

One moving scene was the Turk, at the receiving end of our hero's insults throughout the film, being observed by the hero as the Turk greets his family at the train station. His children kiss the Turkish boob's hands, and show him much respect, while our hero looks on with... envy? Some remorseful emotion, anyway.

A quarter-century or so later, at least the struggling Turkish immigrant would be treated more sympathetically, as with DIRTY PRETTY THINGS (2002), on the short list of "Good Treatment" films, near the top of this list.

I look forward to seeing this Spanish film one day. It regards a woman, Desideria (Ana Belén) whose sexual urges are not fulfilled with her husband, until she meets Yaman (Georges Corraface), on a trip to Turkey. He is a brutal lover, and ravages her, as only Turks can; she gets so hooked, she leaves her husband to be with the cad... who makes a practice of seducing women.

She's in for it... wait till she gets a taste of The Lustful Turk

I like the idea of this film because it seems to highlight a quality of Turkish men that has been kept hidden: their virility. I've encountered a couple of accounts by Western travellers who remark on this facet. However, while Frenchmen have the reputation of being great lovers, anything positive about Turks would certainly be squashed, so the only hint we get about this passionate quality about Turks is in the stereotype of "The Lustful Turk"... where instead of driving a woman mad with desire, the Turk exhibits the negative characteristics of perversion and lechery.  Yaman does not appear to be the kind of screen lover that women would ordinarily sigh over; he represents the typical rough, macho creep modern women know to reject. (Apparently, he ultimately drives Desideria into "a self destructive circle of violence, prostitution and sodomy.") Regardless, I prefer to look at the good in this guy; we're not going to get a Turkish Johnny Depp. At least his character gives a hint that Turkish lovers might have something to offer. (Cheee!)

 

 

Michael the Moroccan loverboy with Denise

Another European attempt with a similar motif is one I haven't seen.... a Dutch tele-film called LOVERBOY (2003), for
the teenage market. The "loverboy" of the title appears to be Moroccan, but the big bad boss of the movie is Turkish.
(Turks reportedly represent the seamy underbelly of Dutch society, probably not alone among Western European nations where Turkish immigrants have made themselves noticeably felt.) Michael, the chief loverboy takes a sweet seventeen-year-old girl, Denise (Monique van der Werff), and turns her into a cheap street hooker; she goes along, because she falls deeply in love with him, thus throwing away her old world's safe environment... like Desideria from TURKISH PASSION. Sounds like an interesting film, shot
documentary-style, as we follow our heroine's depraved (mis)adventures. The catch is, the Moroccan loverboy falls in
love, and becomes as protective as his loveless upbringing will allow... but the real victimizer seems to be the Turkish
overlord and perhaps one-time loverboy, to whom... from what I have gathered...  the smaller-time loverboys owe money.

This brings to mind a famous Dutch film called TURKS FRUIT (1973), a frank, let-it-all-hang-out love story with a
realism uncommon to Hollywood, directed by BASIC INSTINCT's sexual madman Paul Verhoeven (and starring Rutger
Hauer)... nominated for the Oscar as Best Foreign Language film. It is reportedly still the biggest-grossing Dutch film in history. A
provocative, sexually explicit, graphic and even violent film, not for the fainthearted, that hasn't anything to do with Turks,
save for the title... an interesting choice connoting passion and intensity... also known as TURKISH DELIGHT. I gather
there is a scene where the two lovers eat the Turkish candy ("lokum"), and the symbolism is perhaps applicable to
Rutger Hauer's character, rough on the outside and sweet within, which some say applies as well to the movie as a
whole, judged as rude and base at the surface... by those who weren't able to see the tenderness and beauty within.

"The Lustful Turk" stereotype as discussed at TAT applies only to Turkish men. What about Turkish women?

Naturally, there is always a danger when one thinks in stereotypical terms... but something usually doesn't become a stereotype unless there is a grain of truth to begin with.

