The Desert Fox

Highly talkative and somewhat inaccurate movie about the life and times of German Field Marshal Erwin Rommel, James Mason, the commander of the legendary WWII Afrika Corps. Completely passing over General Rommels achievements in France and North Africa we first get to see Field Marshal Rommel during the battle of El Alamein in October 1942. Where the British launched their great offensive against the German/Italian troop that within seven months, in May 1943, cleared the continent of Africa of a Nazi military presence with the surrender of some 300,000 axis soldiers. We never get to see in "The Desert Fox" Rommels brilliant victories in the battle of France in the spring of 1940 and his successful hit and run attacks on the much larger British Army as well as his breakthrough, in the late spring of 1942, of the British lines: Rommels brilliant encirclement and capture of Tobruk, a town that held out for 242 days against the Afrika Corps the year before, taking 35,000 British troops captive at the cost of under 500 German and Italian casualties. The movie instead concentrates on Rommels involvement, or non-involvement,in the plot to kill the German Fhurer Adolf Hitler, Luther Adler. Recovering from wounds that he suffered when his command car was strafed by the RAF Rommel is later contacted at his home by German generals Burgorf & Maisel,Everett Sloane & Do Dee Leo,and given an ultimatum to either commit suicide and die a hero or stand trial for treason. Even though the movie tries very hard to paint Rommel as a reluctant but major player in the Generals plot to assassinate Hitler history proves otherwise showing Field Marshall Rommel as a loyal German soldier who followed the orders from his Fhurer almost without question. Rommel did have doubts about Hitler's military strategy but he let him know about it to Hitler's great displeasure. Rommells' low opinion of Hitler's ability to wage war was in no way comparable to actively trying to have him killed like what happened on July 20, 1944 in Hitler's military bunker, the Wolf's liar, in the East Prussian woods. Very effective portrayal by James Mason as Field Marshall Erwin Rommel who was as chivalrous to his enemies in defeat as he was courageous against them in battle which may be why the film makers tried to make him out as one of the major conspirators against Hitler's leadership to the point of having him killed. The true facts about Field Marshal Erwin Rommel that's come out and surfaced since the end of WWII doesn't back up their conclusions at all, in fact Rommel considered the killing of the German leader an act of high treason. The main reason for Rommel's death, by his own hand,had to do more with him not reporting those who wanted to recruit him into the plot to kill Hitler, which it seemed that he quite didn't fully grasp, then anything else. The fact that he didn't want to turn them over, those who approached him with the assassination plot, to the Nazi authorities and thus the dreaded Gestapo was his knowing that it would mean instant death for them and he wouldn't be able to live with himself if he did.

I was reading the comments of another reviewer which are the same as mine. I noted with interest that the other reviewer remembered that we were taught to " hate the hun in school." I just finished reading a new book on World War One, and was truly amazed at the outright lying done by the British and American governments to demonize the German soldier of WW1. Both deliberately lied ( according to the author ) that WW1 German soldiers were "bouncing Belgian babies off their bayonetts." I now wonder how many lies that we have been told about the WW2 German soldier! General Rommel was a gentleman soldier, and I believe was highly respected by Winston Churchill!

Oh boy. Films like this really bother me. If this movie is supposed to close to truth, then I assume that Rommel knew Hitler for a time before WWII started. In the movie, Rommel mentions how Hitler had changed from before. Well I can't imagine that Rommel wouldn't have known something about Hitler's government policies so Rommel must share some guilt for the German atrocities. With that in mind, I have a problem with a movie that makes Rommel's life at the end a tragic one. He made his choices and we have to feel bad for him? I can't do it. I also can't buy the theory that if the more competent generals were allowed to fight the war, the allies would have had more trouble winning it. If more competent people were in charge, WWII may never have started in the first place. From a movie watching aspect, the film jumps from place to place and most of the time seems like a history special with big name actors playing the historical roles. Leo G. Carroll has a couple of good scenes with James Mason and I liked the fact that everyone spoke English without the ridiculous accents. But other than that not very essential.

For me this movie was a disappointment. Somehow I expected that it would explain the reason for General Rommel's popularity and his success as a military strategist in WW II. But there is none of that, it deals with the last year or two of his life and tries, in a way, to whitewash him. So I just have to suppose that Rommel was primarily an amoral and apolitical technocrat in the conquering and killing business, without any particular charm or notoriety in behaviour. Such real life people just do not make good movie material. I almost feel sorry for James Mason, really one of my favorite actors, who had to impersonate a pretty wooden character. Actually, a good director and a lot of great acting talent was wasted on this movie – with the exception of Luther Adler who gives a really memorable and weirdly naturalistic portrayal of Adolf Hitler. There might also be a cultural problem for people like me who are part of the German speaking world. Famous British actors impersonating Germans are just not credible. Rommel, for example, is perceived here not just as a German but as a typical „Southerner" from Baden-Württemberg. You immediately think of a certain dialect, a certain kind of wit, a certain way of seeing the world (the total opposite of eg a Prussian „junker"). I also think that there are now mixed feelings about the assassination attempt of July 20th, many of those who were in on the conspiracy were not democrats and just wanted the German troops to join the Western Allies against the advancing Bolsheviks (thus prolonging the war forever). The best movie portrayal of an intellectual, intelligent military mind is in my opinion still Patton (1970). Incidentally, General Patton can be glimpsed for a short moment in the ample documentary footing used for this movie, a low angle shot while he is inspecting passing vehicles. The open holster and the revolver with the mother of pearl grips are clearly visible!

