| Adventure in Iraq | |
|---|---|
 Poster | |
| Directed by | D. Ross Lederman |
| Written by | George Bilson |
| Based on | The Green Goddess byWilliam Archer |
| Produced by | William Jacobs |
| Starring | John Loder andRuth Ford. |
| Cinematography | James Van Trees |
| Edited by | Clarence Kolster |
| Music by | Heinz Roemheld |
| Distributed by | Warner Bros. |
Release date |
|
| Country | United States |
| Language | English |
| Budget | $130,000[1] |
| Box office | $147,000[1] |
Adventure in Iraq is a 1943 Americanadventure film directed byD. Ross Lederman and starringJohn Loder,Ruth Ford,Warren Douglas andPaul Cavanagh. The film is based on the 1921 playThe Green Goddess byWilliam Archer.
Three Americans flying a small plane to Cairo, Egypt, are forced by engine failure to land in Iraq and are taken prisoner by an Arab chieftain.
The film was made byWarner Brothers as aprogrammer. It was a remake of Archer's playThe Green Goddess, updating the action to modernIraq. It encountered strong objections from theOWI, who charged that its plot was unintentionally bothanti-British andanti-Arab and was potentially offensive to America's ally and to neutral Arab countries. The film was already granted anexport licence, but pressure from theState Department overrode this. Consequently, it was the only Warners' film not to receive an overseas release during the 1940s.[2]
Writing inTurner Classic Movies, critic Frank Miller noted that, "Warner Bros. had no problem re-makingThe Green Goddess, the twice-filmed tale of a duplicitous, lustful Himalayan Raja, asAdventure in Iraq, the tale of a duplicitous, lustful Iraqi sheikh. In truth, the writers seem to have expended more effort updating the story to World War II than they did changing the location and the villain's cultural background." He also described the film as "hardly an A-picture" with a cast "made up of low-budget veterans."[3] A review of the film by Craig Butler inAllMovie noted that "the plot is overly familiar and not especially believable. Dialogue is of the cliched and stilted variety, and the characters have stock written all over them. David Ross Lederman's by the book direction doesn't help matters."[4]
The film earned $147,000 domestically and did not earn anything outside the US because it was not released there.[1]