User reviews

Rope Of Sand is one of those films that as Burt Lancaster said he did for the poke. It's a routine action/adventure film that some have said is a Casablanca reunion. Also it was Corinne Calvet's first American feature.

But besides Lancaster and Calvet the cast includes Claude Rains, Peter Lorre, and Paul Henreid. Rains is playing his role as a diamond magnate as if Captain Renaud had retired from the army and went to South Africa to make his fortune in diamonds. Rains is the elegant sophisticated head of a diamond cartel and for amusement he likes to manipulate people. Lorre plays a kinder, gentler version of Ugarte I doubt he would murder two German couriers for letters of transit, but he might pick their pockets.

But Paul Henreid is as about as far away from the courageous anti-Nazi freedom fighter Victor Laszlo as you can get. He's the brutal commandant of the diamond police. Yes the Union of South Africa did have such an outfit with police powers to protect one of the country's most valuable resources for the nation and most assuredly for the mine owners. You'll see this also in Sands Of The Kalahari and Gold, both films set in apartheid South Africa as this was.

Lancaster plays a guide who finds a cache of diamonds and gets a beating at the hands of Henreid and his storm troopers. Rains would like to get his hands on the diamonds also and cut Henreid out as he personally can't stand him, but he's useful on occasion. After Calvet who plays a prostitute tries the old badger game on him unsuccessfully Rains hires her to work on Lancaster to divulge his secret. She also goes to work on Henreid as well.

But as what usually happens Burt's charming ways get to her all leading to an inevitable climax about her and the diamonds.

The title Rope Of Sand refers to the desert surrounding where the diamond mines are. It's a decent enough action adventure film made more enjoyable by a great cast of the best supporting players around.

I have watched this movie twice and have been waiting for a DVD to be released for quite a while. You would think a film with Burt Lancaster, Paul Henreid, Claude Rains, Peter Lorre and Sam Jaffe would get some attention but, I don't believe this was ever available on VHS, either. Puzzling.

It's a good film and worth watching. The first time I saw this it reminded me a bit of Casablanca or To Have And Have Not. Oh, not in that class of those films but just being a solid foreign adventure tale with American and English actors in an exotic setting.

On the second viewing, I found the film lagged in a few spots, but it's still a very good movie. Lancaster is excellent as the good guy after diamonds in North Africa while Henreid is the sadistic bad guy and Raines is back somewhere in the middle as he was in Casablanca. Lorre and Jaffe are almost always fun to watch, too.

Calvert was a French actress and may not be that familiar to English-speaking audiences. Sometimes her accent is hard to decipher. I didn't find her appealing but I also wasn't as annoyed with her as others seem to be, either. I do agree there should have been a better female lead in here.

The film offers some good action and some nice black-and-white photography, especially with the nighttime desert scenes, which I really enjoyed. Hopefully, someone will do the right thing and make this available on DVD.

A man (Burt Lancaster) abused by a sadistic mining company cop (Paul Henreid) before he could tell where on their desert property he had found diamonds decides to steal them instead.

Glenn Erickson reflected on the background of the film and how it was received when first released, "Although William Dieterle's direction is capable, the script works too hard to introduce an overly familiar collection of stock thriller types ... Critics generally liked Lancaster's performance, even if they slighted the work of Claude Rains and Peter Lorre and saved the bulk of their praise for Paul Henried's nasty villain." Indeed, those who watch the film for Lorre may be disappointed on little screen time he receives.

Reflecting decades later, Burt Lancaster singled this out as his least favorite film. That was due to personal reasons, however, so may not necessarily reflect whether this was (in his opinion) his worst performance.

The cast makes this one worth watching: Burt Lancaster, Paul Henreid, Claude Rains (at his silkiest), Peter Lorre, Sam Jaffe. The character Corinne Calvet plays is a screenwriter's dream since she's likely to spark unexpected changes in each of the male characters, but as an earlier contributor pointed out, Calvet isn't up to the part. It's hard to believe that a man such as Burt Lancaster's character could become so smitten with her.

The South Africa setting adds interest to the proceedings and the plot uncoils in skillful fashion until the last reel or so when the rush toward climax becomes somewhat delayed and diffused.