This is a fine biopic of a worthy and honorable opponent serving a despicable cause. Unfortunately, there is not enough North Africa Campaign in the film to satisfy a war film buff. When I first saw it in the theater, it did whet my appetite to learn more about this horrendous and costly war. I have been interested in it since. The acting is first-rate, and, unlike Enemy at the Gate, the British and American accents don't detract from the film, the British accents at any rate. As others have noted in their reviews of this film, Rommel probably wasn't anti-semitic. He deliberately ignored Hitler's orders to round up Jews during the invasion of France. He also never forgave Hitler for abandoning the Afrika Korps to their fate in 1942, not to Hitler's less than energetic attempts to keep the DAK supplied.

Disappointing film, not because of the usually great James Mason, but more rather due than a completely lackluster script. George MacReady was always known to be sinister in films but in this one we see no evidence of that. He is rather bland as a Nazi army officer. Jessica Tandy was completely miscast in the role of Frau Rommel. She is rather droll and lacks sincere compassion at the end when her husband learns his fate. Jewish actor Luther Adler is briefly shown as Hitler and he does a masterful job. The contortions on his face tell the whole story of an insane leader in desperation and denial by 1943. The film lacks total excitement and even the plot itself is staged too quickly. We needed to see the preparation in the failed attempt to assassinate the German misery.

The promotional materials for this movie in 1951 as well as now might give the impression the movie glorifies the enemy commander in World War II and goes against the brave Americans who served in Europe a few years earlier. This was why some theaters in 1951 (including my own neighborhood theater, the SILVER) refused to show it. Take a harder look and you'll find the story concentrates on General Rommell and other Germans who conspired to eradicate Adolf Hitler, failed, and paid with their lives. It also takes a hard look at Hitler's awful judgment in military decisions nearing the end of the war. DESERT FOX was made by Hollywood's top talent. Written by Nunnally Johnson (the finest screenplay writer of the era) and directed by the always excellent Henry Hathaway, 20th Century-Fox not only gave this their finest, but followed it a year later with the Robert Wise directed DESERT RATS which told of the incredibly effective English and Australian units that held Rommell in check and prevented him from capturing either Cairo or the Suez Canal. This was a patriotic Hollywood staffed with real men of character, many of whom were World War II heroes in private life. It stands in sharp contrast to the girlie-men linguine-spine cowards in Hollywood today. Now we have PEARL HARBOR --- which "justified" the Japanese attack --- and Steven Spielberg's god-awful SAVING PRIVATE RYAN --- which took the heroic true story of the Sullivan Brothers and turned their great deeds into spineless liberal mush. Similarly, the SILVER, which declined to show an alleged anti-American film in 1951 is now under American Film Institute ownership and can be relied on to play every anti-American movie that comes on the market, while regularly downplaying or ignoring pro-American classics. Both DESERT FOX and DESERT RATS are recent DVD releases. Good movies, deserving your attention.

I hoped to learn something from this movie, but I was disappointed. It is all about Rommel and lauds him as a great general, but at no time in this entire movie did we ever get an idea of why he was great. What made him so successful? Was it his drive, his unwillingness to accept defeat, his discipline with his men? I was looking for a Patton-like rendition that really gets into the character, but this fell way flat. Most of the dialog is contrived and sensationalized, and feels stale and artificial. There is some good action here and there, but not much. The tail end of the story, which discusses his involvement in the plot to assassinate Hitler, was the most informative part and probably the most interesting. But as a history lesson on Germany's greatest general, this was a failure.

It wasn't simply the way Mason captured the screen with a class that few if any actors could handle today. Sometimes, it only takes one scene to make a movie great. The scene between Rommel and Hitler (Mason and Adler) is that scene. You forget that these are actors and immerse yourself in the moment as Rommel becomes the one man who dares confront Hitler about his battle plans. He refuses to back down to the most evil man of our time and it makes this movie one of the best WWII movies ever made. The makers of Pearl Harbor should take note: When you have the people like Rommel and Hitler (Or Roosevelt and Yamamoto) as your characters, you don't need to invent a silly story line. History is the best story teller of all. This movie is about history.

As a character drama, "The Desert Fox" is a superb film; well-written, intelligent dialogue, likeable and well-developed characters, and no ridiculous, hammy "foreign accents" by the film's mostly British and American actors (except for maybe Luther Adler as Hitler); I would've given this flick a nine, or maybe even a ten, if it hadn't been for the stock footage. I know this wasn't meant to be a battle-heavy picture, but the continual use of stock footage to supplement for action (esp. the three and a half minute long stretch of D-Day footage) is grating. I had to take off at least a star for that. Otherwise, this is a great film; well-acted, well-written, and realistic. Mason is good (if not terribly exciting) as Field Marshall Erwin Rommel, my second-favorite military hero in history (after Winfield Scott Hancock, from whom I got my screen name), and the supporting cast is superb as well, standouts being Leo G. Carrol as the somewhat cynical and humanistic yet rigidly loyal Field Marshall Von Rundstedt, and Luther Adler, who (in what is essentially a cameo) portrays Adolf Hitler perfectly - a man who is evil (by most everyone's standards) and flamboyant, with his exaggerated hand movements, eccentric military tactics, and his sudden fits of temper (his dialogue scene with Rommel before he decides to join the plot against Hitler for good) - but also a human side - he listens to his subordinates (though doesn't always agree with them), and he even gets to crack a joke about Herman Goering ("When you are fat you do not move so fast") - both Hitler and Goering had appealing senses of humor, though Goering was obviously the more public joker. You can sense, even in Adler's minimal screen time, how Hitler got to be so powerful. I give this film eight stars for reasons stated above.