Spada nel deserto

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.

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.

Those interested in the pre-1948 history of Israel will find this movie interesting and entertaining.

It reminded me in some ways of an early version of Otto Preminger's Exodus.

I think that they could have done more with Dana Andrews' part, but still worth watching.

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.

Recently discovered this film on TCM-and watched with great interest. Firstly, this appears to be the first Hollywood film addressing the subject of the new state of Israel shortly after these actual events took place so the creative efforts into the making of this film were very raw and very little opportunity for revisionist plotlines are in evidence. The most noticeable portion of the story is how the British are portrayed essentially as transitional occupiers and keepers of the peace just waiting until they leave the region on the verge of war.....not a very positive portrayal but perhaps it was very accurate for the time....The Dana Andrews character is somewhat curious in retrospect since the Zionist organization had its share of more than willing collaborators who believed in the cause.....The film now seeing this in 2021 for myself has been overshadowed but countless screenings of the 1960 film Exodus which goes into far greater detail given its length...All in all, this film does serve as a dated curiosity piece for film lovers of historical subjects.