Burt Lancaster's whipping at the hands of Paul Henreid no longer includes details mentioned in the book "Sadism in the Cinema," which implies that some footage has been cut from prints. Even in abbreviated form, however, the scene conveys the hint that the real emotional bond in the movie is not between Lancaster and Calvet but between Lancaster and Henreid. Henreid's brutally sublimated desire for Lancaster is certainly understandable since Burt never looked better than he does here.

This is a film of considerable charm and interest, a postwar noir updating of the Warner Bros. "Casablanca"-style foreign intrigue routine that substitutes a refreshing toughness for the earlier films' cotton-candy romanticism. As usual, the stalwart leading man plays second fiddle to the character roles. Claude Rains takes his wry-and-witty routine to the level of sublime high camp, Peter Lorre purrs lyrical philosophy in a rumpled linen suit and three-day beard, and Paul Henried does much better as the arrogant, sadistic villain (reminiscent of Ronald Merrick in "Jewel in the Crown") than he ever did as a leading man. There's even subtle criticism of the apartheid system thrown in. What could have been a minor classic and certainly the best of the "Casablanca" clones is severely compromised however by the presence of Corinne Calvet, whose ferret face and rusty-hinge voice make a potentially pleasurable film difficult to watch, let alone enjoy.

Rope of Sand, an adventure thriller supposedly set in post-WW II South Africa, certainly receives the vote of "classic" in my book. Far away places, a romance triangle, suspense, even a bit of humor at times...it's all there in a neatly executed, well-acted plot that makes you wish YOU could have been there and tried just what Burt Lancaster did. I have watched this movie more than half a dozen times over the years and still get that sense of intrigue and mystery and fascination with the setting and story that I got on the first occasion, as a child. The film noir era was coming to a close when this movie was created in 1949 but most of the crucial elements are there including use of the black and white, music score, contrasting dialog and action scenes, and so on, right up to the final scene. Perhaps the screenplay might have gotten a little more mileage out of Corrine Calvet and Burt but we need to remember that we're judging films of this era against a different yardstick. I seriously don't think that this movie would have come together at all using actors working today because they would all be hungering for a bigger piece of the movie than anyone got here or typically does get in film noir. This is not to mention what current directors typically do as a substitute for what film noir did with the camera and timing of scene combinations. So I disagree with the previous reviewer. Watch this if you can and enjoy!

What a great cast, what a top director and what a disappointing movie. I blame the script, or rather lack of one, cause nobody involved seems to quite know what it is all about. Something about diamonds? That'll do, let's start filming. Famously Casablanca was already in production without a finished script, and look how well that turned out, right? Just put some of that cast in another exotic location and Fate and sheer acting talent, aided by some stylish camera-work will do the rest. Alas, it didn't. The muddled story limps along from scene to tepid scene, the plot holes are abundant and the Great Romance never convinces for a moment. I kept hoping the story would catch fire at some point, but it never does. Will Paul Henreid turn out to be a Nazi war criminal? Where did Peter Lorre wander off to? Does Claude Rains have any aces up his sleeve? Why would anybody believe the girl killed the doctor? Is she a former member of the French Resistance, set out to kill Vogel? Wouldn't that sorta spice up this bland story? Nah, it turns out everybody is just what they appear to be. With some solid script doctoring this could have become a great adventure movie. Shame.

This film is hard to find, but i finally got hold of a decent copy off ebay.co.uk recorded off a satellite channel. I'm glad i finally got to see it, it was very entertaining with numerous plot twists. The quartet of Lancaster, Rains, Henreid and Lorre make great viewing as they try and scene steal off each other at every turn. Claude Rains is smooth, silky and delightfully devious; Lancaster hulks, sulks and looms superbly. There is no discernible chemistry between Lancaster and the 'new' (well to US audiences) Corinne Calvert; which weakens their characters' motivation somewhat. Lancaster seems more in love with himself though, so tough competition for Corinne there. Calvert does a creditable turn here, ( though her French accent can be a little opaque), but she is outclassed easily by the men- Rains wipes the floor with her but she is stunning and exotic enough. Though her final clinch with Lancaster on the ship as they leave the desert hellhole that they've been inhabiting for the last hour and a half, is incredibly drippy and Lancaster looks as if he'd like shot of her big time. But that's the dialogue for you. Henreid is suitably nasty and sadistic and you can almost smell the sweat and feel the heat- so there is much to recommend in Rope of Sand.

