Sword in the Desert (1949)

A brilliant film that helped define a genre

The film makes a home in your brain and the only cure is to see it again.

Let me be very fair here, this is not the best movie in my opinion. But, this movie is fun, it has purpose and is very enjoyable to watch.

Through painfully honest and emotional moments, the movie becomes irresistibly relatable

SWORD IN THE DESERT - 1949This is one of the first films to deal with the creation of Israel after World War Two. The British, who were in charge of the area at the time, were embroiled in a battle with the Jewish underground. Their job was to stop the waves of Jewish immigrants fleeing worn torn Europe looking for a home. The British really did not want to be there, but were waiting for a resolution from the UN.The story itself starts with a cargo ship and her Captain, Dana Andrews. Andrews had picked up a load of refuges in Italy and was dropping them off the coast of Palestine. He is getting 100 dollars a head for his "cargo". He wants to land the cargo and leave pronto like before he gets caught by the British Naval patrol. He lands the cargo but is stranded on shore when a British Patrol shows. He is forced to flee with the refugees. Now how does he get back to his ship? The rest of the film follows his quest to return to said ship. He also grows to understand the "cargo" is more than just that. They are people looking for a home. There are plenty of gun battles, chases and a great prison camp escape to keep up the pace. The director, George Sherman, was a whizz at these middle budget action productions. All in all, this is not a bad way to spend 101 minutes of your time. The cast includes, Marta Toren, Jeff Chandler, Stephen McNally, Peter Coe and Hayden Rorke.

Dana Andrews (Mike) is the captain of a ship who doesn't mind what his cargo is as long as he makes money. This time around it's people. He smuggles Stephen McNally (Vogel) and some illegal Jewish refugees into Palestine under British rule. McNally is part of a terrorist group led by Jeff Chandler (Kurta) and Andrews is forced to join this gang as they are pursued by the Brits.The film is OK but it is let down by the terrible acting by all of the English actors. The whole bunch of them play complete buffoons and one of them, who appears late on and is actually an ally of Chandler's group, is straight out of a "Carry On" film. He reminded me of Leslie Phillips and it would not have been out of place to hear him say those immortal words "..ding dong!" as he eyes up a lady. The British seem to be comedy characters who deliver their lines quite atrociously considering this is meant to be a serious film.Stephen McNally is the best of the cast and there are a couple of good moments but we also get some terribly cheesy religious guff with Bethlehem appearing at the film's end. The best part of the film is the singing of Christmas carols and "My Bonnie Lies Over The Ocean" at the British camp.

I saw the movie when I was a kid and love every minute of it. I always thought that attacks on the British in Palestine was a rare thing. When I got the book A Job Well Done about the British Palestine Police Force, I surprise how often the Jews particularly the Irgun and the Sten gang fought the British starting in 1943 until 1948. They attack the police stations, RAF airfields, and British Army camps especially after the end of World War II. They also sabotage the oil pipeline going into Palestine and blowing up the railroad lines that would have made Lawrence of Arabia proud. I love the way Dana Andrew's character change his mind in not identifying the leader of the resistance movement after seeing those refugees line up against barbered wire. His character must have saw a similar situation in Europe with the Jews or in Asia with all those Allied POWs in the Japanses camps. Its amazing how anti-Jewish feelings among the people in Europe and American resurface shortly after the end of World War II.The only problem I had was where the Jews had attack the camp, and despite total surprise, the British manage to get their guns and inflict casualties on the Jews while suffering few of their own. If those were German soldiers in movie, they would been mow down.

This is another movie I haven't seen in years, although it was last broadcast on AMC. (Despite the setting, it was filmed on the California coast.) Unfortunately, they have not said when, or if, they plan to re-air it.The story line is quite true-to-life, insofar as historical fiction can be. The number of non-Jewish volunteers helping the Haganah during the Jewish struggle against the British mandate was quite amazing, and they did so for a variety of reasons, from a sense of justice, to Zionist motives, to a desire to get a 'lick in' at England.British imperial duplicity was so accurately depicted here, that, when the movie was released, the British government protested that it slandered Her Majesty's government. Methinks they didst protest too much. In reality, there were Brits in the Mandatory Administration who favored the Jewish struggle for an independent homeland, as there were those who favored the Arabs, but most saw it as a foreign posting in their careers, a job to be done fairly, but always with an eye to Britain's interests, even as they protested that they were acting on behalf of the 'natives'.A complex time, reduced to a movie whose verisimilitude is striking. The Haganah exploits depicted, such as the blowing up of all bridges (not that there were that many) at the borders of Mandatory Palestine, and the announcement of the High Commissioner's replacement (before he learned of it) did happen.This is the earliest movie about the Ha'apalah, the illegal immigration into Mandatory Palestine before the independence of the State of Israel. Other movies set in the same time and place are Kirk Douglas' "The Juggler" and "Cast a Giant Shadow".I can only hope it becomes available on video or CD, as I would like to see it again.