THE DESERT RATS
DIRECTED BY ROBERT WISE
PRODUCED BY ROBERT L. JACKS
TWENTIETH CENTURY FOX FILM CORPORATION
Information From IMDb
Plot Summary
Rommel has the British in retreat on his way to the Suez Canal.
All that stands in his way is Tobruk, held by a vastly out numbered force
of Australian troops.
Richard Burton leads these troops on daring raids against Rommel,
keeping him off balance as they earn the nickname 'The Desert Rats'.
Written by Derek Picken
Full Cast
Richard Burton ... Capt. 'Tammy' MacRoberts
James Mason ... Field Marshal Erwin von Rommel
Robert Newton ... Tom Bartlett
Robert Douglas ... General
Torin Thatcher ... Col. Barney White
Chips Rafferty ... Sgt. 'Blue' Smith
Charles 'Bud' Tingwell ... Lt. Harry Carstairs (as Charles Tingwell)
Charles Davis ... Pete
Ben Wright ... Mick
Patrick Aherne ... English Officer (uncredited)
John Alderson ... Corporal (uncredited)
Charles B. Fitzsimons ... Fire Officer (uncredited)
Arno Frey ... Kramm (uncredited)
Ray Harden ... Hugh (uncredited)
Charles Keane ... Sgt Donaldson (uncredited)
James O'Hara ... Communications Man (uncredited)
John O'Malley ... Riley (uncredited)
Pat O'Morre ... Jim (uncredited)
Michael Pate ... Cpl. Currie (uncredited)
Richard Peel ... Rusty (uncredited)
Guy Prescott ... Maj. O'Rourke (uncredited)
Michael Rennie ... Narrator (voice) (uncredited)
Albert Taylor ... Jensen (uncredited)
John Wengraf ... German Doctor (uncredited)
Alfred Zeisler ... von Helmholtz (uncredited)
Writing Credits
Richard Murphy (written by)
Original Music
Leigh Harline
Cinematography
Lucien Ballard
Trivia
Legendary Australian actor Chips Rafferty appears in this movie as Sergeant 'Blue' Smith. About a decade earlier, Rafferty appeared playing Milo Trent in another movie featuring "The Desert Rats" entitled The Rats of Tobruk (1944).
This film's title actually refers to the British 7th Armoured Division who were "The Desert Rats" in North Africa and not the Australian 9th Division who were part of the siege at Tobruk and were known as "The Rats of Tobruk", not the Desert Rats.
James Mason played the same role of German Field Marshal Erwin Rommel two years earlier in The Desert Fox: The Story of Rommel (1951), also by 20th Century-Fox studio also being set in World War II North Africa.
In light of postwar revelations that Field Marshal Erwin Rommel had been complicit in the attempt to kill Adolf Hitler, there emerged a reassessment of him as a dashing and gallant officer, and this is how James Mason played him in "The Desert Fox"--in contrast to the portrayal of Rommel by Erich von Stroheim in Paramount's Five Graves to Cairo (1943), which was Billy Wilder's first film as a director. After "The Desert Fox" came out, criticism came from veterans who had strong opinions about Rommel based on their experience of his actions during the war. In making "The Desert Rats" two years later, in reaction to this criticism, Fox brought back Mason in a cameo, and he plays Rommel more villainously than he has in "The Desert Fox", though not as much as von Stroheim.
The picture of Tammy MacRoberts' wife is actually a photo of actress Sybil Williams, Richard Burton's then wife.
Goofs
Anachronisms: In the beginning of the movie Rommel is being addressed as 'Field Marshal' 'though at that time he was still a General. He was promoted to Field Marshal after the capture of Tobruk, which occurred in 1942 not 1941, when the tide of war had swung back again in favor of the Germans.
Continuity: When the British aircraft are attacking German trucks carrying the prisoners, the planes shown in the distant shot are not the same planes as in the closeup. The planes in the closeup shot have black and white stripes painted on their wings, at the root and parallel to the fuselage. Such stripes were not used for identification until D-Day (they were called "invasion stripes" at the time) and then only in Europe.
Factual errors: When the British planes are firing at the trucks carrying the prisoners, the Germans fire back but appear to be using American Thompson M1A1s as opposed to MP40s.
Factual errors: During the last commando raid by Australian soldiers on a German base, the defenders are using Vickers machine guns when in reality they should be using MG34s.
Continuity: When MacRoberts' wound is being treated, it appears high up on the left arm, near the shoulder. Two scenes later, the bandage is lower down on the bicep and the wound that would have been exposed is nowhere to be seen.
Miscellaneous: During the last few scenes in the dugout, the characters all appear in various states of dirty, dusty, and disheveled, but the radio telephone, papers, and lanterns are all perfectly clean and orderly.
Revealing mistakes: During the German tank/infantry attack mid-way into the film, a German throws himself on the barb-wire. When you see him getting up, he throws his rifle with a bayonet backwards, and you see the weapon is just rubber as it wobbles uncontrollably.
Anachronisms: In the scene where "Tammy" and the others are being taken to a German pow camp in a truck convoy and strafed by allied aircraft, besides the inaccurate invasion stripes of the American P-51, other shots show stock footage of a Grumman Avenger diving in as well. The Avenger was primarily used in the Pacific theater and did not enter service until June of '42.
Continuity: In the sequence when a German truck is strafed by an Allied fighter, while the plane chases the truck from the rear, the windshield is frontally perforated in a right-to-left strafe. The bullets' holes are also very small. Almost any Allied fighter by middle 1941 would have had a couple of 20 mm cannons, which would have obviously smashed to smithereens not only the windshield, but rather the whole cabin.
Errors made by characters (possibly deliberate errors by the filmmakers): The uncredited general in command of Tobruk's garrison played by Robert Douglas is seemingly the 9th Australian Division commander Leslie James Morshead.
Filming Locations
Palm Springs, California, USA
San Diego, California, USA
Trailer
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