Storm Over Asia

Though its title translates as Storm over Asia, this French melodrama bears no relation to the Pudovkin film of the same name. Conrad Veidt stars as a soldier of fortune who spearheads an expedition in Mongolia in hopes of finding hitherto untapped oil reserves. Veidt heads deep into uncharted territory, with his mistress Madeline Robinson by his side and 200 hired hands at his beck and call. As the only woman on the expedition, Robinson has quite a time fending off the lecherous advances of the other oil prospectors. When Veidt manages to offend tribal chieftan Sessue Hayakawa, a native uprising is the inevitable result. Nearly everyone gets killed except the plucky Robinson and the expedition's doctor, Roger Duchesne, who has loved her all along. Tempete sur L'Asie bears a striking resemblance to the 1965 Ursula Andress vehicle Once Before I Die.