AniInterview Sorry, this movie sucks

Aedonerre I gave this film a 9 out of 10, because it was exactly what I expected it to be.

Kamila Bell This is a coming of age storyline that you've seen in one form or another for decades. It takes a truly unique voice to make yet another one worth watching.

Scotty Burke It is interesting even when nothing much happens, which is for most of its 3-hour running time. Read full review

gordonl56 ICE COLD IN ALEX 1958This British film is based on the novel of the same name by British author Christopher Landon. This WW2 film is set in 1942 North Africa at the time of the fall of Tobruk. John Mills headlines the production with Harry Andrews, Sylvia Syms, Diane Clare and Anthony Quayle.John Mills is in charge of a convoy of trucks and ambulances being evacuated from Tobrouk just before its capture by the German Afrika Korps. Mills and his Sgt, Harry Andrews are given a pair of nurses to take along during the evacuation. The two nurses, Sylvia Syms and Diane Clare had missed their ship out of Tobruk. Due to a number of factors, the ambulance is cut off from the rest of the convoy. They need to drive out across the desert in order to reach the coast road back to British lines. They soon come up on a South African officer, Anthony Quayle, who joins up with the Tobruk escapees. Mills, a man with an over fondness for the bottle, likes that Quayle has several large bottles of gin with him. The first of several problems pop up, a minefield is blocking their way to the coast road. With Andrews slowly driving, Mills and Quayle lead the ambulance carrying the nurses through the mines. Now they have a run in with a German patrol and the truck gets shot up. The one nurse, Clare, is badly wounded. Anthony Quayle, who just happens to speak German, has a word with the Officer in charge of the patrol. The Germans are too busy chasing the retreating British army to worry about a one truck with a wounded nurse. The German officer, Walter Gotell, lets the group continue on their way.The wounded nurse, Clare has been fatally hit and soon dies. She is buried out in the middle of nowhere with a simple cross to mark the grave. The other nurse, Syms, as well as the Sgt, Andrews, notice that Quayle is never without his pack. And that he goes off into the desert every morning and night at the same time. Mills figures the guy is just attending to his waste needs. Mills promises them all a tall glass of ice cold beer once they reach safety in Alexandria. Now there is another run in with a German patrol, and again Quayle talks the Germans into releasing them. Now even Mills figure that something is wrong with this picture. He tells the others they need proof before they can say that Quayle is really a German spy. The group is now forced to head out into the dangerous terrain of the Quattara Depression. The area is full of quicksand and salt marshes where a truck and its contents could disappear beneath the surface. The group catches Quayle that night in the act of sending a message on a small portable radio that is kept in his pack. Quayle disposes of the evidence is a handy quicksand hole. He however gets caught in the same hole. The others just barely manage to pull him out of the trap with the truck tow rope. It is now on to Alex and safety as well as that cold beer. Mills gets Quayle to cough up his real name before the Military Police show up. Otherwise he will be shot as a spy by the British Army. He also grabs Quayle's fake id and dog tags before they are seen. They all now sit and wash the dust away with a couple glasses of ice cold beer. This is a very interesting, tension filled film, and is much better than I am making it sound. The film was directed by J. Lee Thompson. Thompson started out as a writer before switching to directing. His films include, MURDER WITHOUT CRIME, THE YELLOW BALLOON, THE WEAK AND THE WICKED, TIGER BAY, WOMAN IN A DRESSING GOWN, CAPE FEAR, THE GUNS OF NAVARONE and KINGS OF THE SUN. Thompson received an Oscar nomination for his work on THE GUNS OF NAVARONE. There are two versions out, the full length UK version which is the one written about here, and the US version with 54 minutes cut from the runtime. Needless to say, that one makes no sense.

Leofwine_draca ICE COLD IN ALEX is, I suppose, the granddaddy of those 'desert war' films that were all the rage in Italy and beyond during the 1960s. This one's a surprisingly low key effort - and all the better for it - that focuses on the efforts of the crew of a first aid truck as it attempts to cross the barren deserts of North Africa to safety.Along the way, the crew members have to contend with Nazi patrols and in-fighting, but their biggest obstacle is the terrain itself. The desert landscapes are brought to full and hostile life in this film as in few others, and watching the crew work together in an attempt to overcome them makes for a suspense-filled journey.John Mills is an obvious and dependable choice as the stalwart lead, but it's Anthony Quayle who steals the show as the South African tagging along for the ride. Harry Andrews plays it just right in support, and even Sylvia Sims contributes an important part instead of feeling extraneous. Watch out for Diane Clare (THE PLAGUE OF THE ZOMBIES), Richard Marner ('ALLO 'ALLO) and Walter Gotell in support. This exemplary film was an early feather in the cap for director J. Lee Thompson, a man who would end his career some thirty years later by making Charles Bronson movies for Cannon.

james_guest An interesting comment by several reviewers - e.g. kitsilanoca-1 - is that the cast were not prima donnas. When Sir John Mills died his co-star in this film Sylvia Sims said that the whole cast was UNcomplaining about conditions. They had all just been through the war. Anthony Quayle for instance had been in the Special Operations Executive, the forerunner to the SAS, in Albania organising resistance. They were prepared to accept discomfort and even hardship in exactly the same way as any member of the crew. An attitude that was with them the whole of their lives. It may be this that makes the film so real and gritty.

Tweekums Even though this is one of the great films set in the Second World War I don't think I'd seen it in its entirety so when my news paper gave it away on a DVD I finally got a chance to watch it... and just like the lager in the final scene it was worth the wait.Set in the North African deserts of Libya and Egypt the film follows a small group of British personnel as they try to get from Tobruk to Alexandria in an ambulance without getting captured by Germans, running out of fuel and water or getting stranded in the harsh terrain after they have been separated from the rest of their column. Shortly after departing they pick up a South African officer who's ability to talk German gets them out of sticky situations more than once.It is an unusual war film in more than one way, for a start the group contains women who are real characters rather than just the love interest left behind while the men go off to war and secondly they don't have some exciting mission to destroy an enemy target or even to engage in combat; they just want to avoid any contact with the Germans and get to Alexandria and have an ice cold lager... hence the films title.The acting was good, I thought Sylvia Syms stood out as the nurse Sister Diana Murdoch, it was good to see a woman in a leading roll in a war film of that era. I liked that the makers didn't feel a need to have music in every scene, the total silence added to the atmosphere of the desert in many scenes.