THE DESERT RATS
US, 1953, 84 minutes, Black and white.
Richard Burton, Robert Newton, Robert Douglas, Torin Thatcher, Chips Rafferty, Charles Tingwell, James Mason.
Directed by Robert Wise.
James Mason who had had a successful career in England moved to Holly wood at the time and has had a long successful career since. He is very persuasive as Rommel and repeated this role in Robert Wise's 'The Desert Rats'. The film also boasts a very fine cast of strong supporting actors and actresses including Jessica Tandy as Rommel's wife, Sir Cedric Hardwicke as the Mayor of Stuttgart and Leo G. Carroll as General von Runstedt. Luther Adler impersonates Hitler. The film was so popular that 20th Century Fox decided on a kind of sequel - in portraying the Britons and Australian in the war in the African Desert especially in the siege of Tobruk in 1942.
Robert Wise, a popular director of the time, and later to move into more serious films and Oscar-winning triumphs with 'West Side Story' and 'The Sound of Music' directed in a brisk economic way. The film was one of Richard Burton's Hollywood films. Robert Newton joins him as well as Australians Chips Rafferty and Charles Tingwell. James Mason reprises his role as Rommel. These are two quite good examples of war films and tributes which were so popular in the fifties.
1. The quality of this war film? As an example of early fifties film-making? Memories of the war? Impact now? Presentations of British, Australians, Rommel and the Germans?
2. How conventional were the styles of the war film? The presentation of the siege of Tobruk, the personalities Involved, the martinet and the troops' attitudes towards him, the drunken soldier, heroism, the particular sequences of the war?
3. The photography, the desert locations and atmosphere? The special effects for the battle sequences?
4. How credible was the plot? The presentation of a historical siege, the atmosphere of World War Two, the Afrika Corps, the Australians in North Africa, the siege of Tobruk? The role of the Australians?
5. The film's focus on MacRoberts? as the central character? How well was his character developed? His being in charge of Australians, his attitude towards them, his strictness, his discovery of Bartlett and his respect for him? Ills relationship with the other men, with higher authority? The way that he led the men, the expeditions, his capture and the Importance of his Interviews with Rommel? The final heroism? A conventional character, the strength of Richard Burton's performance?
6. The contribution of the other characters? How conventional was Bartlett? His English background of teaching, migration, the question of drink, his humiliation, his advice to MacRoberts? The presentation of the Australians and their particular ways? How convincing?
7. The importance of the main episodes, the tank battle, the raid on the ammunition dump, the final stand and Its seeming hopelessness and the decision to stay? How exciting, how moving?
8. How well were the themes of war explored in this film? The film's attitude towards war and personal involvement? How was this focussed in the presentation of Rommel, memory of him and the war, the fictional portrayal in this kind of film?
