Sahara (1943 film)
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| Sahara | |
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| 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 min. |
| Language | English |
| 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.
The script was worked on by John Howard Lawson, who was later part of the Hollywood Ten accused by HUAC of promoting Communist propaganda. 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. (Article on the making of the film)
The movie has gone on to become something of a cult film, and is considered one of the better at-war movies made during World War II. A television remake starring Jim Belushi in Bogart's role was filmed in 1995.
The film was intended as a propaganda vehicle for morale-building and was not intended to be "historically accurate". As is often noted on film sites, the United States did not have ground force elements in the Western Desert Campaign.
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[edit] Plot
An M3 Lee tank (nicknamed Lulu Belle by its crew), 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] War movie clichés
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 (with the black Sudanese obscuring the fact that U.S. forces were segregated during the war). 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.
[edit] Cast
Americans:
- Sergeant Joe Gunn - Humphrey Bogart
- Jimmy Doyle - Dan Duryea
- 'Waco' Hoyt - Bruce Bennett
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 Baghdad
Axis:
- Giuseppe - J. Carrol Naish
- Captain von Schletow - Kurt Kreuger
- Major von Falken - John Wengraf
[edit] External links
- Sahara at the Internet Movie Database
