VIRTUAL TANGIER:
You've Seen this City Before

  Like many other great cities of the world, Tangier is already a part of your consciousness, whether you've set foot there or not. It's been the exotic backdrop, if not the centerpiece, for many films, and they have become part of its legend. Actors and actresses dropped in and out of the scene, as part of the international set, all the time I was there.
  I played bad cocktail music at the Minzah hotel one night for Cyd Charisse and her escort. The whole room inhaled and exhaled each time she crossed and uncrossed her legs. She was gracious enough to do so often, and to leave a tip larger than our pay for the night.
  I remember fondly watching the whole boulevard buzzing as Clint Walker ("Cheyenne") tried to blend inconspicuously into the passing crowd. The effort was a dismal failure as he only towered a foot above anyone else on the street.
 
  Perhaps the best was Errol Flynn. He was the guest of honor at an afternoon cocktail party thrown at a villa on the Mountain when I was quite young. The host was gracious enough to provide a separate party for the children of the guests on a lower terrace.
 Of course I had to sneak up to see Captain Blood. He stood regal and glassy-eyed in a corner of the room, drink in hand, surrounded by chattering ladies. I crept over and tugged at his blazer. Amazingly, the Captain knelt down on one knee, cutting short some poor woman in mid-sentence, and talked to me as if I had every right to be there.
  I basked in his attention (and the glares of all the other adults) for what seemed a golden eternity but was probably no more than a minute. A cocktail dress tapped him on the shoulder and said Errol, you really must meet so and so. He nodded, then bent close to me and said "Kid, you and I are the only people in this room who aren't complete assholes." Then he rose and left, having assured he would be my hero forever. 
 
   Some of the films shot in Tangier, which give the feel of the place:
The Captain's Paradise (1953)
 		 Alec Guiness is a captain of the ferry between Tangier and Gibralter, with a wife in either port. There's some authentic background  footage in both places.
That Man from Rio (1967)
 		 Jean-Paul Belmondo stars in an early spoof of the Bond films. Though the action is set in Brazil and the Amazon jungle, much was actually shot in Tangier's Ville Nouvelle..
The Wind and the Lion (1975)
 		 Sean Connery is Raisuli, the legendary chief of the Rif who caused an international incident by kidnapping an American living in Tangier and demanding a ransom from Teddy  Roosevelt. Candace Bergen plays the American Perdecaris who, unfortunately for the romance of the story, was actually a man.
The Living Daylights  (1986) 
 		 Timothy Dalton as James Bond pretends to assassinate the Chief of the KGB at a conference in the Mendoub's Palace, deep in the Kasbah. He escapes across the rooftops of the old city, with authentic Tangier policemen in wheezing pursuit. It's all an effort to trap an international arms dealer who happens to live in the Forbes mansion overlooking the Straits. The film supposedly moves to Afghanistan, in actuality the Atlas mountains to the south.
The Sheltering Sky (1990)
 		 We meet the narrator, Paul Bowles, in a café in the Medina, as the characters he created (John Malkovich and Debra Winger) begin their journey to doom in the southern desert. 


 
  Other films shot in Morocco which carry a great deal of authentic ambience:
The Man Who Knew Too Much (2nd version)  by Alfred Hitchcock.
The Man Who Would be King  by John Huston
The Last Temptation of Christ by Martin Scorscese
Hideous Kinky by Gillies Mac Kinnon
  It seems so right, somehow, that "Casablanca". the film most associated with Morocco, is totally a celluloid dream.  Films of a mythical Tangier include:
  • Tangier (1946)
  • Tangier Cop (1997)
  • Tangier Incident (1953)
  • Billete para Tánger (1954)...aka Tangier Assignment (1954) (UK) 
  • Tanger (1982)...aka Tangier ­ vaarojen kaupunki (1982) (Finland) 
  • Man from Tangier (1957)...aka Thunder Over Tangier (1957) (USA) 
  • Flight to Tangier (1953)
  • Woman from Tangier, The (1948)
  • Marc Mato, agente S. 077 (1965)...aka Espionage in Tangier (1965) (USA: TV title) ...aka S.077 spionaggio a Tangeri (1965) (Italy) 
  • Aquel hombre de Tánger (1950)...aka That Man from Tangier (1950) (USA) 
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     This site created and maintained by Del Hillgartner. © 2000 All rights reserved.