The story is set in the fictional Middle Eastern country of Zadestan in 1948. Mark Miller is stationed at the U.S. Embassy in the fictional city of Kashkhan and is assigned to investigate the disappearance of and locate a young woman, Ellen Jasper, the daughter of a United States Senator, who vanished after her marriage to Colonel Nazrullah several months previously. Nazrullah is desperate to find her and becomes defensive when Miller asks about her. By law, Ellen has given up her rights as an American by becoming his wife. Miller traces her to a band of nomads who are running illegal guns. She doesn't want to leave, being estranged from both her parents and her husband. Miller doesn't want to return without proof she's alive and OK, which she refuses to give. Nazrullah lures the gun-runners into a trap. He separates Miller from the nomads and asks his wife to return to him but she refuses. Ellen at last gives Miller a note for her family. As the nomads leave, Nazrullah orders his troops to fire on them and Ellen is killed trying to rescue a child. A heart-broken Nazrullah carries away the body of his dead wife.
In the MGM Lionpower featurette in 1967 it was advertised as one of many coming attractions in development at the time. MGM later dropped out of the film's distribution. The film later was distributed by Universal.
The film was not well received by James Michener as it strayed wildly from the plot of his book, even eradicating its main character, a Nazi war criminalon the run who falls in love with the female lead character. This omission and other story changes caused Michener to take legal action.
Music
wrote the score, which has been the most successful element of the film, remaining a bestseller for many years after the film's release. The song "Caravan Song" was written by Mike Batt and sung by the Scottish singer Barbara Dickson. It peaked at No. 41 in UK charts and was included on her album All for a Song.
Reception
Harold C. Schonberg of The New York Times panned the film as a "fake epic," adding. "It has a fabricated plot, based on the James Michener novel, it has bad acting, it has unbelievably inane dialogue, and it has every cliché in the books, including an ending with the caravan silhouetted against the sunset. Even so reliable an actor as Anthony Quinn looks idiotic; he displays his macho by grunts and mutters, and occasionally there is a peculiar look on his face that suggests what he really thinks of all this nonsense." Variety wrote, "The main trouble with 'Caravans' isn't the Iranians, it's Hollywood. Almost every fake moment in the film, and there are lots of them, has the touch of Hollywood laid on with a heavy coating. Take away the Americans, of course, and you wouldn't have such a slick film, but you might have a more honest one." Roger Ebert of the Chicago Sun-Times gave the film 2 stars out of 4 and wrote that it was "slow and obvious, and at the end rather pointless," but "if you're facing a slow Sunday afternoon with a lot of time before the roast is done, 'Caravans' could, in its own way, be fun." Gene Siskel of the Chicago Tribune gave the film 1 star out of 4 and called it "a thoroughly laughable desert adventure" with the relationship between Quinn and O'Neill getting "short shrift" and the movie lacking "an action scene of any merit. Only at the very end is there a battle of sorts. But director James Fargo... shoots these scenes in boring medium shots. They are as exciting as if they had been shot with models in a sandbox." Kevin Thomas of the Los Angeles Times called the film "a stirring romantic epic on a grand scale marred by patches of truly terrible dialogue. As a result, despite all that this Universal release has going for it in the way of visual splendor and high adventure, it is likely to be entertaining only for the least discriminating." Gary Arnold of The Washington Post wrote, "'Caravans' will be lucky if it's remembered as an expensive flop... Ironically, the film's emptiness is magnified by the contrast between its drab, flimsy plot and vast, majestic landscapes. 'Caravans' is too inert to be salvaged by the photogenic advantages of impressive scenery." Tim Pulleine of The Monthly Film Bulletin wrote that "Ellen's twofold defection remains resolutely undramatised and the gun-running sub-plot is mainly demoted to a few cryptic reference to off-screen action. The movie thus becomes a tiresome exercise in anti-climax."
