... a great film or long advertisement ...

... this excellent World War II film, starring John Mills as a captain in charge of an ambulance unit. Set in north Africa at the time of the German army advance and the fall of Tobruk. The captain, his sergeant are caught behind enemy lines with an old ambulance, two nurses and a lost South African, Captain van der Poel.

They escape shelling; aircraft attack; cross a minefield, just; encounters with two German patrols, with the loss of life of one of the nurses; a trip through the desert to an oasis, which was in the process of being sabotaged by some very camp special forces; they crossed a salt plateau, where anyone straying from the path can get sucked down; and ingeniously overcome a slope too steep for the ambulance.

The film builds up tension well. The captain has a serious drink problem, not helped by the fact that van der Poel was carrying bottles of gin in his pack. However der Post's strength saved the group when he was able to stop the ambulance fall over, when they were trying to repair a broken spring. His knowledge of German allows the group to continue on their way, rather than be taken as prisoners.

However first the sergeant, played by Harry Andrews, and then the surviving nurse, played by Sylvia Sims, begin to get suspicious of captain der Post and his walks out alone in the desert, always carrying his heavy bag. In the end it turns out that der Post is a German spy. Der Post's, with the transmitter, is lost when he is nearly caught transmitting on the salt plateau and falls into the swamp. In a typical British fashion he is not exposed and they travel on to that holy grail the 'Ice cold lager in Alex' in the best bar in Alexandria, according to the captain.

They arrive, go to the bar, have their drinks and then hand over Captain der Post, in reality Otto Lutz, as a prisoner of war, rather than spy, which saves him from being shot. An excellent film and probably ... the longest advertisement for Carlsberg ever.



Overview of film Overview of the film.

I also found two amazing sites where people detail film slip ups. If you worry about land rovers being used in the film approximately four years before they went into production then you will love the sites below.

Nitpicker web site on Ice Cold in Alex
Slipup web site