Reviews & Ratings for
The Black Tent More at IMDbPro »

12 out of 16 people found the following review useful:
Great scenery, terrible plot, 30 January 2003

Author: Duncan Kennett from London

Even as a fan of Donald Sinden, this is only an OK offering. The most enjoyable part has to be the amazing locations, set in Libya. The original story was obviously a long novel that was a real struggle to compress into a script

6 out of 6 people found the following review useful:
Mildly entertaining, visually splendid, but it could have been much better., 13 January 2007

Author: Robin Moss from London, United Kingdom

*** This review may contain spoilers ***

"The Black Tent" was made several years before "Lawrence Of Arabia." Had it been made ten years later, it would have been accused of plagiarism. Instead it can be said in some respects to anticipate "Lawrence of Arabia".

After The Second World War, the heir to an extensive British country estate complete with enormous house and agricultural land travels to Libya to learn what happened to his brother. With one Arab to guide him, he journeys by camel across the vast deserts to talk with a tribal chief - as also happened in "Lawrence". After various delays, he is given his brother's diary and learns the truth. During the war, his brother had become detached from his regiment and had been the sole Briton amongst Arabs - as was the case in "Lawrence Of Arabia" He had led Arab fighters in ambushes on enemy patrols - as also happened in "Lawrence Of Arabia". The brother had married the daughter of the tribal chief, and eventually had been killed in action against German soldiers. Again like "Lawrence Of Arabia" the cinematography - here in VistaVision and Technicolor - shows the vastness of the desert and makes it strangely beautiful.

Unlike "Lawrence Of Arabia" "The Black Tent" had a journeyman director, and was made with little attention to detail or realism. All the Arabs speak English fluently and with Received Pronunciation! Even more ludicrously, the younger brother travels across the desert by camel wearing a suit and tie and city shoes! He does not even break into a sweat! More seriously, there is no tension in the movie. The action sequences are unimaginatively staged, and scenes where suspense should be agonising - such as when Germans enter the Arab camp and discover the British soldier's gun or when German soldiers visit an ancient ruin and take photographs of themselves within a few yards of the fugitive British soldier - are entirely free of tension.

"The Black Tent" is mildly entertaining and is certainly visually splendid, but it could and should have been much better.

5 out of 6 people found the following review useful:
The Mystery Is How They Could String It Out For Two Hours, 13 September 2010

Author: CHRISTOPHER HEATH from United Kingdom

This film can be summed up as follows: sumptuous photography; turgid plot; wooden acting.

The mystery is how they could string it out for two hours. The story is that there isn't a story - it's just a travelogue across the Libyan desert. Michael Craig, who was hot property in British cinema back then, is a blacked-up Arab sheik and has no lines that I can remember. Blink and you miss him. I just couldn't work out what Anthony Steele would see in the love interest. Donald Sinden looks as though he has the mood of someone who has got out of bed the wrong side every morning of the shoot.

The only thing that must have stopped this from bombing at the box office was the novelty for the cinema-going public in grey, smog-ridden 1950s Britain of seeing 'real', 'desert' sand in colour, something they could have done on the sea front at Clacton or Bournemouth.

1 out of 1 people found the following review useful:
Sunday Afternoon Snore-fest, 6 March 2012
Author: JoeytheBrit from www.moviemoviesite.com

*** This review may contain spoilers ***

This has all the ingredients of a prestige production: filmed in sumptuous colour and in Vistavision, and shot on location in pre-Gaddafi Libya, it boasts a solid cast of British stiff upper lips including a no-nonsense Donald Sinden, a curly-haired blonde Anthony Steele, Andre Morell as an Arab sheik and Donald Pleasance as a fez-wearing desert guide. It's got Nazis, Arabs, desert treks and secrets in a sock, and yet it's still a plodding bore of a film with virtually no plot. Steele plays a British soldier who weds an Arab princess during WWII, Sinden's his post-war brother who treks across the desert to find out whatever happened to his bro. The princess is played by Anna-Maria Sandri, a pretty little thing who can't act for toffee. It's the kind of nothing movie the BBC used to broadcast on a Sunday afternoon when it knew half the nation would be snoozing in front of the box after a full Sunday roast.

1 out of 1 people found the following review useful:
A competent if unspectacular war movie, 26 November 2011

Author: Sjhm from United Kingdom

*** This review may contain spoilers ***

Comparisons have been made between this film and Lawrence of Arabia; a rather unfair comparison in my view. Lawrence of Arabia is based on the actual life and exploits of T. E. Lawrence, set in the First World War. This is a war film in the mould of Tobruk, set in WWII, where it does fall down is in the long drawn out romance scenes which are something of a distraction. The script rather reflects the attitudes of the time, and you do have to suspend disbelief a few times, especially as Donald Sinden's character crosses the desert by camel dressed in city clothes, yet remains immaculate throughout. The nomads all speak perfect English, they can even rustle up a German interpreter when needed, yet have remained entirely unaffected by the outside world. There really isn't much plot to speak of, yet the cinematography lends the story some distinction. Average and inoffensive.

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