'Somewhere in Turkey' is dated but fun

Somewhere in Turkey (1918)
Starring: Harold Lloyd, Bebe Daniels, William Blaisdell, and Harry Pollard
Director: Alf Goulding
Rating: Five of Ten Stars

An explorer (Lloyd) and a beautiful castaway (Daniels) fall in love while imprisoned by an idol-worshipping sultan (Blaisdell).

"Somewhere in Turkey" may be one of those films that the passage of time has left behind... or maybe it's just not that good and even audiences in 1918 might have felt a little disappointed. While it's probably both, I think it's more of the latter than the former.

First, while the film has many strong slapstick moments (several involving literal slapping), most of the comedic routines are stretched to the point they stop being funny and start being repetitive; this is not a good thing for any film, but it's Very Bad when we're talking about something with a running-time of 10 minutes. Second, the story is sloppily constructed with Harry Pollard's character just vanishing about 2/3rds of the way through... and Lloyd's character doesn't seem to give him a second thought as he rides off with his new lady-friend. It's actually unusual for these comedies to leave such a huge element unresolved. (Of course, since the version I viewed--which is embedded below--is 10 minutes in length, and various sources report that it's 12 minutes long, so maybe Pollard's fate is explained in that missing footage.)

As for the film being left behind by the passage of time, I think there are some things that modern viewers will find distracting that might not have bothered audiences a century ago. For example, there's an executioner in the sultan's palace that appears in straight-up minstrel show black face instead of a black actor playing the part--something which probably shouldn't have been so far-fetched an idea, since less than two years later, black characters were being played by in films headlined by Buster Keaton, such as "Convict 13".

I have some further nitpicks about the costuming choices for this film. The characters look more Arab or Tunisian than Turkish, but that's all those are... nitpicks, and I probably wouldn't even have thought about it if not for a far bigger problem in the film:

It's a major plot point that the Sultan's court are idol-worshippers, in spite of the setting being northern Turkey and the Sultan ruling over Muslim. Even for a goofy comedy, this really stretched my disbelief, even allowing for Turkey being more "secular" in those days. Maybe audiences of 1918 didn't have the same level of cultural insights we have today--or maybe it's me that's over-educated in this matter--but more so than anything that bothered me about this film. (It's possible that the Sultan and his inner circle are secret idol-worshippers, as this is something that's hinted at in the manner Lloyd' and Pollard's characters end up in the mortal danger, but it seems more likely to me that this is just another artifact of indifferent writing. These problems could have been avoided if the film's setting had been a fictitious nation, It's a problem that could have been avoided if the location had been an imaginary one, such as in "His Royal Slyness", a 1919 film also starring Lloyd. That said, it's entirely possible that the film originally was set in a fictitious country, but was "relocated" due to Turkey being an enemy of U.S. and allies in World War I.)

For all the negativity I've just heaped on "Somewhere in Turkey", I have to say that Lloyd and Daniels are excellent together as always (once they finally get to share the screen). In fact, Daniels is front and center in all the best scenes in the film, from her melodramatic posturing when captured at the beginning of the film; to her confrontation with the Sultan; and her imprisonment and escape with Lloyd's character at the end, the scenes are all cute, funny, and to the point. In fact, I think that Daniels' presence, more than anything else, makes this film worth your taking a few minutes to check out. (And you can do so right now, since it's embedded below.)