The stereotype of Northern Europeans, the French excluded, is that sexually, they are not very hot stuff. Let's not insult the women, and just talk about the men. Gwyneth Paltrow caused a furor in England not long ago, criticizing English men for not being sexually aggressive; perhaps she was not without a point, as when I think of Roger Moore as James Bond (exceptionally handsome on the outside, but one who doesn't look like he could let loose on the inside), it's hard to imagine any woman fluttering her eyes and going, "Oh, James..." (Sean Connery, on the other hand, would be a much different story; but Connery is hardly veddy, veddy British.) German men don't have a reputation as being wonderful in bed, and when I once asked a Swedish girlfriend what she thought of Swedish men, she opined they were fairly unexciting and "square." (Then I brought up the young Max Von Sydow, and her heart skipped a beat; so obviously, there are exceptions to every rule.)

Southern European men are stereotypically much more hot-blooded... as Soghoman Tehlirian's German lawyer made sure to point out, to distinguish how much more animal-like Turks and Armenians could be, compared to the Germans.

No Spaniard could become a flamenco dancer or bullfighter without knowing how to satisfy a woman. The Italians can be like firecrackers... even Benito Mussolini made sure to often be photographed without his shirt to demonstrate his virility. I don't know much about the sexuality of Greek men, but I'd imagine they would not be far from this rule, as long as they didn't wear their funny looking skirts. (For example, think of "Zorba the Greek," who embodied passion.) Only the Turk gets the stereotype of being "Lustful," and even though this is meant in a denigrating fashion... if we can look at the positive side of the coin, the meaning of a red-blooded man is to be nothing but lustful.

The same must be applied to women; who needs a fuddy-duddy ice princess? Just as a real man would pride himself on being virile and passionate, a real woman would think no less the same.

All of the Southern European, Mediterranean women have a "hot" reputation in Western culture. The Spanish are fiery vixens, the Italians are earthy, and the Greeks are hot-tempered and tempestuous... if Melina Mercouri's image serves as an example.

Sophia Loren: One Woman

(You know, my mind just travelled to Sophia Loren as an example of the sexy, earthy Italian woman... and then I thought of Vittorio de Sica's classic, TWO WOMEN. Sophia's character, along with her daughter, gets raped by African soldiers in war-torn Italy, and she curses them out afterwards, calling them... among other things... "TURKS." Sigh! Et tu, Sophia? [ADDENDUM, 10-06: A reviewing of the film in the original Italian with subtitles made no reference to "Turks"; the first viewing was of a dubbed print. In addition, as the Africans left their victims unconscious, the ones being cursed are Americans, for letting their riff-raff loose.])

Turkish women? They are not thought of in this same way. Although I have a feeling "The Lustful Turk," in its most positive sense, would not be a one-way street.

One hint not supportive of this view was presented in a years-ago American article about Natashas, desperate Russian women looking to make a living after the fall of the Iron Curtain... and many found a market in Turkey as prostitutes, threatening the stability of many marriages. The reason given was that Turkish wives were lacking in keeping the home fires burning, but when I thought about it later... isn't the "Not tonight, dear, I have a headache" attitude from wives a universal concept? On an "Oprah" program from a few years back, for example, forty percent of American women were revealed via a survey to "hate" sex. The bulk of these women were older, and presumably married.

How have Turkish women fared in Western cinema regarding sexuality? This is not an area that's covered, as "Moslem" Turkish women are probably seen as wanting to stay as far away from sex as possible (and among the very religious Turkish women, that would appear to be the case.... as it would be among the very religious of any religion)... so there isn't much to talk about, as opposed to the Lustful, "perverted" Turkish male.

Here is the only example I've come across in a Western film touching on the topic of Turkish female sexuality: In 1974's French-Italian co-production THE GYPSY (with Alain Delon in the title role, an outlaw anti-hero), two criminal accomplices head off in a car after the gang parts ways. One says they'll be in Switzerland soon, and maybe they'll go to Turkey. The other, a lady-killer (Nicolas Vogel), looks dreamily into space and mutters, "Those submissive broads..."

