SAHARA (1943)

Either the US Army was indeed involved in the North Africa campaign in 1942 or this film, starring Humphrey Bogart and released in 1943, sure was taking some liberties.

He’s in charge of a tank after a crushing defeat for the Allies.  The order is to regroup which means making tracks across part of the Sahara with precious little water.  Besides two of his men Bogart has with him several Brits, as well as first an Italian prisoner and then a German prisoner.

There’s a dark moment early on when Bogart decides, given their shortage of water, to leave the Italian in the desert to die, but he then relents. It’s easily the most dramatically compelling sequence.

Fortunately one of the Brits is a Sudanese who has an intimate knowledge of the terrain including the location of the odd isolated well.  When they find one with some water Bogart gets the suicidal idea to defend the well to the death in order to hold up the advancing Germans.

After a couple of days of defiance there’s a surreal conclusion in which the Germans are so desperate for water that they end up capitulating despite their overwhelming advantage in numbers.

So our guys are triumphant, as one would expect in a film coming out during the War.

It’s a serviceable and competently made film of its type (directed by Zoltán Korda) but it lacks any real distinction.  It’s a kind of mashup of ‘Ice Cold In Alex’ and ‘Zulu’ but with none of the unique qualities of those two classics.

Bogart holds the whole thing together, but although he’s always worth watching and he’s certainly not just going through the motions, he is playing a role that requires nothing special from him.

A shout out though to the cinematography which is of a high standard.  There’s a remarkable shot near the end of sand moving down the side of a dune which creates the illusion of water running down a rock face.

RATING: x Curb Your Enthusiasm