If we talk about Technicolor epics in exotic, Arabian-Nights-style eastern locations – the stuff of Tits & Sand, if you will – we can’t ignore the beautiful Maria Montez.

Born María África Antonia García Vidal de Santo Silas in 1912¹ , daughter of the Spanish Consul in the Dominican Republic, Montez struck gold in Hollywood with a series of movies shot between 1942 and 1945, in which she was partnered with actor Jon Hall.

True, the definition of Tits & Sand had yet to be coined bu Maureen O’Hara, but the six Montez/Hall are certainly part of the genre²

• Arabian Nights (1942)
• White Savage (1943)
• Ali Baba and the Forty Thieves (1944)
• Cobra Woman (1944)
• Gypsy Wildcat (1944)
• Sudan (1945)

To this list, we can also add The Siren of Atlantis (1949) – which despite its title is not an underwater adventure, but a story set in the Sahara Desert, and loosely based on Pierre Benoit’s L’Atlantide.

To promote Montez, the studio also divulged a fake biography, claiming Montez had lived in Tenerife and had been educated in Ireland³.
Blacklisted by her studio for refusing a lead role, Montez moved to France with her husband. Her career in French cinema and theater was cut short by a heart attack in 1951.

I’m slowly working my way through the six Monte/Hall Technicolor films.
In the meantime, here’s a small gallery of portraits of the gorgeous Maria Montez.