This is an action film that was probably meant to bring in audiences because of a few cast members from "Casablanca."

The story concerns a hunting guide, Mike Davis (Burt Lancaster) whose client trespassed on land owned by a diamond company and found diamonds - lots of them. For this, Mike is nearly killed by the company manager, Paul Vogel (Paul Henried), who wants the location of the diamonds, but doesn't get it.

Mike has now returned to South Africa, and the head of the diamond cartel, Martingale (Claude Rains) decides on a better way to find out where the diamonds are - by using a beautiful woman (Corinne Calvet) to attract Mike and get the information. Then, of course, he plans to dismiss Davis.

But as Vogel learned, and Martingale is about to, Mike is a tough cookie, and Suzanne is his match as she practices her wiles on all three men - then falls in love with Davis.

This is an ordinary adventure-type film, Calvet's debut. She tells a story in her autobiography about Tyrone Power chasing her around a party until Lana Turner stuck a hot pewter coffee pot in her arm and asked if anyone wanted coffee. Ouch.

Enjoyable for the cast.

A look at the cast list of "Rope of Sand" and you might think you are seeing a "Casablanca" retread, (look, there's Claude Rains, Paul Henreid and Peter Lorre), but this thriller is a very different kettle of foul smelling fish and while watchable is never remotely in the same class as Curtiz' masterpiece. Burt Lancaster is the diamond prospector in South Africa who plans on recovering some diamonds from the mine ruled over by sadistic commandant Henreid. It's an attractive looking picture and well cast, (the leading lady was newcomer Corinne Calvet) but it's certainly no classic. It's that cast, (Sam Jaffe's in it, too), that just about saves it. Between them, they lift so-so material to a slightly higher level but in the end this is a decidely minor affair.

This is the fourth merely adequate Burt Lancaster movie I am watching in a row (as part of my ongoing tribute to him to mark, albeit a month in advance, the fifteenth anniversary of his death) which comes more of a disappointment in this case given the fine director (William Dieterle) and cast (Lancaster, Paul Henried, Claude Rains, Peter Lorre, Sam Jaffe and Mike Mazurki) involved. While it is true that Dieterle's career had already peaked with PORTRAIT OF JENNIE (1948) and went slowly downhill from there, the film's main fault lies is in the surprisingly uninteresting (given the desert location and diamond mine setting) plot that fails to give rise to much excitement or memorable incident. Naturally, with a cast of that calibre, some good scenes or lines cannot be amiss and, in particular, Rains (as a Macchiavelian director of the company) and Henried (effectively cast against type as the brutish foreman) seem to be relishing their roles; conversely, Lorre and Jaffe seem wasted in their underwritten parts of, respectively, a philosophizing fence and an alcoholic doctor. Another liability is leading lady Corinne Calvet: while looking sensual enough as the femme fatale hired by Rains to seduce adventurer Lancaster and eventually falling for him, her thick French accent become decidedly grating after a while! Incidentally, the copy I acquired is taken from a German print - with the opening credits in that language but the film, luckily, in English! I suppose it would be interesting to compare Val Guest's film from another era that I also happen to have in my collection - KILLER FORCE aka THE DIAMOND MERCENARIES (1975) - which, apart from the similar theme, also makes use of a stellar cast (Peter Fonda, Telly Savalas, Christopher Lee, Hugh O'Brian and O.J. Simpson) but, unfortunately, I will not have time to do so at present. I do not know if the fact that I have been watching lightweight fare all Summer long has made me lose patience somewhat with more of the same but, clearly, I was expecting to enjoy ROPE OF SAND more than I eventually did. Or, perhaps I am just overly anxious to start the upcoming Halloween Challenge in October...

Slow-moving adventures yarn,with a shaky script ,sometimes looking towards "Casablanca".I do not think,like the precedent user that Henreid 's character is in love with Lancaster's,but if one can go as far as to say that ,it's because of the lack of a strong female counterpart:Corinne Calvet is not Ingrid Bergman ,by a long shot.

This story,which revolves around diamonds which Lancaster hid somewhere -And Henreid lets his sadism flow to get these "girl's best friend" as Marylin would say".Peter Lorre and Claude Rains are almost wasted in predictable parts,and the plot meanders in the implausibilities (Calvet charged with murder,for instance).

