Sahara

1943
Approved
1h 37m

IMDb RATING

7.5/10

10K

YOUR RATING

Play trailer1:41

1 Video

34 Photos

Action Drama War

After the fall of Tobruk in 1942, during the Allied retreat in the Libyan desert, an American tank picks-up a motley group of survivors but they face advancing Germans and a lack of water.After the fall of Tobruk in 1942, during the Allied retreat in the Libyan desert, an American tank picks-up a motley group of survivors but they face advancing Germans and a lack of water.After the fall of Tobruk in 1942, during the Allied retreat in the Libyan desert, an American tank picks-up a motley group of survivors but they face advancing Germans and a lack of water.

See production info at IMDbPro

IMDb RATING

7.5/10

10K

YOUR RATING

See production info at IMDbPro

Nominated for 3 Oscars
- 3 nominations total

Soldier
(uncredited)

Niels Bagge

German Private
(uncredited)

Walter Bonn

Soldier
(uncredited)

Frederic Brunn

German Private
(uncredited)

Leslie Denison

British Soldier
(uncredited)

Storyline

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Did you know

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Trivia
Kurt Kreuger said that in the scene where he tried to escape back to his lines with the Sudanese sergeant (Rex Ingram) in pursuit, Ingram caught him and pressed his face into the sand to kill him, Kreuger almost passed out due to lack of air.

Goofs
All of the German vehicles are emblazoned with Nazi Party swastikas rather than the Balkenkreuz, the straight-armed cross that was the emblem of the Wehrmacht used on their vehicles during WWII.

Quotes
Giuseppe: Mussolini is not so clever like Hitler, he can dress his Italians up only to look like thieves, cheats, murderers, he cannot like Hitler, make them feel like that. He cannot, like Hitler, scrape from the conscience the knowledge that right is right and wrong is wrong, or dig holes in their heads to plant his own ten commandments: steal from thy neighbor, cheat thy neighbor, kill thy neighbor.
Capt. von Schletow: You dare to insult the Führer?
Giuseppe: That would take an artiste - I am but a mechanic.

Crazy credits
Opening credits prologue: In June, 1942, a small detachment of American tanks with American crews, joined the British Eighth Army in North Africa to get experience in desert warfare under actual battle conditions.

History has proved that they learned their lesson well - -

Connections
Featured in Going Hollywood: The War Years (1988)

Soundtracks
Oh! Susanna
(uncredited)
Music by Stephen Foster
Played on the harmonica by Patrick O'Moore.

User reviews105

Review

Featured review

8/10

Very good war drama

"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.