The Rats of Tobruk (1944)

This film turned up very unexpectedly on one of our free view film channels.It contains most of the elements that you expect from a World War 2 film.A fair amount of newsreel film is used there is rather too much comedy.The barber,played by George Wallace,a popular vaudevillian there is a strange character played by Joe Valli who reminds me of Frank Randle.Interesting to see a young Chips Rafferty and an eve younger Peter Finch.Made in 1944 it was not released in the UK till 1949.

THE RATS OF TOBRUK is a dated but watchable Aussie WW2 movie, of which there aren't too many in existence. The story follows a trio of characters as they head off to fight Rommel on North Africa. Grant Taylor is the square-jawed lead, Chips Rafferty adds character, and Peter Finch is the upper-crust Englishman. The film is a little slow to start with a lot of ponderous conversations and tacked-on romance, but once the action shifts to Africa it incorporates plenty of documentary-style realism in the depiction of intense battles. What's impressive is that this was made while the war was still in full swing, with a number of the cast on leave from their roles in the forces.

A young Peter Finch is an English reporter studying the customs and language of the Australian outback. He becomes pals with two drovers, Grant Taylor and Chips Rafferty. About half an hour is spent on Taylor's on-and-off romance with Pauline Garrick as Kate Carmody. It's rather interesting. Taylor is reluctant to be involved with Garrick because she's "old school", meaning she represents the old colonial English. Moreover, he's given to moving around and painting the town red, while she wants to build a home. Some of these social fractures were to show up in Cleary's novel, "The Sundowners," roving drover vs. wife who wants to settle down, irresponsible males, resentment of the English. Even some of the names reappear: Bluey and Carmody.In any case, they find themselves shipped off to war and wind up at Tobruk, which is under siege by the Nazis. They manage to hold on, though they're exhausted and lose some of their mates. (None of this is sentamentalized in the least.) Scenes of battle are few but reasonably convincing. A comic barber, George Wallace, has a prominent part but isn't very funny. Example: An Arab says something to Wallace and adds a term of respectful address, "Effendi." "No, no, you don't offend me!" I like it better when William Bendix did it in "Guadalcanal Diary." Three Japanese captives kneel on the ground before the Marines, chanting "Aragato" ("thank you"). Comments Bendix: "We ain't got no avocados." The acting is adequate. Chips Rafferty went on to become Hollywood's Australian, and of course Peter Finch won an Oscar for his role in "Network." Withall, it's not really a gripping movie. It's not "Gallipoli" or "Anzacs," but it gets the job done. It's a flag-waver about some heroic men who held on under the most adverse circumstances. The Germans finally took Tobruk but the Allies got it back.

I guess this is in the public domain as its out on DVD. First off, this is a feel good propaganda movie to be shown to a wartime Aussie audience, so its not to be considered a serious retelling of Tobruk. The first half to 3/4 is very dry stuff set in Australia, I guess like many American war films where the recruits are getting together, oh man its soooo long. Than we get to Africa and Tobruk, pretty bad, low budget stuff. The battle scenes on the DVD copy I watched were almost completely black. See it if you must, but be prepared to use the fast forward as I doubt you can take it after a few minutes. I enjoyed the cheesy Italian "Battle of El Alamien" a whole lot more, also Richard Burton did an African theater war flick that was good "The Desert Rats", this movie is just a real period piece and should have stayed in that time, does not hold up well today (I doubt it was highly regarded back then either). I say the same thing about my American counterpart war flicks so don't take it personally Aussies (I love Australia, been there twice!).