Les diables du désert

Excellent acting. Tight script. Good cast. Good range of characters. Humour in the face of adversity. Germans speaking German! Plenty of realistic action. Long film but far from boring!

This movie seemed to be played a lot on late night CBC film when I was growing up. I watched it about 3 times as a lad and then found it in Japanese video store (Japanese have some of the best selections of old Western movies). It did not disappoint after all those years. It still carried a very hard thrill and had suspense in spades.

The story revolves around one of the first Long Range Desert Reconnaissance (LRDG) groups to attempt a trip to travel hundreds of miles behind German lines in North Africa and blow up a crucial petrol dump. In reality most LRDG groups were really sent out to gather intel, but that does not stop the believability of this story of daring Brits putting up the grit and getting whittled down, one lorry after another by relentless Germans pursuit.

They loose their lorries one by one... to the desert and to enemy action. Petrol and water run down as the suspense ramps up. Towards the end they are on foot in the desert as the last lorry runs out of water -- holed by a Jerry bullet in a previous firefight. With time running out and the Germans closing, they cannot carry their wounded... the wounded soldier insists on being left behind and the scene is powerful: after their good-byes the lone wounded soldier is set up under a camouflage tarp with a heavy machine gun and the rest of the water (left as a parting token of appreciation for his expected sacrifice). He dies hard, but gains the group time whilst they make their way across the desert in a last attempt to make British Lines.

Attenborough is young, and cocky. This is before he got into directing. There is fine mid-50s British talent here and the smattering of the regional accents, West Country, inners London, Lancashire, Upper-class, and one lone Australian, is very refreshing and very reminiscent of the British army that went to war in WWII.

I love this movie. Maybe it is because of the effect it had on me as a kid... I do not know. But you shall not be disappointed. You may also learn more about British Special Operations since they were the people who invented it in its modern sense.

Enjoy.

A nine-man unit of the Long Range Desert Group is told off to drive deep behind German lines and make trouble. They discover the Germans are planning a major offensive and must get the information back to British command. The problem is that the Germans don't want them to.

The LRDG was a British unit founded by Major Ralph Bagnold in Cairo in 1940. It was intended to carry out patrols, reconnaiscence and raids behind Italian lines. It never numbered than about 350 men. Mostly drawn from New Zealanders, with a few Southern Rhodesian and British soldiers, it was disbanded in 1945. Many of its techniques have been used by elite military groups ever since.

With a capable cast, including Richard Attenborough, John Gregson, and Michael Craig, this turns into one of those films in which men heroically sacrifice themselves for the unit, interspersed with them talking about their civilian live to give them some individuality.

Recently saw this on TV. I tuned in on a whim and was delighted I did. It features a really good line up of mid 50's talent and some lustrous black and white photography. It seemed to me a forerunner of the later "mission" movies which became the norm for WW2 films in the following decade.

There were a couple of hard hitting -for the time- action sequences, which were crisply filmed and edited. There was a smattering of officers v men tension, mostly supplied by Attenborough in his cheeky chappy guise. And a fantastic sequence of a lone British soldier waiting by his machine gun for German half-tracks to appear over the crest of the dunes.

My only slight problem with the film is the heroic display by one of the officers towards the end. It felt like a throwback to earlier, more genteel values, not in keeping with the tone of the rest of the piece. Apart from that, well worth a look. Would make an good double bill with De Toth's later Play Dirty.

Although he has a supporting role Richard Attenborough is top billed in Desert Patrol, a story of a group of men who operated behind Rommel's lines disrupting his supplies and communications. Watching this I learned where the American television series Rat Patrol originated from though this film is a lot better than that series.

The big push is on. Field Marshal Montgomery armed with the plan that his predecessor Field Marshal Auchinleck drew up is finally on the offensive against Rommel at El Alamein. This group has drawn a mission to destroy as many known German ammunition and fuel dumps as possible and make it back to report. That part is essential too, they have to know in Cairo just how much damage has been inflicted.

Heading one such patrol are Captains John Gregson and Michael Craig with Attenborough along. He's hardly a king and country volunteer, but he shows he has the right stuff.

They blow up their assigned fuel dump, but at a price. They've got a 100 miles to get back to their camp. El Alamein because of the wide Sahara desert terrains may have been the largest battle ever fought with rivalries being on the Russian front in the same war. In the end some don't make it.

Percy Herbert as one of the men is most outstanding as a wounded man who stands to make his own fight so his mates may live.

Very good World War II flick from the United Kingdom with minimal flag waving and lots of real heroics.