Station Six-Sahara (1963)

Very very predictable, including the post credit scene !!!

Powerful

A great movie, one of the best of this year. There was a bit of confusion at one point in the plot, but nothing serious.

This movie tries so hard to be funny, yet it falls flat every time. Just another example of recycled ideas repackaged with women in an attempt to appeal to a certain audience.

A virtually forgotten potboiler directed by Seth Holt. A disparate group of men working an oil refinery in the Sahara get company in the form of foxy car crash victim Carroll Baker. Sexual tension ensues as Baker leads on at least two of the men, including group leader Peter van Eyck, who's desperate to get out of his miserable existence. Adding to the mix is Baker's possessive husband (Biff McGuire), who, though bedridden, refuses to let Baker go. Extremely well acted but perhaps a bit too melodramatic to really be taken seriously, there is nonetheless plenty to recommend...Baker is in peak form and Van Eyck is great. Ian Bannen steals the show as a crass bully and Denholm Elliott is his uptight foil. There's a great music score by Ron Grainer. The script was worked on by Bryan Forbes.

One thing I noticed previous reviewers left out of their critiques of this film is that it was a cooperative venture utilizing German, Australian and American actors and crew. I first saw this film as a preteen on TV and fell in love with it. It was the first time I ever saw Peter Van Eyck (of "Rocky Horror Picture Show" fame) act. The truly great performance, however, is given by Ian Bannen (an Aussie) as a happy-go-lucky, crusty oil field worker. IMHO, this work holds the essence of "art film" in the palm of its hand. I also do not know anyone else who has ever seen it but feel, if you don't appreciate this film, you know nothing about "true art".

This film is almost forgotten today. I have only seen it twice, and don't know anyone else who has seen it, or even heard of it. The setting and characters are reminiscent of Flight of the Phoenix, with an international group of oil riggers getting on each others' nerves in the Arabian desert. SPOILERS AHEAD: The only part of this movie that's actually interesting is the strange cat and mouse game played between two Englishmen, over a letter. One complains that he never receives any mail, and the other guy gets lots of mail, so he offers to buy a random letter. The condition is that the original recipient will not be allowed to see it, or know anything about who sent it. Having agreed and sold one of his letters, the first guy spends the rest of the movie trying to find out what's in the letter, offering to buy it back, nearly going crazy when the purchaser gloats over " his" letter, hinting that it's from a woman. At the end, the purchaser reveals what the letter is about. That subplot is the only thing remotely interesting in the movie. It might be worth seeing, if you get the chance, just out of sheer curiosity. It's an odd little cult item with no likable or admirable characters at all, which may be why it's not better known.

Sexual and other tensions at a Sahara pumping station heat up when a female is added to the mix. A turgid little B&W potboiler of no meaning notable only as it ran as the 'B' feature in theaters in 1963 for the wonderful "Topkapi".