William H. Pine and William C. Thomas, Paramount’s bustling “Dollar Bills,” can obviously take American history in their fanciful, free-wheeling stride. Such a little thing as adherence to historical fact or atmosphere doesn’t even begin to restrain them in their rustling up an entertainment film. In Tripoli, a lush adventure drama […], they have played hob with the War of the Barbary Pirates, but they have brought off a rousing, popular show. Finding initial inspiration in the actual expedition of an American-led force which crossed the Libyan Desert from Alexandria and successfully attacked Derna in 1805, the two Bills have boldly surrounded this incident in history with such a coating of outlandish fancy that even Cecil B. DeMille might envy it. [The] generous gentlemen equipped an exiled pasha with a camp that rivals in Technicolored comforts any Hollywood-dreamed seraglio [and they] have let anachronisms fall as freely and frankly in their film as they have laid on the fixtures of horse opera and the recognized elements of romance […] The acting, of course, is in that spirit […] Miss O’Hara looks surprisingly magnificent to be floundering about in the desert sands but not in this fantastic picture. She is the crowning touch. — Bosley Crowther, Nov. 10, 1950.