My expectations of this film were low but I really liked it.ģ0s exploitation (7) aaron sorkin (37) Abbott and Costello (48) Aces of Action (4) Adam Sandler (8) Agatha Christie (23) AIP (201) Akira Kurosawa (8) Al Pacino (13) Alain Delon (32) Alan Ladd (118) Aldo Ray (17) Alec Coppel (26) Alex Korda (56) Alexander Dumas (14) Alistair MacLean (35) American politics (72) Amicus (28) Amy Adams (13) Amy Sherman-Palladino (3) Ana de Armas (6) Ancient History (114) Angelina Jolie (2) Ann Sheridan (13) Ann-Margret (24) Anna Faris (7) Anna Kendrick (5) Anna Neagle (10) Anne Hathaway (10) Anthony Mann (12) Anthony Steel (30) Antony I. There's a very very sympathetic German officer (Nazis come off better than the Italians - did Warwick's films do better in that market?), George Colouris as an unsympathetic German, an Englishman in brown face as a sheikh (but at least the film acknowledges there were Arabs in the desert during the North African campaign). Actually the death toll is high for this film, which makes it effective. There are also some Italian girls - Luciana Paluzzi, who later worked for Terence Young in Thunderball, as a beautiful girl who (shock) dies.
There's also references to other Aussie soldiers in the camp. The presence of Aussie characters in this is fun - Kelly has a smaller role compared to the others but is a brave decent bloke and when he dies they play 'Waltzing Matilda' on the soundtrack. The acting is decent: the five escaping POWs are Mature, Genn, Anthony Newley (far less annoying here than he usually was in Warwick films), Bonar Colleono (in one of his best films, as "the Pole", clearly suffering PTSD and keen to kill Germans) and South African Sean Kelly who plays an Aussie. The script was co written with Richard Maibaum, so it makes sense, has decent characters and structure. Writer-director Terence Young served in the desert during the war and clearly responds to the material - there's swirling desert sands, well choreographed action. I've got to say though I quite liked this film - it's a solid war adventure tale that moves at a decent pace.
There's also a dash of Rogue Male too with the reveal that Mature had a Jewish wife who wound up at Belsen, and who tried to kill Goebbels so the Nazis are after him. I get the feeling the gang at Warwick Films had this rewritten after watching Bridge on the River Kwai because it has several similar elements - English soldiers in a POW camp during World War Two (only here in North Africa), a stiff upper lip English officer (Leo Genn) clashing with an American soldier (Victor Mature), talk about the Geneva convention and escape committees.
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