Jessel (A Saudi Arabia-based American oilman on vacation, played by Tony Randall)- I understand they have professional storytellers in the market. You’d be a riot…Where does this road go? Kyra (A sultry femme fatale)- Over the Atlas Mountains to Ouarzazate. Jessel (his voice dripping with sarcasm)- Oh great, I’ve always wanted to go there.
-Our Man in Marrakesh (1966), A Comedy
Why isn’t this spy caper better known? Made on location in Marrakesh with a young Klaus Kinski, its opening credits with Gnawa musicians in the Jamā’ al-Fna, a sex scene evoking a nude Scheherazade wrapped in a Berber blanket, and a cavalcaded fantasia delivering the fugitive lovers to the palace of the El Caïd, played by Terry-Thomas (“At Eton they called me The Oily Can”), who drives his Rolls Royce like a campy Peter O’Toole’s Lawrence in Arab robe and headdress. The Mamounia Hotel never looked better, not twenty five years later when I saw it from the outside, nor ten years after that when they comped me a room.