Ice Cold in Alex (1961)

I read a review that made me join IMDb and post "this" review. My brother and I absolutely LOVE this movie. We have "Movie" nights at home in Sydney, Australia. Some of the classics like "Ice Cold In Alex" aka "Desert Attack". We also love old war movies like "The Long and The Short And The Tall", "The Hill", "Yesterdays Enemy"..just to name a few. You should see My brother and I watching the part of "Ice Cold In Alex" where Captain Van Der Pol is in desperate trouble...man we are on the edge of our seats...every time we watch it! And the end where they cheers, in the Canopus bar, My brother and I always put down our glasses at exactly the same time as Anson does....get a life I can hear you saying...man we love it. The atmosphere is brilliant, the acting superb and the story line well it's one of the best. I've personally watched Ice Cold In Alex about 30 times and I'll never stop watching it. Do yourself a favor check this one out....you can't go wrong. Enjoy!! Terry

This film I saw when it first came out (yikes) as young teen. On reviewing as an OAP, it holds up quite well. In fact it probably was more understandable now than then! The simple story of a few refugees from Tobruk trying to outpace the German advance to El Alamein in the Desert War in 1941 is well told, if a little thin. The location work is excellent (at a time when UK films did not go very far afield very often - see the execrable 'Long, Short and the Tall!), the characters well drawn and acted, if a little unbelievable (especially Mills and Quayle), the writing quite sparse and the direction unobtrusively good. The final scenes in the bar have been overused but they work in the film. Pity the plot was a little flimsy and John Mills was too old for the part - he leaves a much younger man in Tobruk, who apparently went through the last war (WW1) - which does detract from the authenticity. But it is a film that modern filmmakers could study to see how WW2 was actually portrayed in a realistic fashion shortly afterwards!

Battle-weary alcoholic Captain Anson (John Mills) sets out across the Libyan desert after his British base is evacuated. Joining him is Tom Pugh (Harry Andrews), Anson's square-jawed and loyal friend, and two nurses Diana (Sylvia Syms) and Denise (Diane Clare). Joining them early on the road is Afrikaan-speaking Captain van der Poel (Anthony Quayle), a colossal man who seems rather attached to his bag who he claims contains bottles of gin. In their way are mine fields, thirst, swampy salt mines, the desert heat, and those bloody Nazis. Anson promises to quit drinking until he gets to Alexandria, Egypt, where awaiting him is an ice cold lager.Possibly the best thing about this very good film is the real feel of the desert. Many of the old films glam it up a bit, but Ice Cold In Alex revels in the sweat, dust and dirt of the perilous desert. You can literally taste the dryness of their lips and the scorching heat on their back, and really feel their struggle. Also refreshing is the lack of token gunfights and action scenes that plagued many of the old war films. It is more concerned with the individual mental and physical struggle of the characters, and draws up tension in the small moments, such as Anson biting his lip and breathing hard as he slowly makes his way across the mine field. Another film that came to mind during these tense scenes is Henri-Georges Clouzot's The Wages Of Fear.I never realised just quite how terrific an actor John Mills was until I saw this. Even though his male co-stars tower over the little man, he is a raging mountain of frustration, anger and fierce dedication. It is a sublime performance. His co-stars are impressive too, with Quayle another standout as a man who may not be quite who he claims to be. Combining this with the impressive cinematography and intelligent script, it makes for an exciting and absorbing war film that manages to be quintessentially British yet as gritty a war film that I've seen from this era.www.the-wrath-of-blog.blogspot.com

Even though this is one of the great films set in the Second World War I don't think I'd seen it in its entirety so when my news paper gave it away on a DVD I finally got a chance to watch it... and just like the lager in the final scene it was worth the wait.Set in the North African deserts of Libya and Egypt the film follows a small group of British personnel as they try to get from Tobruk to Alexandria in an ambulance without getting captured by Germans, running out of fuel and water or getting stranded in the harsh terrain after they have been separated from the rest of their column. Shortly after departing they pick up a South African officer who's ability to talk German gets them out of sticky situations more than once.It is an unusual war film in more than one way, for a start the group contains women who are real characters rather than just the love interest left behind while the men go off to war and secondly they don't have some exciting mission to destroy an enemy target or even to engage in combat; they just want to avoid any contact with the Germans and get to Alexandria and have an ice cold lager... hence the films title.The acting was good, I thought Sylvia Syms stood out as the nurse Sister Diana Murdoch, it was good to see a woman in a leading roll in a war film of that era. I liked that the makers didn't feel a need to have music in every scene, the total silence added to the atmosphere of the desert in many scenes.