Sahara (1943)

I guess this is what you'd call a "man's movie," a tough war story with no female characters in the cast. Humphrey Bogart is an effective tough-guy American sergeant leading an international group of Allies in a tank across the Sahara desert.

Eventually they battle huge odds against an onrushing German forces. intent on getting water from a well that was being tapped by Bogart's crew. There are a few lulls when characterizations are made, and the anti-German fervor in here is a little overdone. However, since it made right in the middle of World War II, that's understandable.

There is some good photography in here with nice shadows form the sand dunes. Overall, a pretty solid war film that has decent action without overdoing it. Complementing Bogart in he cast are the likes of Bruce Bennett. Lloyd Bridges, Dan Duryea and J. Carrol Naish

Fmovies: "Sahara" is a 1943 film starring Humphrey Bogart, directed by Zoltan Korda, and intended as a propaganda film during World War II. It succeeds.

Bogart is a Sgt. Joe Gunn, and after Tobruk falls in North Africa, he leads a tank unit into the desert. He's joined by French, South African, British, and Sudanese soldiers. They come up against a group of Germans that want the water well where the tanks are stationed.

Besides Bogart, the great cast includes Bruce Bennett. Lloyd Bridges, Dan Duryea and J. Carrol Naish, and they all do an exemplary job. What I like best about this film is the atmosphere - the sun beating down, the dryness, the filth - you're thirsty just watching it.

It was films like this that probably kept people in the U.S. going during the war, I imagine. World War II has been highly romanticized, but despite the pretty songs, there wasn't anything romantic about it. Since there are no women in this film, there's nothing romantic about "Sahara" either. Very good work.

This Zoltan Korda-John Howard Lawson World War II curio is at times a superb war film, with fine pace, excellent location photography and some excellent, unflashy acting. It is a story in the tradition of The Lost Patrol, as experienced U.S. Sgt. Humphrey Bogart, in a tank, helps a motley crew of soldiers, mostly British, in search of either their unit, safety or water, whichever comes first. They wind up at a desert fort and are eventually attacked by a German regiment that is also desperate and thirsty, and some exciting action scenes of fighting and exhausted men are the result.

Bogart is his usual charismatic self in the lead, and the supporting cast is nearly as good, especially Bruce Bennett and J. Carrol Naish; the former is quiet and dignified, as was his custom, the latter typically flamboyant, but this time his florid acting is appropriate. Overall I like this movie a lot. Like all the best war films, it focuses on seemingly small things, such as well that has gone dry (or has it?), the glaring sun, the little stories of home life,--for once not corny. There is a black African solider who is treated as an equal, and well-acted by Rex Ingram. Now and again, though, the movie turns preachy, as a certain internationalist tendentiousness creeps in, which, even if one finds its agreeable, detracts somewhat from the exciting story and makes it at times feel like a tract on the need for cooperation among nations.

Sahara fmovies. Sahara although not usually contained in the compendium of Bogey's best movies is a rousing WWII action movie. The plot involving a rag tag group of allied soldiers,along with Bogey's M-3 Grant Tank "Lulu Belle" holding a North African well against a motorized battalion of the Afrika Korps is enough to set the tone of this movie. I will not go into the plot any further but state that it was filmed in 1943 and it was a morale booster. The acting is first rate and the fact that an African-American actor, Rex Ingram was treated as an equal, as Sergeant-Major Tambul, Fourth Sudanese Battalion was far ahead of his time. A movie I see every time it plays. It was remade for TV with James Belushi playing the Bogart role as Master Sergeant Joe Gunn, USA and was a good movie in its own right. However, the Bogart version sets the standard. A must see movie for Bogey fans and WWII film buffs.

Michael Wolkow, Colonel, Infantry, Retired

The Good Guys are desperate for water. The Bad Guys are desperate for water. Everyone is obsessed with the impossibility of getting water. Water. Water. Water.

There just isn't any. It's central to the plot. Everyone is terrified of dying for lack of it. They're ready to kill for it. They're ready to die for it. They travel miles and miles out of their way to get to wells.

And yet... when they start seriously shooting at each other, both sides are laying down a practically non-stop withering fire with.... WATER-COOLED machine guns!!!!!!

I guess they must have had a whole bunch of water all along!

Shot in the American desert instead of the real Sahara due to the war, this movie is one of the best war films ever made. The desert is so bleak and barren, and the sun so bright, you can almost feel the heat in your living room. Sahara shows us just how brutal the conditions were in North Africa during the war, and how nature brought suffering to both sides. The Allied soldiers are a mix of a lot of different nationalities (American, British, French, South African, Irish, Sudanese) and we see how these men from diverse backgrounds come together to survive against the elements and the Germans. The Germans themselves have the usual stereotyping of nastiness that is found in most films of the 1940s, but even they are shown to be individuals and not a faceless enemy. Get a cool drink and watch Sahara - it's a great movie.