I was trying to recall films in which the Swedish actress Märta Torén acted, undoubtedly talented but also a beautiful woman, with her dark hair and remarkably blue eyes. I don't know if she would have been another Ingrid Bergman, because the world was changing by leaps and bounds after the war and her life was cut short at such a young age. Just 30 years old! But this film, quite unknown, has an outstanding cast: Besides Torén there is Dana Andrews, a tough man but with a soft core, Stephen McNally, usually a villain here is an idealist fighting for the Zionist side and in a rather important role Fred Chandler, another actor who was going to have a good career until death also surprised him untimely at the age of 42.
It is a painful argument because I would like to recall it as a historical fact that is in the past, but when I was a child in the 1960s, the news headlines spoke of a serious war in the Middle East. In this film, which is set in 1947 but was made in the heat of the moment, dating from 1949, we are told of the newly reborn State of Israel and the British military control over this ancient people who were reoccupying their ancestral territory as a brand new nation, hated by their Muslim neighbors. Mike Dillon (Andrews) is taking a load of illegal immigrants to the new Jewish state on his ship.
These are suffering people, many of them survivors of the Nazi genocide. David Vogel (MacNally) has promised to pay him, cash on delivery, but forces Dillon to disembark with his passengers to make good on the payment. Among the rebels, who do not believe in British good intentions and want freedom without their interference, is Sabra (Torén), the radio voice of free Israel, who is listened to devoutly by patriots and foreigners alike. In charge of the military part of these rebels is Asvan Kurta (Chandler), a tough but completely honourable man, someone whose word can be trusted. Of course, the British occupation troops had good arguments to justify their intervention. They were trying to prevent the outbreak of an armed conflict dangerous for the world, between Israel and its most belligerent Islamic neighbours. They were asking for patience from people who had lost their homes and families due to the persecutions caused by the Nazi occupation.
It is very hard to see how things get out of control and armed confrontation between the British and the rebels occurs. To prevent the deportation of those unfortunate people who were seeking refuge! Seventy-five years after these events, innocent people continue to die in the Middle East, as I write these lines at the beginning of the year 2025. The actors are different, the situations different, but the ancestral discord persists. This film is very well written (Robert Buckner), directed (George Sherman) and has a great cast. But its subject matter is thorny and I suppose that is why it has been forgotten.
