Richard Burton gives his usual splendid, stiff, explosive performance as Lt. Col. MacRoberts, an English ("Pommy") officer put in charge of Australian and New Zealand troops at Tobruk. There is some natural resentment on the part of the colonials. On top of that, Robert Newton is in his company, and Newton was Burton's old schoolmaster, now turned into a semi-coward.
Tobruk at the time was a crummy seaport surrounded by the Afrika Corps. Rommel was dashing all over the place more or less at will, except that his attack on Tobruk had failed. Rommel would eventually take Tobruk too, but by then the Allies had landed in Rommel's rear and he was now facing two front instead of one. To his further disadvantage, the German code had been cracked by the British, so they knew when ships with Rommel's supplies were to leave Italy. Few of the supply ships got through to the German and Italian troops in Africa. By El Alamein Rommel was losing two-thirds of his supply ships. It was not just an inconvenience. At times the Germans had to drain several tanks and abandon them, in order to fuel another. Not knowing the code had been broken, the Germans blamed the Italians for blabbing after they were taken prisoner. Rommel distrusted the Italians and their generals, one of the more operatic of which, Ettore Bastico, Rommel nicknamed "Bombastico."
Anyway, Burton is quite good and his support is too, including James Mason as Rommel. I admire Burton a lot and it may be heresy to suggest this but I wonder if he was the great actor everyone seemed to think. It was his voice that did it for him. "My name is Richard Burton -- and I've bean through hell." His Hamlet was misconceived. During the famous soliloquy he shuffles back and forth like a plastic bear in an amusement-park shooting gallery and hustles through the lines.
James Mason comes up with an absolutely unbearable German accent as General Rommel. "Come now, MacWooberts, I shushpect dzat you alweady know dzah answer." A year earlier he had given us an unimpeachable Rommel in "The Desert Fox." Rommel was so humanized that there were objections from the critics. Mason was TOO NICE. So here, playing the role a second time, he goes back to World War II stereotypes and plays Rommel as formal, condescending, and sneaky. He listens to Wagner while snapping out orders.
This is still a good war flick within the limitations of the genre at the time. The action scenes are exciting. The dialog is crisp and believable, mostly. There are some chronological goofs. Planes attacking the German trucks in Africa are TBFs from the Pacific Theater. And the Germans seem to be using American water-cooled Browning machine guns. And makeup has failed. The desert rats don't look like desert rats; they look like sewer rats -- oily and pale. And instead of dust, dirt is indicated by a smear of grease on somebody's cheek. It's a retrogressive flag waver that commits an easily avoided sin; it doesn't even TRY to capture the majesty of a vast and empty desert.
Tobruk at the time was a crummy seaport surrounded by the Afrika Corps. Rommel was dashing all over the place more or less at will, except that his attack on Tobruk had failed. Rommel would eventually take Tobruk too, but by then the Allies had landed in Rommel's rear and he was now facing two front instead of one. To his further disadvantage, the German code had been cracked by the British, so they knew when ships with Rommel's supplies were to leave Italy. Few of the supply ships got through to the German and Italian troops in Africa. By El Alamein Rommel was losing two-thirds of his supply ships. It was not just an inconvenience. At times the Germans had to drain several tanks and abandon them, in order to fuel another. Not knowing the code had been broken, the Germans blamed the Italians for blabbing after they were taken prisoner. Rommel distrusted the Italians and their generals, one of the more operatic of which, Ettore Bastico, Rommel nicknamed "Bombastico."
Anyway, Burton is quite good and his support is too, including James Mason as Rommel. I admire Burton a lot and it may be heresy to suggest this but I wonder if he was the great actor everyone seemed to think. It was his voice that did it for him. "My name is Richard Burton -- and I've bean through hell." His Hamlet was misconceived. During the famous soliloquy he shuffles back and forth like a plastic bear in an amusement-park shooting gallery and hustles through the lines.
James Mason comes up with an absolutely unbearable German accent as General Rommel. "Come now, MacWooberts, I shushpect dzat you alweady know dzah answer." A year earlier he had given us an unimpeachable Rommel in "The Desert Fox." Rommel was so humanized that there were objections from the critics. Mason was TOO NICE. So here, playing the role a second time, he goes back to World War II stereotypes and plays Rommel as formal, condescending, and sneaky. He listens to Wagner while snapping out orders.
This is still a good war flick within the limitations of the genre at the time. The action scenes are exciting. The dialog is crisp and believable, mostly. There are some chronological goofs. Planes attacking the German trucks in Africa are TBFs from the Pacific Theater. And the Germans seem to be using American water-cooled Browning machine guns. And makeup has failed. The desert rats don't look like desert rats; they look like sewer rats -- oily and pale. And instead of dust, dirt is indicated by a smear of grease on somebody's cheek. It's a retrogressive flag waver that commits an easily avoided sin; it doesn't even TRY to capture the majesty of a vast and empty desert.