Destination Gobi (1953)

User Rating:

6.2/10   

Director:

Robert Wise

Writers:

Everett Freeman (screenplay)
Edmund G. Love (story)

Release Date:

11 May 1953 (Sweden)

Genre:

War | Drama

Tagline:

ADVENTURE AS FIERY AND FURIOUS AS THE FLAMING SANDS OF CHINA'S GOBI DESERT! (original ad - all caps)

Plot:

A group of US Navy weathermen taking measurements in the Gobi desert in World War II are forced to seek...

Plot Keywords:

Mongol | Saddle | Desert | Weather Forecasting | Mongolia

Cast

Richard Widmark	...	CPO Sam McHale
Don Taylor	...	Jenkins
Max Showalter	...	Walter Landers (as Casey Adams)
Murvyn Vye	...	Kengtu
Darryl Hickman	...	Wilbur 'Coney' Cohen
Martin Milner	...	Elwood Halsey
Ross Bagdasarian	...	Paul Sabatello
Judy Dan	...	Nura-Salu (as Judy Dann)
Rodolfo Acosta	...	Tomec
Russell Collins	...	Cmdr. Hobart Wyatt
Leonard Strong	...	Wali-Akhun

Also Known As:

Gobi Outpost (USA) (working title)
Ninety Saddles for Kengtu (USA) (working title)
Sixty Saddles for Gobi (USA) (working title)

Runtime:

90 min

Country:

USA

Language:

English

Color:

Color (Technicolor)

Aspect Ratio:

1.37 : 1

Sound Mix:

Mono (Western Electric Recording)

Certification:

West Germany:12 (nf) | USA:Approved (certificate #16063) | UK:U | Finland:K-16 | Sweden:15

Company:

Twentieth Century-Fox Film Corporation

Trivia:

Destination Gobi was Robert Wise's first color film.

Quotes:

[Walter flirts successfully with a Mongolian woman]
Jenkins: Well, looks like you made a hit, Walter my boy. Tell me, how do you do it?
Walter Landers: My training as a meterorologist. I can take one look at a girl and tell weather.

Movie Connections:

Edited into All This and World War II (1976)

i was quite young when I saw this

My father was a part of this group, they were actually called SACO. He liked this movie, thought it was somewhat accurate. He was a Navy Chief Petty Officer, a Medic, he loved Mongolia, it reminded him of Montana, where he grew up, and he admired the people. He liked the humor in it. They were actually a sort of obscure, almost "guerilla" group. Kind of like Navy Calvary. I thought it was called "Saddles for SACO", (maybe another earlier title?). He always felt it was a great mistake to underestimate the indigenous people, he used to use Mr.Custer as an example. All the West Point training or Annapolis , for that , purpose , may not help you in the end.And he told me, all Americans think they're John Wayne, unfortunately, those ponies didn't always know.