Matialth Good concept, poorly executed.

Livestonth I am only giving this movie a 1 for the great cast, though I can't imagine what any of them were thinking. This movie was horrible

Grimossfer Clever and entertaining enough to recommend even to members of the 1%

Janis One of the most extraordinary films you will see this year. Take that as you want.

Alex da Silva Dana Andrews (Mike) is the captain of a ship who doesn't mind what his cargo is as long as he makes money. This time around it's people. He smuggles Stephen McNally (Vogel) and some illegal Jewish refugees into Palestine under British rule. McNally is part of a terrorist group led by Jeff Chandler (Kurta) and Andrews is forced to join this gang as they are pursued by the Brits.The film is OK but it is let down by the terrible acting by all of the English actors. The whole bunch of them play complete buffoons and one of them, who appears late on and is actually an ally of Chandler's group, is straight out of a "Carry On" film. He reminded me of Leslie Phillips and it would not have been out of place to hear him say those immortal words "..ding dong!" as he eyes up a lady. The British seem to be comedy characters who deliver their lines quite atrociously considering this is meant to be a serious film.Stephen McNally is the best of the cast and there are a couple of good moments but we also get some terribly cheesy religious guff with Bethlehem appearing at the film's end. The best part of the film is the singing of Christmas carols and "My Bonnie Lies Over The Ocean" at the British camp.

SipteaHighTea I saw the movie when I was a kid and love every minute of it. I always thought that attacks on the British in Palestine was a rare thing. When I got the book A Job Well Done about the British Palestine Police Force, I surprise how often the Jews particularly the Irgun and the Sten gang fought the British starting in 1943 until 1948. They attack the police stations, RAF airfields, and British Army camps especially after the end of World War II. They also sabotage the oil pipeline going into Palestine and blowing up the railroad lines that would have made Lawrence of Arabia proud. I love the way Dana Andrew's character change his mind in not identifying the leader of the resistance movement after seeing those refugees line up against barbered wire. His character must have saw a similar situation in Europe with the Jews or in Asia with all those Allied POWs in the Japanses camps. Its amazing how anti-Jewish feelings among the people in Europe and American resurface shortly after the end of World War II.The only problem I had was where the Jews had attack the camp, and despite total surprise, the British manage to get their guns and inflict casualties on the Jews while suffering few of their own. If those were German soldiers in movie, they would been mow down.

bkoganbing Sword in the Desert was a quickly made feature film trying to cash in on the headlines concerning the rebirth of the State of Israel. The hopes and dreams of millions of Jews around the world who for two generations sent in sometimes pittance contributions to the Jewish Committee who started BUYING land in Palestine from the Ottoman Empire in the hopes of carving out a homeland for displaced people finally was realized a year earlier. The origins of Israel are always obscured by Arab propaganda about Zionist Imperialism. The nucleus of Israel is from land BOUGHT and then formalized by United Nations partition. When six Arab nations disagreed and attack Israel beat them back and acquired more than what she was originally intended for. That's also how they later got the whole of Jerusalem, when three nations attacked Israel again in 1967 in the Six Day War. Dana Andrews plays a captain of a tramp freighter who's making a nice living smuggling Jewish refugees into Palestine. He's strictly a cash and carry operator, but one time he gets himself caught up with his cargo when the British find him with same. He gets rescued by the Hagannah along with the rest of the refugees. After living with the Hagannah and seeing what they're up against, he becomes a committed Zionist himself. Of course the Zionist cause was definitely helped by having the beautiful and shapely Marta Toren working on his conversion. To Zionism, not to Judaism.The part of Kurta the charismatic Hagannah leader was the one that gave Jeff Chandler his first real notice. Chandler, who's real name was Ira Grossel was himself Jewish and one who felt his roots very deeply. Later on he made a well publicized trip to Israel in the late Fifties and expressed a wish to be buried there. When he died in 1961 his wishes were not carried out by his daughters and his ex-wife. Nevertheless, Chandler always treasured this film because of what it meant to him both professionally and personally. Stephen McNally has a substantial role as Hagannah fighter David Vogel and Irish actor Liam Redmond plays a former IRA man who joins up with the Jews because the British are tilting their neutrality way over to the Arabs. A lot of former IRA men did join up with the nascent Israeli cause and died for the creation of the Jewish state. Ironic that later on another generation of the IRA sided with the Arabs.Sword in the Desert was quickly put together and its hurried preparation does show. Still it's a good, but hardly a definitive story about Israeli independence. For that we would have to wait for Exodus and Cast a Giant Shadow.

frankfob This tidy little Universal "B" about the Israeli fight for independence would be interesting if just for the subject matter alone--there were few, if any, contemporary Hollywood pictures that dealt with that particular struggle--but this isn't a bad picture in and of itself. Dana Andrews plays a ship captain who smuggles Jews into Israel purely, at first, for the money, but finds himself being caught up in the cause his "cargo" is fighting for--and also falling for an Israeli girl (the exotic beauty Marta Toren, who, although she looks like she just stepped out of an Arabian Nights tale, is actually Swedish). Director George Sherman was an expert at turning out tight, energetic little actioners, and continues that tradition here. The Andrews/Toren romance slows things down a bit, but not enough to do any fatal damage. A neat little picture with an interesting perspective on a subject not often touched upon, with a capable cast, good pacing and quick bursts of action that all combine to hold your interest. Check it out.