LeonLouisRicci
One of the best War Films made during the War. It is has lean action and a thoughtful, even script. It is rousing without being too preachy and imparts empathy in trickles, not gushes. The Movie's intelligence is what sets it apart from other "propaganda" pictures of the time, along with Bogart who is more of a real soldier here than any of John Wayne's blustering blow-hards.The desert setting is "cold" and there are a number of scenes shot so beautiful that it can be, at times, hypnotic. All the character's here are beyond stereotypes and their camaraderie is never hokey or seem forced.The battles are realistic and engrossing with wounds that bleed. The tank is the only female in the Film, "Lulubelle", and she is not only the center of attention but contributes heroically when things get hot. Overall, you won't find better "old school" character studies of the fighting men (aside from the work of Sam Fuller), and there is much tension tightly wound around the need for water and the need, for all of them, to take a stand against fascism.
ferbs54
During the years 1941-'44, Warner Bros. star Humphrey Bogart made no less than six films that dealt with the ongoing Second World War for the studio. First there was "All Through the Night," a tremendously entertaining action/comedy that had Bogie and pals going up against Nazi saboteurs in NYC. Then came "Across the Pacific," with Bogie foiling a Japanese plot to blow up the Panama Canal; the justly beloved "Casablanca," with Bogie aiding a resistance fighter at the cost of his lady love; "Action in the North Atlantic," a cat-and-mouse actioner involving German subs; "Passage to Marseilles," a tale of the Free French on the high seas; and "To Have and Have Not," in which Bogie met Lauren Bacall's "Slim" and helped a French underground leader in Martinique. And then there is the film "Sahara," which Bogie did not make for Warners, but rather when on loan to Columbia. Released in November '43, it was Columbia's highest grosser of that year, pulling in $2.3 million in its first three weeks (big money back then!). As it turns out, the film is one of the best of Bogie's war-years bunch; certainly the toughest, most violent and grittiest. Featuring an all-male cast and some tremendous battle sequences, the film sports a very high body count, and to its credit, there is no way for any viewer to foretell who will survive in the cast and who will not; most, sadly, do not.In the film, Bogart plays an American sergeant named Joe Gunn (you've gotta love that name!), a tank commander attached to the British 8th Army in North Africa, right around the time that Gen. Rommel's Africa Korps captured Tobruk (that would make it June '42). Cut off from his unit, Gunn retreats in his "M3 air-cooled" tank (which he's named Lulubelle) along with fellow Americans Doyle (the great Dan Duryea) and Waco (Bruce Bennett, who would go on to costar with Bogart in two of my personal favorite films, "Dark Passage" and "The Treasure of the Sierra Madre"). Before long, they encounter a group comprised of British, French, Irish and South African soldiers (one of whom is played by Lloyd Bridges), and then a British Sudanese soldier (Rex Ingram, who many will remember as the genie from the classic British fantasy "The Thief of Bagdad") with an Italian captive (the great character actor J. Carrol Naish). After shooting down and capturing a German flier, the motley band manages to find a bare minimum of water at the well at Bir Acroma, and runs into big trouble when a German motorized unit of 500 men gathers at that same well. And this leads to a remarkably intense sequence in which Bogart and his eight fellows must defend themselves against some pretty formidable odds, to say the least, in a microcosm of the larger war...."Sahara" was directed by Zoltan Korda, the Hungarian director who had turned the 1939 African-desert war film "The Four Feathers" into such a shining success. His direction of the battle sequences here is simply aces, abetted by some beautiful B&W lensing from renowned cinematographer Rudolph Mate and an exciting score by fellow Hungarian Miklos Rozsa (who had also provided the scores for "The Four Feathers" and "The Thief of Bagdad"). The film's screenplay, by Korda and John Howard Lawson, gives us ample opportunity to get to know each of the men in Bogart's group, and they are an extremely likable bunch of guys. Thus, when they are offed one by one, the viewer feels as if he is losing someone he knows and cares about, and, as mentioned, most of these guys, sadly, do not make it to the end. All the characters in the film get their moment to shine or behave heroically, especially Ingram, and the speech that Naish delivers on the differences between the Italian and the German is a memorable one (he was Oscar nominated for his work here). And as for Bogie, he gets to give a very moving speech himself, regarding why men must fight against insuperable odds; a speech that invokes Dunkirk, Bataan and Corregidor, and one that Victor Laszlo might well have smiled on in approbation. His Sgt. Gunn is a wonderful character, a tough and seasoned soldier with a decent heart, and his ministrations to Lulubelle--which he calls "old girl"--may bring to mind his Charlie Allnut's similar handling of The African Queen. As revealed in Sperber and Lax' Bogart biography, as well as the online journal of (then Second Lt.) Kenneth Koyen, "Sahara" was filmed in the Anza-Borrego Desert State Park (the largest state park in California), 235 feet below sea level on the western shore of the Salton Sea. Despite the midwinter shoot, temps were still in the 90s, and the desert setting proved to be a very convincing substitute for the Libyan Sahara. Bogart managed to keep his cool physically with a steady supply of Thermos-encased martinis, only losing his cool when clashing with director Korda by day and brawling with wife Mayo Methot at night (appropriately enough, the cast and crew were ensconced at the nearby town of, uh, Brawley, where Kurt Kreuger, who played the sneaky German flier, bonded with Bogart over drinks). Despite the heat, the less than desirable accommodations, the fights and Bogart's heavy drinking, the picture turned out to be a formidable accomplishment; not only a hard-hitting, rousing and inspirational war film, but also another great victory for Bogart, riding extremely high post-"Casablanca" and on his way to becoming the highest-paid actor in the world ($460K a year by 1946; again, big money back then!). I hadn't seen "Sahara" in over 35 years until the other night, and was amazed at how many images from the film had stayed with me. Dedicated to the American IV Armored Corps of the Army Ground Forces (many of whom appeared as German soldiers in the film!), it is an experience not easily forgotten.
