| Desert Legion | |
| Director: | Joseph Pevney |
| Producer: | Ted Richmond |
| Screenplay: | Irving Wallace Lewis Meltzer |
| Based On: | novel The Demon Caravan by Georges Surdez |
| Starring: | Alan Ladd |
| Music: | Frank Skinner |
| Cinematography: | John F. Seitz |
| Editing: | Frank Gross |
| Color Process: | Technicolor |
| Studio: | Universal Pictures |
| Distributor: | Universal Pictures |
| Runtime: | 86 minutes |
| Country: | United States |
| Language: | English |
| Gross: | $1,650,000 (US)[1] |
Desert Legion is a 1953 American adventure film directed by Joseph Pevney and starring Alan Ladd.
Ladd stars as a soldier in the French Foreign Legion who stumbles across a lost city in the desert mountains of Algeria in North Africa.
The film was made by Universal Pictures, and based on a 1927 novel The Demon Caravan by Georges Arthur Surdez.
It was Alan Ladd's first film for Universal since becoming a star. It was a one-picture deal and gave Ladd a percentage of the profits, a relatively novel thing at the time.[2] [3] (He split profits with the studio 50–50.[4]) Joseph Pevney was assigned to direct.[5]
Ladd had broken his hand during a fight scene towards the end of his most recent film The Iron Mistress, but recovered to begin work on Desert Legion on 7 July 1952.[6]
Akim Tamiroff joined the support cast. It was his first Hollywood film in three years.[7]