THE DESERT FOX

New Zealand Listener, Volume 26, Issue 654, 18 January 1952, Page 19

THE DESERT FOX

(20th Century-Fox) HERE must be, at a rough estimate, several thousand old acquaintances of Rommel in this part of the world, and a substantial number of them will, I suppose, be interested to discover what Hollywood, with the help of Brigadier Desmond Young, has to say about him. If.they remember the reports which reached us of this film’s premiére in London (complete with protests and picketlines) their first reaction may well be to wonder what the flap was about-or, more precisely, what half the flap was about. It is true that the film (Henry Hathaway directing) has the same faults as Brigadier Young’s biography-a little too much hero-worshipping, and much too much special pleading for the German generals and field-marshals-but I don’t think any reasonable person could say that it holds up British arms, or the British soldier, to ridicule or contempt. Indeed, the impression I got was quite the reverse. Certainly, in a supernumer+ ary prologue (the real prologue is a brief and vigorous reconstruction of the famous Commando raid on Rommel’s headquarters), a number of British pris-oners-among them’ Desmond Young in person-are shown taking undignified cover from their own gunfire. No doubt it’s funny to see a brigadier diving headfirst into a slit trench, but no sensible person would think it ridiculous, in the circumstances. Then, too, Rommel (James Mason) has a jibe at the expense of Montgomery’s cautious tactics in con-solidation-but you can find more illtempered (and perhaps more ill-founded) criticism of Montgomery in the memoirs of his wartime colleagues. Though the film has hardly been made from what you might call the British point of view, there is nothing in it that should offend one’s patriotic sensibilities. I have one serious complaint to make -there isn’t nearly enough of the clash between Afrika Korps and Eighth Army in the production, not nearly enough desert, none of the elastic-band, stretch-and-snap lunges eastward and westward. We get a glimpse of Rommel in retreat, with some cuts from the noisier sequences of Desert Victory to add verisi-

— eee | Li militude, but from then on the story shifts to the undercover plotting and leads from that to the Army’s attempted assassination of Hitler and Rommel’s forced suicide, The film manages to convey pretty well the tension of this somewhat murky episode but since the story is tied to the ordinary haphazard course of events it lacks the steady drive and development that manipulation of material can give to a fictional narrative. There are, however, some exciting passages-notably that showing the attempt on Hitler’s life -and much good acting. Rommel is Mason’s best role since he went to Hollywood, and he does pretty well with it, but I was more interested in some of the minor players-Cedric Hardwicke, for example, whose portrayal of Strolin, Mayor of Stuttgart, is a subtle blend of fine words and foxiriess (I kept thinking of Herr Adenauer); and Aduard Franz who has a small but telling part as von Stauffenberg. The most astonishing performance, however, is that of Luther Adler as Hitler. At first, it looks _like caricature, then you wonder if it is not closer to the truth than you had imagined.