Ice-Cold in Alex

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Ice-Cold in Alex
Directed by J. Lee Thompson
Produced by W.A. Whittaker
Written by Christopher Landon (novel & screenplay)
T.J. Morrison
Starring John Mills, Anthony Quayle, Sylvia Syms, Harry Andrews
Music by Leighton Lucas
Cinematography Gilbert Taylor
Editing by Richard Best
Distributed by Pathé
Release date(s) June 24, 1958
Running time 124 mins
Country United Kingdom
Language English
IMDb profile


Ice-Cold in Alex (1958) is a British film based upon the book of the same name by British author Christopher Landon, who also wrote the screenplay. It was directed by J. Lee Thompson and starred the late Sir John Mills.

It was a prizewinner at the Berlin International Film Festival, is frequently shown on television and is also available on video and DVD.

The film was also released as Desert Attack (1961) in the USA.

Contents

[edit] Plot

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The film is set during the Western Desert Campaign of World War II. A British base comes under attack by the German Afrika Korps and is evacuated, but the crew of the ambulance "Katy" - MSM Tom Pugh (Harry Andrews) and Nurses Diana Murdoch (Sylvia Syms) and Denise Norton (Diane Clare) - are separated from their unit and forced to trek across country to escape capture. With them is Captain Anson (John Mills), suffering from battle-fatigue and on the verge of becoming an alcoholic, and Dutch-speaking South African officer Captain van der Poel (Anthony Quayle), who carries a suitcase he seems very attached to.

Anson, the central character, motivates himself by thinking of the ice-cold lager he can order when they finally make it to Alexandria - the "Alex" of the movie title. En route to their destination, the group meets with various setbacks and it is largely from their interaction during these incidents that the characters come to life.

Twice the group encounter parties of Afrika Korps soldiers but van der Poel, who speaks German, is able to persuade the Germans to allow them to pass on their way. The second time, the Germans seem reluctant until van der Poel shows them the contents of his suitcase.

Suspicious of van der Poel, Pugh follows him when he heads off into the desert with a spade (to dig a latrine) and his case. He reports back that he thought he saw an antenna. Another night they decide to use Katy's lights to look to see what Van de Poel is really up to. Van de Poel panics and blunders into some quicksand. He loses his case, though not before Anson and Diana arrive and see it to be a radio set. They drag him to safety and continue on their way after sedating him until they can decide what to do with him. Evidently a German spy, they have nonetheless become friends during their journey.

Finally reaching Alexandria, the group makes their way to the bar, where Anson orders four beers, sinking his own in one. Before they have all drunk their first round, a RMP officer arrives to arrest van der Poel. Anson orders him to wait until the proper time as had been agreed with his CO.

Anson tells van der Poel that they know he isn't who he said he is and that Anson told the MPs that he is a German officer under parole. This means he will be treated as a prisoner of war, not a spy, but he needs his (real) name to make the story stick. Van der Poel admits to being a Otto Lutz, engineering officer with the 21st Panzer Division. In saying his goodbyes to the group, Pugh notices Van de Poel is still wearing fake dog tags and rips them off before the MP notices. Lutz is taken away by the MPs. The film ends with the scene from the back of their jeep as they drive through Alexandria.

[edit] Cast

[edit] Notes

  • The ambulance is named Katy in the film. Contrary to misconceptions, it is not a pun on the type, an Austin K2/Y, but the name given by its original driver in the novel. Many WW2 ambulances were named after wives and girlfriends.
  • The final scene, in which Mills' character finally gets his glass of lager, was filmed some weeks after the rest of the film. Mills reportedly had to drink numerous glassfuls until the shots were finished, and was "plastered" by the end.
  • It was said by Sylvia Syms that (Danish) Carlsberg was chosen because they could never have been seen to be drinking a German lager.
  • Scenes from the film were used in one example of a wider late-1980s television advertising campaign for the German Holsten Pils lager. Each advert mixed original footage from a different old film (another example was The Great Escape) with new "humorous" material starring British comedian Griff Rhys-Jones and finishing with the slogan "A Holsten Pils Production".
  • In retaliation for the above, rivals Carlsberg simply lifted the segment in which Mills contemplates the freshly-poured lager in the clearly Carlsberg-branded glass, before downing it in one go and declaring: "Worth waiting for!" The only alteration to the footage used in this case was to colourise the drink.

[edit] External links

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