 

ADDENDUM (Outside reading): Western quotes on Turkish women, as this one by Paul Rycaut:
Turkish women "are accounted the most lascivious and immodest of all Women, and excel in the most refined and ingenious subtilties to steal their pleasures." From the West Chester University page.

 

DUST (2001, etc.)

Ka-Pow.

The German Der Tagespiegel declared the film anti-Albanian and Neo-Fascist, saying: "Instead of the Albanian Muslims we have here the Ottomans as the 'untermenschen' and the Macedonians are as innocent as lambs," which are slaughtered during the film numerously. Alexander Walker from the London Evening Standard accused the Macedonian filmmaker, Milcho Manchevski, of making a racist film, showing the Turks "as herd of a corrupt people who gibber like apes in red fezes, and are more violent and far less responsible than Macedonians." Walker then asked Manchevski: "I wonder what you think the effect will be upon contemporary Turkey which is at the present moment trying to enter the European Union. Do you have a political agenda by this film?" Manchevski only replied: "Thank you for your statement." I have not seen the film, but how nice of the British and the Germans to stand up for the Turks.

Aren't the Macedonians and Greeks at each other's throats? I guess Greeks who love to pass off the Macedonian Alexander the Great as their own can take this as positive proof that Macedonians are cut from an entirely different cloth... since Macedonians don't seem to follow the iron-clad Greek rule, "The enemy of my enemy is my friend."

By Elia Kazan

Director Elia Kazan's account of an Anatolian Greek, Stavros, who arrives as an immigrant in the United States (whereupon he falls to his knees in gratitude and kisses the ground). Kazan, born in Turkey (and half-Armenian), wrote the screenplay and novel as a means of exploring his family’s cultural heritage...Stavros Topouzoglou is based on Kazan’s uncle, the first member of the family to immigrate to the New Land.

The film's hero.

Oppression rears its head when the Turkish Army sets fire to a church filled with Armenian women and children, and the Turks are not treated as being very nice people all around. The only "fair" moment I remember was when (Stavros, I guess) was in line to get seriously harassed by Ottoman troops when one of them recognizes Stavros as an old pal... whereupon the belongings the soldiers roughly took from him are quickly put back in the cart. The Turk says something like they are being treated badly, too. (Two seconds of the Turkish viewpoint! Ho-paa!)

The great director (ON THE WATERFRONT) became largely despised by the Hollywood set for ratting on many during the Senator McCarthy period, in the interest of saving his own skin, which led to the ruin of many careers. Of course, Kazan wasn't the only one who was a fink.

 

MAYRIG (1991), 588 RUE PARADIS (1992)

Verneuil (Achod Malakian) & Claudia Cardinale

I knew Omar Sharif was famous for DR. ZHIVAGO, but I had no idea another of his claims to fame was that he might be the one actor who has appeared in the most Turk-unfriendly movies..! Noted French director Henri Verneuil's real name was Achod Malakian, born in Turkey, and his last film efforts dealt with his family's escape from the brutal Ottoman Empire... and I take it MAYRIG ("Mother," played by Claudia Cardinale) presents the biographical tale of "Azad" rising in his new land to become a playwright, and in the sequel, 588 RUE PARADIS, a film director. Followed in 1993 by MAYRIG, the apparent mini-TV series, where Omar Sharif reprised his role of "Hagop." The original MAYRIG has a character named "Tehlirian," which I assume represents the Armenian hero/assassin who shot Talat Pasha in the back of the head, and (as the New York Times reported; it probably was not true) heroically shot Talat’s innocent wife. An IMDb commentator from Italy calls MAYRIG a "masterpiece," and adds: "The film totally smells ‘hate & revenge’. "

 

"Armenian monk" Soghomon Soghomonian, known as Komitas, is a composer (the music for this film is mostly his)... he was later "devastated by the horrors of the 1915 massacre and spent the rest of his years in various mental institutions." (Komitas was among the 235 arrested in Istanbul on April 24, 1915, but was released after only two weeks' imprisonment. Having left for Europe not long afterwards, it's doubtful that he actually witnessed any massacres. Sounds like the old "He went mad for who knows what reason.... hey! Let's blame the 'genocide'!" trick.) Director Don Askarian emigrated from the Soviet Union to West Germany, and biographer Nune Hovhannisyan gushes, "He is perhaps the only director whose ‘purely Armenian’ films have been professionally distributed and proved financially successful in Germany, Japan, Holland and England."

