Sahara (1943 American film)

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Sahara
Directed by Zoltan Korda
Produced by Harry Joe Brown
Written by Philip MacDonald (story)
James O'Hanlon
John Howard Lawson (screenplay)
Starring Humphrey Bogart
Bruce Bennett
Lloyd Bridges
J. Naish
Dan Duryea
Music by Miklós Rózsa
Cinematography Rudolph Maté
Editing by Charles Nelson
Distributed by Columbia
Release date(s) November 11, 1943
Running time 97 minutes
Language English
Allmovie profile
IMDb profile

Sahara is a 1943 war film directed by Zoltan Korda. Humphrey Bogart stars as a U.S. tank commander in Egypt during the Western Desert Campaign of World War II. The movie earned three Academy Award nominations: Best Sound, Best Cinematography (Black-and-White) and Best Supporting Actor by J. Carrol Naish for his role as an Italian prisoner.

A television remake starring Jim Belushi in Bogart's role was broadcast in 1995.

Contents

[edit] Plot

An M3 Lee tank (nicknamed Lulu Belle by Gunn, who served in the cavalry), commanded by Sergeant Joe Gunn (Humphrey Bogart), becomes separated from its unit during a general retreat from Rommel's forces. At a bombed-out field hospital, the crew picks up a motley assortment of stragglers, among them a British doctor, other Commonwealth troops, and a Free French soldier. Later, they are joined by a Sudanese soldier and his Italian prisoner, and a Luftwaffe pilot who strafes them and is shot down.

Running out of water, they are forced to detour to a desert well marked on Gunn's map. They find it, but it is almost empty, providing only a trickle of water. A German half track arrives soon afterwards, is ambushed and its crew nearly wiped out. Gunn finds out from the survivors that a German battalion, desperate for water, is following close behind. He decides to make a stand to delay the Germans any way he can, while he sends one of his crew in search of help in the captured German vehicle. The two surviving Germans are released, to carry back an offer: "guns for water", even though there is barely enough for Gunn's men.

The well has completely dried up by the time the Germans arrive. A standoff and battle of wills begins. Gunn pretends the well is full of water and negotiates to waste time. Eventually, the Germans attack and are beaten off again and again, but one by one, the defenders are killed. The final assault turns into a full-blown surrender as thirst-maddened Germans drop their weapons and claw across the sand towards the well. To Gunn's shock, he discovers that a German shell that exploded in the well, has tapped into another source of water and filled the well. Gunn and the only other Allied survivor disarm the Germans while they're drinking their fill and start marching them east, where they encounter Allied troops led by Gunn's courier. The movie ends with news of Montgomery's victory at the Second Battle of El Alamein.

[edit] Production

The movie was filmed on location in the Imperial County portion of the Anza-Borrego Desert State Park, near the Salton Sea, using soldiers of the U.S. 4th Armored Division as extras.

One of the writers was John Howard Lawson, later one of the Hollywood Ten, who were accused of promoting Communist propaganda. The film's themes of brotherhood and Allied unity reflected the spirit of the times.

In 1992, Kreuger told the San Francisco Chronicle,

I was running across the dunes when Tambul jumped on top of me and pressed my head into the sand to suffocate me. Only Zoltan forgot to yell cut, and Ingram was so emotionally caught up in the scene that he kept pressing my face harder and harder. Finally, I went unconscious. Nobody knew this. Even the crew was transfixed, watching this dramatic ‘killing.' If Zoltan hadn't finally said cut, as an afterthought, it would have been all over for me.[1]

[edit] War movie clichés

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The movie is marked by many war movie clichés, most obviously (as in many American-made war movies filmed during the war) that the heroes are culturally and ethnically diverse. All of the characters have distinctive ethnic characteristics (British, French, African, Italian, German) reflecting the international scope of Allied efforts against the Nazis (the captured Italian soldier becomes an ally, as did many Italians after 1943, unlike the captured Nazi pilot). The U.S. crew reflects standard portrayals of Americans in wartime films, with Dan Duryea portraying a G.I. from Brooklyn, Bruce Bennett one from Texas, and Bogart a career soldier whose origins are never stated nor important. Reflecting the U.S. military's policy of unit segregation at the time, none of the Americans are black.

[edit] Inconsistencies

The film is not historically accurate, since no American ground forces participated the Western Desert Campaign. However, American forces, including tank units, were fighting in North Africa at the time depicted in the movie.

The German soldiers were wearing WWI-vintage helmets, presumably because the movie was made in the middle of WWII and current ones were unavailable.

At one point during a monologue Humphrey Bogart accidentally spits, inconsistent with the dry mouth he would have had if he and his crew were severely rationing water.

[edit] Cast

Americans:

British, French and Sudanese:

  • Captain Jason Halliday - Richard Nugent
  • Fred Clarkson - Lloyd Bridges
  • Osmond 'Ozzie' Bates - Patrick O'Moore
  • Peter Stegman - Guy Kingsford
  • Marty Williams - Carl Harbord
  • Jean 'Frenchie' Leroux - Louis Mercier
  • Sergeant Major Tambul - Rex Ingram, better known for his role as the genie in the classic 1940 version of The Thief of Bagdad

Axis:

[edit] References

  1. ^ Adam Bernstein (July 21, 2006). Kurt Kreuger, 89, Actor Portrayed Nazis (obituary). The Washington Post (on the New York Sun website). Retrieved on 2008-02-16.

[edit] External links