Sahara (1943 American film)
| Sahara | |
|---|---|
| File:Saharafilm.jpg | |
| Directed by | Zoltan Korda |
| Written by | Philip MacDonald (story) James O'Hanlon John Howard Lawson (screenplay) |
| Produced by | Harry Joe Brown |
| Starring | Humphrey Bogart Bruce Bennett Lloyd Bridges J. Naish Dan Duryea |
| Cinematography | Rudolph Maté |
| Edited by | Charles Nelson |
| Music by | Miklós Rózsa |
| Distributed by | Columbia |
Release date | November 11 1943 |
Running time | 97 minutes |
| Language | English |
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.
Plot
An M3 Lee tank, commanded by U.S. Army Sergeant Joe Gunn (Humphrey Bogart) and nicknamed Lulu Belle, 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 collection of stragglers, among them a British doctor, four assorted Commonwealth troops, and a Free French corporal. Later, they pick up a Sudanese sergeant major (and his Italian prisoner), who volunteeers to lead them to a well at Hassan Barani. En route, a Luftwaffe pilot strafes the tank, killing one of the British soldiers, but is shot down and captured.
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 and Gunn's group ambushes it. Gunn finds out from the two survivors of its crew 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 men away in the captured German vehicle in search of help. The two 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. However, the thirst-maddened Germans' final assault turns into a full-blown surrender as they 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 refilled it by tapping into another source of water. 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.
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]
War movie clichés
 | This article is written like a review. (March 2008) |
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.
Inconsistencies
The film has been criticized as not being 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 and the story line depicts it as a small detachment attached to the British Eighth Army.
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.
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 Bagdad
Axis:
- Giuseppe - J. Carrol Naish
- Captain von Schletow - Kurt Kreuger
- Major von Falken - John Wengraf
References
- ^ Adam Bernstein (July 21 2006). "Kurt Kreuger, 89, Actor Portrayed Nazis (obituary)". The Washington Post (on the New York Sun website). Retrieved 2008-02-16.
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