Sahara (1943)

I love this movie so much

You won't be disappointed!

Great Film overall

As Good As It Gets

My second review of this all-male cast movie. The first being Lord of the Flies. This gritty forgotten Bogart movie was made under Columbia pictures as Bogey was on loan from Warner Brothers. Coming off of his two previous films, Action in The North Atlantic and the classic Casablanca Boogie AKA Joe Gunn, Tank commander from parts unknown is hunkered down in a Tank with his remaining crew of only two, Waco (Bruce Bennett) and Jimmy (Dan Duryea). Retreating, heading south in the hot desolate Libyan desert. Away from any Nazi stronghold. For they were one of the few American tanks to partake in the Battle of Tobruk under the British 8th army. Along the way with little water in supply they pick up allied British soldiers, Italian and a German POW plus an one of the most engaging characters to hit the screen Major Tambor played by the versatile Rex Ingram. Imgram plays a Sudanese soldier who knows the dessert like the back of his hand. Tambor feels if heading south they will come across a fort which has a well. The unmistakable voice of Rex Ingram resonates. Who could forget the colossal genie in the movie The Thief Of Baghdad. Another actor that stood out was the forthright Italian prisoner Giuseppe played by J. Caroll Nash. It was also my first experience to see Dan Duryea playing a guy on the winning side for a change. Duryea's roles were related to gangsters and foils. It was nice to see a very young looking Lloyd Bridges without his frog suit crawling through the sand. Watching this makeshift crew in the blazing sun made me parched as water was scarce and at a premium as the Nazi were closing in but Bogart and his crew have an Idea that will save everybody. Smoke em if you got em!!

Very watchable WWII desert battle in African desert. Bogart and all the supporting actors did a great job in this black and white film and best yet, Hollywood didn't force feed the screenplay with ridiculous out-of-place female characters with pretty faces in this tough desert combat film, so it just looked very real and realistic. I have to say that shooting such film in a desert was nothing but difficult to all the people who involved in it. It's not easy to make such film.The other thing I first found out during watching this film was when Bogart in this kind genre movies without female actress(es), it suddenly became so easy to take him and the films more seriously, because I often found out whenever he played a romantic role, he just looked so ugly and so old and simply made me feel disgusted. I just couldn't understand why used so many old bags such as Bogart, Fred Astair, Gary Cooper, Clark Gable... to play lovers with much much younger female actresses, during that specific era. These male actors, especially Fred Astair with his old monkey face, could be possibly make those young pretty women fall in love with them. Every time when I watched these old gizzards playing Romeo, it just made me feel disgusting and unnatural.But Bogart in this film, well, I just felt he's in the right place to play such believable heroic role, and didn't give me any disgusting feeling from the very beginning to the very end and, love it!

Excellent WW2 drama, starring the great Humphrey Bogart. Solid plot, though a bit over-the-top in terms of plausibility. (Remember, this film was made in 1943 - the middle of WW2 - so was essentially a propaganda movie). Great direction - not a foot wrong.Bogart gives his usual take-charge cool-as-ice performance, and is superb. Right up there with Casablanca in terms of his performance.Spot Lloyd Bridges (I didn't! Was surprised when I saw him in the credits).Definitely hasn't dated and is well worth the watch.

In June 1942, American Sgt. Joe Gunn (Humphrey Bogart) leads his tank crew in a battle alongside the British 8th Army. They're ordered to retreat with the Germans closing in on three sides. They fix up their M3 Lee tank and head south. Along the way, they pick up some stragglers, fend off the Germans, and even get POWs. The biggest threat however is the lack of water. The German forces are also in dire need for water.This is a fine propaganda war movie made at the height of WWII. Most of the Allie countries are well represented. They even have a colonial Sudanese to show the Nazi's racism. The Italian prisoner gives voice to the hope that the Italians are a reluctant axis power. The German prisoner is the typical evil Nazi. Their tank is contemporary for the actual battle. Of course, they don't have German equipment but the movie doesn't suffer for it. Bogie is a great Hollywood star and he's the perfect lead for this. The battle is a little bit static but they do have lots of action.