The best scene remains the fight Lancaster/Henreid in the desert:the desolate landscape is almost lunar ,and the violence very intense for the time.

It's not one of the best Dieterle I've seen though.

After a row of the most subtle and sensitive love films ever made in Hollywood, William Dieterle resorted to this brutal and primitive drama of greed in the deserts of Kalahari. The actors are all superb (except Corinne Calvet, who is a failure and never even convincing as such,) but the script is lacking in any human credibility. Such an eloquent actor as Paul Henreid is made to play a sadistic villain without any human nuances, and Burt Lancaster is mostly used to apply his knuckles. The only good performance is Claude Rains, whose relevant cynicism in this dreadful study in greed is all too convincing. Sam Jaffe and Peter Lorre add some sympathy by their decadent characters but not much and far from enough to make this film interesting in any other way than photographically. Only Franz Waxman's fantastic music makes it endurable at all. Sorry about that, Mr Dieterle. Your previous masterpieces made us expect more of you than this sordid B-melodrama.

A former hunting guide returns to the scene of the crime to recover riches and exact revenge. The scene, a desert mining operation in Diamantstad where 2 years prior the tracker had been brutally beaten for a client's misdeed. A sufficiently compelling tale, especially when there is treasure involved, here, diamonds that practically sprout from the searing South African sands. Stars Burt Lancaster as that man on a mission, a portrayal that marks a departure from what had become his standard act in sap (Criss Cross, The Killers), Mike Davis anything but, he, a tough, savvy hombre who gives fans their first glimpse of the actor with the glimmer in his eye (Elmer) (60). Boasts top support in Claude Rains as the conniving Colonial executive and Paul Henreid his sadistic police chief kept in check with a discreet blackball, together completing the triangle of mistrust. Others include footballer Ken Washington, Sam Jaffe as Doc (What else?), Mike Mazurki in a pitifully puny part, Peter Lorre is the gabby grifter (What else?) and comely Parisian Corinne Calvet in her first Hollywood make as the femme fatale who blows swell. It's mini-reunion (Henreid Rains Lorre) might beg the title, Casablanca South (desert scenes filmed in Yuma, AZ), but that would be unfair to Paramount and director Dieterle (Jewel Robbery) for Rope of Sand is a truly fine film with an ending that weights in charm ("Here, catch!") like the Cullinan diamond in carats (3/4).

Paul Henreid is actually quite menacing here, as the domineering commandant "Vogel". He is charged with making sure that nothing is smuggled out of the diamond mines under his charge. Burt Lancaster ("Davis") arrives back after a previous encounter with this nemesis, this time determined to retrace his steps and recover the large treasure he was forced to abandon previously. What now ensues delivers us a pretty well-trodden narrative as these two men try to outwit the other. The duplicitous mine manager "Martingale" (Claude Rains) alights on a cunning plan to get "Suzanne" (Corinne Calvet) to use her wiles on "Davis" to try and discover the location of the lode - but she has other ideas! With the seedy "Toady" (Peter Lorre) also whispering in his ear too, the scene is set for quite a tense battle of wills. The cast looks great on paper, and Lancaster and Rains are good, too - but somehow it doesn't quite click. The story takes far too long to get underway, and when the it does it rushes through a series of set-piece scenarios before an ending that I found rather too predictable.

I rate this movie pretty highly and then I wonder, were Hollywood movies in the late 40s generally this good, in which case I'll have to see a lot more. "Rope of Sand" is so well made--the story clicks along, every shot is perfectly placed and serves the story, both day and night scenes in a desert are grandly photographed. The interiors are more elaborate than one might imagine, but Edith Head's costumes for Ms. Calvet guarantee that her character is irresistibly sexy. The cast has been gathered from across Europe and beyond--OK, some of them more difficult to follow than others--the supremely skilled actor, Claude Rains, Peter Lorre doing his elegant lowlife, Marais and Miranda singing in a nightclub. And of course young Burt Lancaster, both beautiful and doing the turns of his character. Credit then too to Paul Henreid, holding his own in a fight scene with Lancaster. And there's even a willingness to define South Africa by its racism, from the opening scene of a Black man being chased by converging trucks in the desert. I won't underline an inference about political economy.

