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: During the last commando raid by Australian soldiers on a German base, the defenders are using Vickers machine guns when in reality they should be using MG34s.

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:

Greensleeves

"Tommy Guns" factual not entirely true...

The factual about the Germans using Thompson sub machine guns is only partially true....While the Germans did not outfit their troops with the extremely popular gun of American origin....it is an indisputable fact that throughout the war in all theaters....and especially in a hotly contested battle ...which the first "battle of Tobruk" certainly was....captured enemy weapons were frequently used as is evidenced even within the film when the "Rats" turned the Germans guns on them....by the way in one case it was clearly an "army surplus" 50 caliber heavy machine gun also American made.....but these little nits and picks do little to detract from the overall flow of the movie.