The Desert Fox **** (1951, James Mason, Jessica Tandy, Cedric Hardwicke, Luther Adler, Everett Sloane, Leo G Carroll) – Classic Movie Review 5407

James Mason rejoices in one of his most deservedly celebrated roles as Nazi General Erwin Johannes Rommel in the exciting 1951 World War Two drama film The Desert Fox.

Director Henry Hathaway’s 1951 war movie The Desert Fox tells the story of Rommel, The Desert Fox, who was still fresh in the minds of postwar audiences, but is now of course a much less known figure. So the biographical drama provides quite the history lesson as well as wartime entertainment.

James Mason rejoices in one of his most deservedly celebrated roles as Nazi General Erwin Johannes Rommel in an exciting World War Two drama about the Field Marshal’s defeat as general at the head of the Afrika Korps in Africa and his return disenchanted to Germany. There he is involved in the Fortess Europe defence plan and embroiled in the plot to kill Adolf Hitler, leading to his own suicide.

Hathaway turns in a realistic, convincing, compelling and insightful movie, with excellent desert photography, shot in black and white by Norbert Brodine, and a trend-setting pre-credits sequence. And it is very convincingly performed, with Jessica Tandy effective as Frau Rommel and Luther Adler convincing as a ranting Hitler. But it is Mason who makes the film special.

It helped to build the idea of Rommel as a brilliant, apolitical commander, opposed Nazi policies and a victim of the Third Reich via his participation in the plot to kill Hitler in 1944.

Thanks to the black and white format, actual wartime documentary footage could be used throughout the film.

Finnish President and Field Marshal Carl Gustaf Emil Mannerheim’s Mercedes-Benz 770, a gift from Adolf Hitler, is used as a prop car.

The Desert Fox co-stars Cedric Hardwicke as Dr Karl Strolin, Everett Sloane as General Wilhelm Burgdorf, Leo G Carroll as Field Marshal Gerd von Rundstedt, George Macready as General Fritz Bayerlein, Richard Boone as Captain Hermann Aldinger and Eduard Franz as Colonel Klaus von Stauffenberg.

Also in the cast are Lieutenant Colonel Desmond Young playing himself, John Alderson, Mary Carroll, Paul Cavanaugh, Robert Coote, Charles Evans, Scott Forbes, Lumsden Hare, John Hoyt, Walter Kingsford, Lester Matthews, Ivan Triesault, Philip Van Zandt, John Vosper, Carleton Young and Peter van Eyck.

The Desert Fox runs 88 minutes, is made and released by 20th Century Fox, is scripted and produced by Nunnally Johnson, is scored by Daniele Amfitheatrof and is set designed by Lyle R Wheeler. It is based on the biographical book Rommel: The Desert Fox by Brigadier Desmond Young M C, who served in the British Indian Army in North Africa.

It is also known as The Desert Fox: The Story of Rommel and Rommel, Desert Fox.

Mason reprised the part in The Desert Rats (1953).

Mason and Carroll appear together in North by Northwest.

© Derek Winnert 2017 Classic Movie Review 5407

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