In South Africa, a "Rope of Sand" surrounds the best diamond mines in the world. Paul Vogel (Paul Henreid) is the ruthless commandant of a private diamond company police force. Former hunting guide Mike Davis (Burt Lancaster) returns despite a dark previous encounter with Vogel. Mine owner Martingale (Claude Rains) secretly blackballs his own employee Vogel from entering the private club. He hires seductress Suzanne Renaud (Corinne Calvet) to get close to Mike. Toady (Peter Lorre) is a local shady character.

With so many familiar faces, this can't help but be compared to Casablanca. It's not a good look. This is a few steps below that classic. Lancaster has an energy in his performance which clashes with the dark noir flavor of the story. He has the airs of a Hollywood hero but the role has a much darker shade. All in all, this is a second tier level movie with first class talents.

Hal B. Wallis production for Paramount, reuniting Paul Henreid, Claude Rains and Peter Lorre from the supporting cast of Wallis' "Casablanca" in 1942, involves Burt Lancaster as an American hunting guide in South West Africa refusing to reveal the location of a cache of diamonds in a restricted area known as the Rope of Sand. Security chief Henreid is the hissable nasty who threatens Lancaster, Rains is the owner of the diamond company who hopes a French woman can seduce Burt into revealing all, while Lorre is a scroungy merchant who knows everyone's business. Limp action-drama with funereal pacing, an annoying femme fatale (Corinne Calvet, a Wallis discovery, in her first major role) and a sour leading man in unhappy spirits. ** from ****

Director William Dieterle did better movies than ROPE OF SAND but he never did one in more unusual settings than in South West Africa, now Namibia. Paul Henreid and Peter Lorre had featured in CASABLANCA seven years earlier, Rains had pulled off one of his best performances in Hitchcock's NOTORIOUS three years earlier, and Lancaster was beginning to make a name for himself. A really good cast for a film that did not seem set for great box office returns.

Interesting to note that apartheid was about to appear in that part of the world, yet it is human greed that dominates the film, with diamonds the commodity most sought.

Acting is generally good, although the French accent hinders Calvet's delivery, even renders it awkward at times. The fighting sequences fall somewhat short of credible. The screenplay is also uneven. Photography is very good.

As a little known film, it deserves watching. And it posts enough quality to not rate a waste of time. 8/10.

It is set in Africa and includes three cast members from "Casablanca," but it is a far cry from that classic. The main problem is the lousy script, a muddled plot about hidden gold in the desert. It's quite talky for an adventure film and most of the dialog is boring and does nothing to help the narrative flow. What little action there is is clumsily choreographed. Lancaster and Henreid ham it up. Lorre plays a vague character who talks a lot but says nothing. Rains comes off best. Calvet makes an unimpressive American film debut as the love interest. Not only can she not act, she has an annoying voice that sounds like a whiny space alien.

This is a gem (pardon the pun).

Yes, the producers seemed to have gathered some of the "Casablanca" line-up for a reunion of sorts by bringing Claude Rains, Paul Henreid and Peter Lorre together in this exciting romp through the South West African wastelands. Perhaps Humphrey Bogart would have made for a fitting protagonist although it must be stated that a young Burt Lancaster fills this role commendably. This a fast and furious tale of all consuming greed, deception, the quest for revenge and full-blooded love.

From the moment of that dramatic confrontation early in the film between Lancaster and Henreid, the battle lines are drawn, and the scene set for an intriguing psychological and physical battle. Henreid, like you've not seen him before, stars in the unlikely role of villain. Rains is the middleman: suave, smooth talking and master manipulator who pulls the strings with dexterity and his customary charm. Corinne Calvert is used a pawn in a dangerous game of cat and mouse that unfolds. Lorre is under used, here. For an actor of his enormous talent, this is a pity. It was good, however, to see Sam Jaffe, albeit in a minor role. He would go on a year later to steal the thunder in the noir classic, "The Asphalt Jungle".

The desert serves as a poignant metaphor for man's unforgiving and ruthless spirit. The outstanding cinematography by Charles Lang does justice to this all-embracing thematic concern.

Sit back. Slip off your shoes, pour out your favourite drink and enjoy this film. There's suspense all the way through.