"western desert movies" Topic

alright, only movies made in the US or UK (not the Italian ones) but help me form a list of WW 2 North Africa movies. so far I have:
Desert Rats, with R. Burton
Immortal Sergent, with H. Fonda
Serira, both Boggie version & HBO Jim Bulishi remake
Five Graves to Cario,(can not place the actor)
Tobruk, with R. Hudson
Raid on Rommel, with R. Burton and 90% of Toburk footage
these last two I can not recal the titles but one had Victor Mature as a British Reccon officer that gets captured(loved the AEC armoured car he had)
the second had Lloyd Bridges as a DAK officer in a tank (Sherman) chasing Doug Mclure in a shot up P-40.

so can you add to my list? and name those last two movies for me? look forward to your input folks

Play Dirty? I know it is in Northern Africa but cannot remember what part.

Ice Cold in Alex. A rag tag crew led by John Mills evade capture as they drive a truck across the desert guided by the though of having a cold beer in Alexandria.

Five Graves to Cairo is wonderful. Get it out now.

I think 'The Young Lions' has a North Africa sequence, but can't swear to it.

The Bogart movie is Sahara.

Sea of Sand, with Richard Attenborough (LRDG movie)

Sea of Sand- Richard Attenborough, John Gregson and Michael Craig- Nice LRDG film

Ice Cold In Alex- John Mills, Sylvia Syms, Anthony Quayle, Harry Andrews- Now that is a film

The Lloyd Bridges/Doug Mclure film is Death Race ( One of those Hollywood wonders that you shouldn't bother to watch before you die.)

Victor Mature film is Tank Force/No time to die
( I think watching this claptrap would pre-empt the right time to die :-) )

Play Dirty is an "LRDG" type film set somwhere around the Qattara Depression- Depression being the main cause of the plot

What about The Desert Fox with James Mason?

Play Dirty with Michael Caine and Nigel Davenport.
One of the 'forgotten' Western Desert films and definitely one of the best.

It's about a group of mercenaries and a British captain raidng a supply dump. Supply dump turns out to be a fake one.

Sea of Sand about the raid on Bardia. The shot up vehicels you see in the film are the actual vehicles used in the raid.

Ice Cold in Alex. Another must have.

Bitter Victory with Burton. Somewhat slow but captivating.

The Desert Fox with James Mason as Rommel.

Action in Arabia . Old one with George Sanders. More of a spy story.

Commandos with Lee Van Cleef. This might be an Italian one.

El Alamein. Definitely Italian and fairly recent. Highly recommended.

Sam Fullers' Big Red One also has a (fairly long) NA sequence in it.

Taxi for Tobruk with Lino Ventura and Hardy Kruger. Not UK or US but again highly recommended.

The Key To Rebecca with David Soul

The Way Ahead, with David Niven.

I remember seeing an Italian production about the desert war but basically logged off after the British came charging over the horizon in M113 APCs. It looked 60's vintage. I'm not sure of the name. There was a more recent Italian movie (I think it was called El Alamein as noted above imdb.com/title/tt0329042 ) which seemed very good. Realsitic looking battles and realistic after effects (shock, battle fatigue).

David S.

The Way Ahead (aka in the US as The Immortal Battalion). Young Lions does have a scene set in Africa. El Almein has some good points, including brief shots of an Italian tank, but, yes, I found the British "armor" attack by M-113's a little silly.
There is also a movie about German paratroopers trying to capture Churchill as he heads to Casablanca by train for a meeting. Don't remember the title.
Also "A Yank in Lybia" made during the early part of the War spy movie.

only movies that contain 100% north africa, young lions & big red one, the desert fox went thru the whole just like Patton,
is the Immortal Battalion the movie where the British & Italions end up both getting captured by the Lybians? where one British and one Italian in the dark, move down a gully and everyone gets captured? I think I might have saw this movie when I was very young.
sea of sand and bitter victory and ice cold in alex I will have to see.
I total forgot about play dirty, love that movie.
toburk taxi, is that German or Italian?

'The Way Ahead' aka 'The Immortal Battalion' is about the fictional Duke of Glendan Light Infantry (The Dogs) – it is mainly a flag waver, men of all classes thrown togther by the war melded into the finest infantry the world has ever seen blah blah blah. It is very good with lots of great actors in it, but only the last bit is in Tunisa, most of it spent training in England. No, they don't get captured by Libyans, although they do have an encounter with a very dodgy Peter Ustinov.

Notable for a real Panzer III burning (although the tanks which attack them are Valentines) and the inevitable Covenanters tearing around the home counties.

Ice Cold in Alex is incomparably better than Sea of Sand, although there is quite an amusing high speed combat set piece in the desert.

Play Dirty is a great film, one of Micheal Caines better ones. The book is fairly dreadful though, makes the output of Leo Kessler look good. Speaking of whom, I recall one of SS Panzer Assault company Wotans 'adventures' taking place in North Africa.

If you buy or rent The Big Red One make sure you get the "The Big Red One- The Reconstruction".

The original theatrical release is a great example of why producers shouldn't have any creative control over a film. The Reconstructed version is far and away a better film.

I suppose Taxi for Tobruk is actually French. Original title Taxi pour Tobruk.

What was the movie where they had to winch their trucks up an escarpment and the heroes get killed by friendly troops at the end?

Franchot Tone was the actor in Five Graves to Cairo.

There's a more recent El Alamein:
imdb.com/title/tt0329042

Tankrider, that is Play Dirty with M. Cain

The Tats of Robruk with Peter finch et al..Australian movie

The English Patient has some scenes of North Africa, doesn't it? I believe some neat shots of Marders which are then replaced by groan inducing shots of German paratroopers landing in Tobruk or some such place…
--
Tim

BTW, no such thing as "British recon". It'd be British recce.

Hammer studios (those of the old horror flicks) did a WW2 film porbably during the late 1950s. I only saw it once, but I think the title is Steel Bayonets (if not, may be Cold Steel).

It was centred on a shattered rifle company, expecting to be sent back to a rest camp, who had to instead fend off a German counterattack trying to gain an artillery OP. As I recall it was quite good, can't recall the names of any actors (other than Hammer stalwart Michael Ripper playing the CO's batman). I think it was set in Tunisia in 1943.

No idea how accurate the kit portrayal was as it was a very long time ago when I saw it. Did seem to be one of those movies made by people familiar with the events they were protraying given it was done in the 50s.

Gary

And, of course, there are the opening scenes in "Patton"…

We've forgotten a classic of course, The Hill, starring Sean Connery.

Gritty stuff.

wasn't the hill about prison? I think I read the book, but did not see the movie.

It was about a military prison in North Africa – I dimly recall Sean Connery actually getting out of a tank at some point, but perhaps not.

It was a war film entirely set in North Africa though, as per the thread criteria.