Putting the opening scenes aside, this film turns most of Hollywood's favorite racial conventions upside down. Robeson is the one and only action hero in this film, he has a tiny white sidekick who provides comic relief and he gets the girl. The girl is played by a dark skinned actress while her "Arab" brothers are all white, but otherwise it is less groan worthy than many modern films. It has few pretensions, is well written and has lots and lots of footage of camels. Even the plot twist that another reviewer complains of is sort of plausible. And Robeson sings "Mammy's little baby loves shortnin' bread" to a baby and leaves out the "pickaniny" lines, so even that isn't really objectionable.
Review of Dark Sands
