The Desert Rats (1953)

User Rating:

6.8/10   

Director:

Robert Wise

Writer:

Richard Murphy (written by)

Release Date:

20 May 1953 (USA)

Genre:

Action | Adventure | Drama | War

Tagline:

They crawled their way across the blazing sands of Africa... to turn disaster into victory!

Plot:

Richard Burton plays a Scottish Army officer put in charge of a disparate band of ANZAC troops on the perimeter of Tobruk with the German Army doing their best to dislodge them.

Plot Keywords:

Rommel | Tobruk | Desert Rats | Desert | Animal In Title

Awards:

Nominated for Oscar. Another 1 win

Cast

Richard Burton	...	Capt. 'Tammy' MacRoberts
James Mason	...	Field Marshal Erwin von Rommel
Robert Newton	...	Tom Bartlett
Robert Douglas	...	General
Torin Thatcher	...	Colonel Barney White
Chips Rafferty	...	Sgt. 'Blue' Smith
Charles 'Bud' Tingwell	...	Lt. Harry Carstairs (as Charles Tingwell)
Charles Davis	...	Pete
Ben Wright	...	Mick

Runtime:

88 min

Country:

USA

Language:

English | German

Color:

Black and White

Aspect Ratio:

1.37 : 1

Sound Mix:

Mono (Western Electric Recording)

Certification:

Australia:G (DVD rating) | Canada:G (video rating) | New Zealand:PG | Netherlands:16 | Australia:M | Sweden:15 | UK:U | USA:Approved (PCA #16243) | West Germany:12

Filming Locations:

Palm Springs, California, USA

Company:

Twentieth Century-Fox Film Corporation

Goofs:

Factual errors: When the British planes are firing at the trucks carrying the prisoners, the Germans fire back but appear to be using American Thompson M1A1s as opposed to MP40s.

Quotes:

Capt. 'Tammy' MacRoberts: [MacRoberts and the surviving Australian soldiers under his command on the hill of Ed Duda have been sent scrambling for cover, ducking into their makeshift shelters only seconds ahead of an incoming artillery barrage. For several slow minutes, explosions have savaged the hill while the defenders can only hunker down and wait for it to stop. When it finally does they remain hidden, not wanting to emerge too soon. Will Rommel's artillery treat them to an encore, or will thousands of Afrika Corps troops come swarming up the slopes of Ed Duda? They continue to wait in silence. It is broken by MacRoberts. Certain that their last battle is at hand, he rallies the Australians to the summit of the hill to meet the expected German charge head-on] MacROBERTS: Fix bayonets! Come out of your holes, you desert rats! Let's go! You! You!

Movie Connections:

Referenced in Modern Problems (1981)

Soundtrack:

The Campbells Are Coming

Burton on a roll

Desert Rats is a 'good old stiff upper lip' yarn with angry young man, Richard Burton, putting in a blinder. The film is set in WW2, North Africa and Rommel has swept across North Africa. The film is about Tobruk and how the German Army were held back. Burton leads ANZAC troops through the trenches of warfare. Good fighters those ANZAC's it appears and the film is a real tribute to them. This is reinforced by the movie being in black and white and quite informative.

The action is OK and I especially liked the black outfit Richard Burton dons for that gritty commando raid. There is also a top encounter between Burton and James Mason - Pacino and De Niro in Heat - but with Burton's angry young man act.

I would recommend it if only for Richard Burton.