Director: Zoltán Korda
Screenplay: John Howard Lawson, Zoltán Korda
Based on a Story by: Philip MacDonald (adapted by James O’Hanlon)
Starring: Humphrey Bogart, Bruce Bennett, J. Carrol Naish, Lloyd Bridges, Rex Ingram, Richard Aherne, Dan Duryea, Kurt Kreuger
Country: USA
Running Time: 97 min
Year: 1943
BBFC Certificate: PG
Zoltán Korda’s 1943 film Sahara was based on a 1927 novel called ‘Patrol’, by Philip MacDonald, which was filmed twice as The Lost Patrol, most famously by John Ford in 1934. According to the credits, it’s also ‘inspired by an incident in the Soviet photoplay ‘The Thirteen’ (Trinadtsat, Mikhail Romm, 1937)’.
Though Sahara was based on these sources, this WWII action drama was made whilst the war was still going on. Things were even happening in Africa whilst filming took place, so they had to be careful about the details of the story, changing things as they went along.
This classic is now being released on Blu-ray by Indicator. I got hold of a copy and my thoughts follow.
As mentioned, Sahara is set during World War II, where we’re introduced to a group of American soldiers in a tank, led by Master Sergeant Joe Gunn (Humphrey Bogart). They’ve become isolated in the Libyan desert during the retreat to El Alamein. As they drive across the Sahara, they pick up a group of Allied stragglers, as well as an Italian prisoner of war (J. Carrol Naish) and a German fighter pilot (Kurt Kreuger) that they shoot down.
With their supplies of fuel, food, and water running low, they take a detour to a desert fortress, where they find a well that’s almost dried up, but not quite.
Whilst draining every last drop they can from the well, they discover a German troop is nearby and also desperate for water. Despite being massively outnumbered, Gunn decides to trick the Germans into thinking there’s plenty of water at the fortress, to draw them over and launch a surprise attack when they arrive.
I enjoyed Sahara a great deal. The pace and rhythm are perfectly pitched. It’s not constantly action-packed but balances set-pieces with downtime that act as character beats as well as often serving the story.
It was shot by the great Rudolph Maté, who makes excellent use of the Californian desert locations standing in for the Sahara. He also pushes in close on the sweaty, sand-blasted characters to draw us into their plight.
War movies from the 40s can often be too patriotic and propaganda-fuelled to stomach these days. However, Sahara stands up well on this fromt. Though there are a couple of rousing speeches and heroic moments, particularly towards the end, they aren’t overbaked and the soldiers are never shown to be superhuman. We not only see them fighting but witness some sadly unremarkable deaths, alongside a couple of dramatic ones.
Basic survival plays a vital role in the film too, perhaps even more than fighting the enemy. Both our motley crew of protagonists and the Germans they face at the end are dying of thirst. In fact, this fuels the final standoff. It helps level the playing field and demonstrates that they’re all just humans trying to live another day.
There are also some strong characters keeping us engaged. The captured Italian soldier, Giuseppe (J Carrol Naish), is perhaps the most interesting. The role bagged Naish an Oscar nomination, in fact. His character is an enemy they almost leave out in the desert to die but the group warm to him and he becomes their friend. However, when the Germans arrive he has a dilemma about who to support.
The way the film plays off the different nationalities and races against each other, in a microcosm of the war itself, is sensitively handled in general, for the most part (they were hardly going to go easy on The Germans during wartime). The Sudanese character Sergeant Major Tambul (Rex Ingram) is also given more depth and humanity than was the norm for a black character in that era.
So, overall, Sahara is a thrilling and deeply engrossing war movie that holds up remarkably well.
Film:
Sahara is out now on region B Blu-Ray, released by Indicator. The transfer is crisp and detailed but there’s a fair amount of damage and dirt on the print. I’ve used screengrabs throughout this review for reference, though these have been compressed. The audio is first-rate for a film of its age.
INDICATOR LIMITED EDITION BLU-RAY SPECIAL FEATURES
– High Definition remaster
– Original mono audio
– Audio commentary with screenwriter and novelist C Courtney Joyner (2025)
– Ehsan Khoshbakht on ‘Sahara’ (2025): appreciation by the curator, filmmaker, and editor of The Lady with the Torch: Columbia Pictures 1929–1959
– Building a Tank (1942): documentary short on the work of the Detroit Tank Arsenal, and the manufacture and testing of the M-3 Lee tank which prominently features in Sahara
– The Siege of Tobruk (1942): documentary short produced by the UK’s Army Film Unit detailing the World War II military campaign in the North African port of Tobruk during 1941, which preceded the events portrayed in Sahara
– Original theatrical trailer
– Image gallery: promotional and publicity material
– New and improved English subtitles for the deaf and hard of hearing
– Limited edition exclusive booklet with a new essay by Imogen Sara Smith, an archival interview with actor Kurt Kreuger, an archival on-set profile of Humphrey Bogart, a look at how the film’s promotion assisted the war effort, new writing on the short films, and film credits
– UK premiere on Blu-ray
– Limited edition of 3,000 copies for the UK
C Courtney Joyner provides a commentary over the film. It’s a wonderfully rich track, delving into the histories of those involved as well as offering some analysis.
Ehsan Khoshbakht talks about the film for around 12 minutes in an interview. He describes how impressed he was with it on first viewing. He also discusses how he feels the basis of the narrative is almost biblical and talks about how it brings a mixture of races and nationalities together and why that might have been done at the time.
Also included are a couple of archival short films. Building a Tank is a 20-minute film advertising American-made tanks, particularly the M-3 Lee tank used in the film. It’s pure propaganda but features some impressive footage of the tanks and factory.
The Siege of Tobruk is much more enjoyable though. It’s a 17-minute documentary about the titular military campaign. Using thrilling footage, some staged, some possibly first-hand, it’s a dramatic retelling.
The booklet is excellent too, as to how expected from Indicator. It opens with an insightful essay by Imogen Sara Smith, then follows this up with a couple of archival interviews, a list of some of the wild ways the film was promoted and then it provides short descriptions of the short films.
So, it’s a strong package from Indicator that’s well worth picking up.
Disc/Package:
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