ASSIGNMENT BERLIN (1981)

 

I gave my story on how I came to see this film (about Talat Pasha’s assassination and the ensuing trial), when it was presented by a university’s Armenian club, in the Trial of Tehlirian section of TAT. Naturally, it was the duty of the Armenian director to show the Ottomans were behind a state-sponsored policy for extermination, and there was even a fantasy scene of a Wannsee-type Conference… where Turkish officials discuss the Armenian Final Solution. The proof supplied that allowed for the assassin to walk away a free man were the forged Aram Andonian telegrams of Talat Pasha.... yet these documents were rejected, even at what amounted to a kangaroo court. Imagining that the fake telegrams were actually introduced in the trial, since the film makes it sound like the telegrams were the reason for the acquittal, it would have been ethical to let the viewer in on the illegitimacy of these forged papers, the originals for which Andonian claimed were "lost," and later personally admitted were meant as propaganda. (Did I say "ethical"?)

 

THE TERRIBLE TURKISH EXECUTIONER (1904)

 

The punishment isn't capital

Great special effects film pioneer Georges Méliès got in on the anti-Turkish act almost during the birth of the cinema! The Turk of the title is terrible enough to pull out his great big sword and decapitate four men with one blow. The victims don't stay dead, however (making the Turkish executioner pretty terrible in another sense), and exact revenge. The film is three minutes long.

(Thanks to Dave Sindelar.)

 

ABDUL THE DAMNED (1935)

 

There were photos of Abdul from the 1942 British book, "Grand Turk," that I had scanned and used elsewhere on TAT, often wondering where they were from. Now I know. Directed by Karl Grune and starring Fritz Kortner in the title role, and Greek-Briton actor George Zucco (as the firing squad captain; see pic at bottom of page), I can't say for certain whether the British film is unfair... but I suppose the title itself gives a good clue. (Naturally, it could mean in the sense of "Damned if Abdul did or didn't," but I don't think so.) It sounds like one to catch. The menacing chief of secret police "removes" possible threats to the paranoid sultan. A foreign dancer/actress spurns Abdul's attentions, and the police chief arrests her fiancé, forcing her to enter Abdul's harem. I think that's only a subplot... the film as a whole seems to be more of a character study, "an intense psychologically sound portrait of a man terrorised by the repercussions of his own reign of terror!", as "Film Weekly" put it. Photo 1 and Photo 2.

ADDENDUM, 11-06: This film now has an in-depth analysis.

 

CLEOPATRA JONES (1973)

 

The film begins with a camel rolling on its back to give the flavor we are in the Middle East. To drive home the "exotic" point, several men in Arab costume stand alongside Turkish government officials. At least the Turks are the good guys as American agent Cleopatra Jones (Tamara Dobson) orders the British-accented Turkish general ("I hope it meets with your approval, Miss Jones") to destroy a poppy field: "That's right, baby; thirty million dollars worth of shit that ain't going in some kid's veins. Burn it."

Jones and Turkish general (right) pass a group of Turkish military
officials that strangely include several in Arab garb

PRIVATE BENJAMIN (1980)

Goldie and the Turk

Goldie Hawn plays Private Benjamin, a spoiled woman who rises in the ranks of the U.S. military, ultimately assigned to NATO in Europe, under Lt. Rahmi, a Turkish officer who mangles the English language; yet another buffoon used as comic relief, reinforcing the image of incompetence.

 

Since this page is getting too large, new additions will be featured on their own pages.

VAMPYROS LESBOS (1972)

CRYPT OF THE LIVING DEAD (1973)

THE FAVORITE ["INTIMATE POWER"] (1989)

OUT OF REACH (2004)

 

One Example of...

TURKS IN "EASTERN" CINEMA</