The Desert Fox: The Story of Rommel (1951)

The Worst Film Ever

Save your money for something good and enjoyable

People are voting emotionally.

It is an exhilarating, distressing, funny and profound film, with one of the more memorable film scores in years,

(Flash Review)I popped this film on as Rommel is one of the few names I actually know from WWII and a non-American at that. It is the war from Rommel's perspective and talks about how great a tactician he was and how he'd follow the rules of war to the letter. I never really knew he had a part in the assassination attempt on Hitler. A scene more famously known from the movie Vallkarie with Tom Cruise. The film made you feel for him and how his end….was forced. Heavy. Moderately interesting if the topic peeks your interest. It also conveniently tap dances around the Holocaust. Too soon maybe in the early 50's….?

THE DESERT FOX – 1951 James Mason is really top flight in this film about the WW Two German commander, Erwin Rommel. A very watchable film considering how little actual combat scenes are in the production.Most of the film deals with his growing dislike of Hitler and his mob. It suggests that Rommel was involved in the plot to kill Hitler. From what I've read on the subject, there seems to be little solid proof either way. The failure of the assassination, lead to the death of several thousand of those involved. Rommel was forced to commit suicide in order to save his family.Mason keeps this one rolling with help from Cedric Hardwicke and a great bit by Luther Adler as Adolf Hitler. Veteran director Henry (True Grit) Hathaway handles the story with a nice even pace.It is really about time that someone made a film about his World War one battles that won him the Blue Max. Or something on his dash to the coast in the Battle of France as well as his early battles with the Afrika Korps.Having said that, don't let that stop you from watching this one. It is a film well worth the time investment.

Although a very well crafted and watchable film that stays close to the historical characters and events, without the usual Hollywood treatment of such period war movies - action heroes, love interest, bangs and explosions etc., however there is some strange castings. Notably Manfred, Rommel's son, who looks like a 1950's geeky American college kid. Jessica Tandy, a much underrated actress is superb. Mason could act the pants of any other actor and shines in this film, as indeed he did playing the same role in The Desert Rats. Richard Boone in a rare non-cowboy role makes me wonder why he never prospered in mainstream cinema. For once Hollywood manages to make a factual film without distorting history in order to get bums on seats and sell popcorn.

Out of 20th Century Fox, The Desert Fox is directed by Henry Hathaway and adapted for the screen by Nunnally Johnson (also producing) from the biography of Erwin Rommel written by Brigadier Desmond Young. It stars James Mason as Rommel who in turn is supported by Cedric Hardwicke, Jessica Tandy, Luther Adler, Everett Sloane, Leo Carroll, George Macready & Richard Boone.Possibly the first mainstream film to boldly humanise a German military leader, The Desert Fox is propelled by a mesmerising performance by Mason and backed up by Johnson's literate script. It condenses Young's biography into just an hour and half of film, but in that relatively short running time the makers have done enough to give decent insight into a man who the opposition had much respect for. The plot basically takes us on Rommel's journey from victories in North Africa, where he is loyally followed by the Afrika Korps, to his defeat at El Alamein (infuriating Hitler by disregarding orders), to French coastal defences, his role in the failed attempt to assassinate Hitler and his subsequent death by military command. Shot in a sort of semi-documentary style by Hathaway, with stock war footage flitting in and out of the film, it's credit to Hathaway that the direction is pacey and doesn't get bogged down by the necessary long passages of dialogue exchanges. The support cast all do fine work, with Adler's cameo as the Fuhrer particularly memorable, while the overriding satisfaction comes from finally seeing a Hollywood production capable of an even handed and sympathetic portrait of a opposition leader.Good adult cinema. 7/10