Jeff Chandler is Jason Starbuck, a fur trapper who rides into Salem, Mass., in 1800 to sell his beaver pelts.
He winds up being challenged to a horse race. If he loses, he’ll continue trapping furs for a local businessman.
If he wins, Starbuck gets to sell his horse and that businessman pays his ship passage. After all, Starbuck is eager to explore the world he’s only heard and read about.
Then Starbuck meets a lovely redhead named Roxana, who provides him a tip that helps him win that race.
He’s even more mystified when he learns that Roxana is engaged to the jockey of the other horse, a well-off business who needs to be taken down a peg or two in her mind.
They fall for one another, of course, but Roxana is determined to go through with the marriage to keep her father afloat financially.
It’s not until after Starbuck rides off alone that her father learned the truth and calls off the engagement.
By the time Starbuck gets that news and rides back to Salem, Roxana and her father are on a ship bound for France.
Starbuck follows, but arrives to discover Roxanna’s ship was attacked by Moroccan pirates. Her father was killed; she’s been swept off to Morocco to serve as a slave in a rich man’s harem.
Rhonda Fleming as Roxana Reil answers the door to find handsome stranger Jason Starbuck (Jeff Chandler) calling on her in Yankee Pasha (1954)
Review:
The plot is far-fetched as they come. Chandler starts the film in frontier duds and ends it wearing a turban, better to infiltrate Moroccan high society and find his lady love.
But the film does feature the ever-gorgeous Fleming and co-star Mamie Van Doran wearing harem attire. They even get into a catfight at one point.
This marked one of Van Doran’s first major roles. She plays a slave girl given to Chandler’s character. But she chatters so much, he wants nothing to do with her.
Rex Reason plays the Moroccan prince who tries, unsuccessfully, to tame the defiant Roxana.
Lee J. Cobb is his rival. He hires Starbuck to train his men how to fire a rifle, giving him a chance to scour Morocco for his lost love.
Don’t expect exotic scenery. The movie was filmed in California, and looks it.
The other harem girls are played by an assortment of pageant beauties.
Jeff Chandler as Jason Starbuck shows off his markmanship to The Sultan (Lee J. Cobb, left) in Yankee Pasha (1954)
Directed by:
Joseph Pevney
Cast:
Jeff Chandler … Jason Starbuck
Rhonda Fleming … Roxana Reil
Mamie Van Doren … Lilith
Lee J. Cobb … Sultan
Hal March … Hassen Sendar
Rex Reason … Omar Id-Din
as Bart Roberts
Benny Rubin … Zamil
Tudor Owen … Elias Derby
Harry Lauter … Dick Bailey
Forbes Murray … Reil
Arthur Space … U.S. Consul Richard O’Brien
Harem girls: Christiane Martel (Miss France), Myrna Hansen (Miss United States), Kinko Ito (Miss Japan), Emita Arosemena (Miss Panama), Synove Gulrandsen (Miss Norway), Alicia Ibanez (Miss Uruguay) Ingrid Mills (Miss South Africa), Maxine Morgan (Miss Australia)
Rhonda Fleming as Roxana Reil is introduced to Omar Id-Din (Rex Reason) as a possible addition to his harem in Yankee Pasha (1954)
Memorable lines:
Flesh trader: “I’ve had my slaves take her (Roxana) to the baths and array her in the finest of silks so that you may better appreciate the perfection of her face and limbs.”
Omar Id-Din: “A tasty morsel should always be well served.”
Lilith, eyeing up Jason Starbuck: “Are you my new master?”
Servant: “El capitan, the great sultan makes you a gift of this female slave.”
Jason: “Female slave?”
Lilith: “I’ll obey your every word. I am by nature timid and silent and will not bore you with much idle talk, as would other women. I will look after all your wants so that your wishes will be gratified even before the words have been spoken.”
Omar Id-Din: “You’ve been here long enough to know how to greet me properly.”
Roxana: “I will call no man my master.”
Omar Id-Din: “Such spirit amused me at first. But now it annoys me. Henceforth, you’ll be treated no better than a groom in my stable.”
Roxana: “I would much prefer your stable to your harem.”
Mamie Van Doren as harem girl Lilith introduces herself to a befuddled Jason Starbuck (Jeff Chandler) in Yankee Pasha (1954)
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