Review: Ice Cold in Alex

A WWII story following burned out military man Sir John Mills as he leads a mission driving an ambulance through the land mine-rigged African desert from Tobruk to Alexandria (The film was shot in Libya, however). Joining him are right-hand man Harry Andrews, two nurses (Sylvia Syms and Diane Clare) and a barrel-chested, bull-headed South African Army Captain (Sir Anthony Quayle) they pick up along the way. Something about Quayle strikes everyone as suspicious and they start to wonder if they have a spy in their midst. Walter Gotell turns up as a German officer who pulls their vehicle over at one tense moment.

 

It’s a shame that I watched this 1958 J. Lee Thompson (“Cape Fear”, “The Guns of Navarone”, and a whole bunch of crap for The Cannon Group in the 80s) war film with ad breaks, because I reckon it’d play out even more tense if watched uninterrupted. It’s a testament to the film though, that even with the ad breaks, and even at over 2 hours without them, it still manages to be a very tense film. Thirst, heat, landmines, Nazis, possible spies, and Mills’ mental/emotional state all create a very tense atmosphere here. The mine field scene in particular is a nail-biter, partly due to the South African’s stubbornness.

 

Scripted by T.J. Morrison (Thompson’s “The Good Companions”) and Christopher Landon from the novel by the latter, it’s a good B-movie with a damn fine British cast. Sir John Mills is especially good as the worn out and alcoholic Captain who is gonna need to stay off the grog (or at least get some sleep) if he’s gonna get himself and everyone else through this next mission so that they can all have an (Ice Cold) beer in Alexandria when this is all over. I mean, there are people in saunas who sweat less than Mills does in this. The sorely underrated Harry Andrews is well-cast as Mills’ right-hand man and Sergeant-Major whose job it is to see that Mills stays as sober as possible. In many ways it’s a typically tough guy role for him, but with a bit more sensitivity than you might be used to seeing from him, and he’s more than up to the task. Sir Anthony Quayle appears to be having more fun than anyone else as the burly Seth Effriken who just doesn’t seem to be quite trustworthy throughout the film. It’s not a subtle piece of acting from Quayle, but it’s certainly entertaining. I did feel, though, that the film never quite gets a handle on his character even by the end. ***** SPOILER WARNING ****** What exactly was he trying to transmit? It feels like something was missing to me, because it didn’t seem like there was anything terribly interesting for him to tell the enemy. That and a couple of other things about the character didn’t seem to add up to me. ***** END SPOILER ***** Meanwhile, look out for Aussie-born character actor Allan Cuthbertson as a jeep driver/attaché getting chewed out by a SO. It’s only a tiny role for the very talented (if very English-sounding) character actor, but I always enjoy seeing him.

 

Like a lot of British-made WWII films of the 50s, this is solid, rugged stuff and quite tensely directed by journeyman Thompson. It’s probably one of his better efforts as a director, and Sir John Mills is really quite brilliant in the lead. I must admit, though, that there’s more use of the term ‘ruddy’ in this than in any other English film I’ve seen. At one point even the ruddy South African says it. By the way, avoid the alternate cut entitled “Desert Attack”, which doesn’t even make it to 90 minutes. The longer version may be over 2 hours long, but I’ll never recommend watching a version of a film so shorn of its intended length. I haven’t seen the shortened version, but apparently it barely makes any sense and really tears the film’s guts out.

 

Rating: B-