List Price: $14.98You Pay Only: $10.49 You Save: $4.49 (30%)Prices subject to change.
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Aspect Ratio: 1.33:1
Audience Rating: NR (Not Rated)
Binding: DVD
Brand: Twentieth Century Fox
EAN: 0024543041900
Format: Black & White, Closed-captioned, DVD-Video, Full Screen, NTSC
Label: 20th Century Fox
Manufacturer: 20th Century Fox
Number Of Items: 1
Publisher: 20th Century Fox
Region Code: 1
Release Date: May 21, 2002
Running Time: 88 minutes
Sales Rank: 16305
Studio: 20th Century Fox
Theatrical Release Date: May 20, 1953
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Editorial Review:
Description:
Richard Burton stars in this exciting story of the stubborn, courageous men who held Rommel at bay in North Africa despite hopelessly outnumbered. The year is 1941, and Rommel has the British in full retreat. All that stands between him and the Suez Canal is the fortress of Tobruk, manned by a small army of Australian troops who are ordered to hold this vital position at any cost. Many of the men are green recruits, and it falls to Capt. MacRoberts (Burton) to whip them into shape. A bold tactician who realizes they will soon be overwhelmed if they do not take the offensive, MacRoberts leads countless daredevil raids that keep the superior enemy off-balance and earn his men the famous nickname they 'won with blood and bore with pride.' Directed by Robert Wise and co-starring James Mason in a reprise performance as Field Marshall Rommel (whom he first played in 'The Desert Fox'), this stirring blend of action and history pays tribute to the heroic men known in the annals of war as The Desert Rats.
Amazon.com:
In his second Hollywood role (between Oscar-nominated turns in My Cousin Rachel and The Robe), Richard Burton stars as a Scottish commando put in charge of a battalion of the 9th Australian Division defending Tobruk. The Aussies don't like him, and with a year of grim North African duty already under his belt, he's not too crazy about his new responsibilities either. The outfit is charged with staving off the battering assaults of Field Marshal Erwin Rommel for two months, to give the British Army time to regroup in Cairo and prepare for a counterattack. In the end, the 'desert rats' play hell with the Desert Fox for 242 days, during which they and their commander develop some mutual respect.
This is a solid, workmanlike World War II picture that, having been made in 1953 rather than 1943, can acknowledge a degree of eccentric humanity and soldierly professionalism in the enemy. Featured guest star James Mason reprises his Rommel from The Desert Fox (1951)--playing all his scenes in German except for a scene of ironical repartee with Burton. Another distinguished Brit, Robert Newton, gets costar billing as a boozy, self-confessed coward who used to be Burton's schoolmaster once upon a time. However, a goodly number of Australians--including Chips Rafferty and Charles 'Bud' Tingwell (still going strong nearly 50 years later in Paul Cox's wonderful Innocence)--rate at least as much screen time. Robert Wise directed, with a trimness that reminds us he started out as an editor, and the pungent black-and-white cinematography is by Lucien Ballard. --Richard T. Jameson
Customer Reviews
Average Rating: 
Rating: - Good Movie
A bit on the hammy side, but still a very enjoyable movie, depicts a true event during WWII and how war can make strange bed fellows. Good action and good effect for the time.
Rating: - they were rats that's for sure
Well the British took a beating but the Germans took a pounding, this movie has a great plot to go with the story. Now Richard Burton played in many movies but I'd have to say this is one of he's best on film.
This B/W flick will put you in the desert with the whole unit to fight the desert fox, all in all get this movie it's a good one.
Rating:  - The Desert Rats
I enjoyed this movie, Its a different kind of work movie. I highly Recommended !
Rating: - Grim World war 2 drama
This is a follow-up of sorts to The Desert Fox made a year or so previously .James Mason reprises his role as Field Marshall Rommel ,head of the Afrika Korps ,although this time out it is basically a cameo role as distinct from the star turn of the previous picture.
It tells the same story of the same battle ,this time from the perspective of the Ninth Australian Division .Richard Burton gives a forceful performance as Captain Roberts ,a British officer appointed to take charge of the Division ,much to his disgust as he ses the Australian conscripts as inferior to the British regulars to whom he is more accustomed .The Division is encamped near Tobruk and is surrounded and outnumbered by a better armed German army .In their ranks is one Bartlett (Robert Newton) an alcohic ,and cynic who is also Roberts' former university professor who has come down in the world.He tries to persuade Roberts that his perception of his new troops is wrong .The movie focuses on the fighting -short ,sharp and intense -and the strains which the constant danger places the men under .It is a tough ,realistic movie about the Tobruk campaign which was to prove such a turning point in the history of the war .It conveys the intensity of the challenge facing the heavily ougunned Allied forces against numerically overwhelming odds .
Newton is superb as the philosphising drunk -alternately weepy,bellicose and bawling.It is a gift role and he milks it for all it is worth .There is a commanding turn from Mason ... Read More
Rating: - It's a War Classic!!!
Richard Burton rises from pommy brass Captain to Lt. Colonel in 30 minutes. The rest of the film is a gritty classic in B/W with Burton playing off of a former schoolteacher who is now part of the Australian Army, and a battalion that Burton ends up commanding. In the end, he wins the love and devotion of the Aussies (would you expect less) in a desert warfare classic.
I would have liked to see more balance with coverage of Rommel and his forces, equally distinguished desert warriors, but that is hardly a criticism of a film that stands on its Allied own. And I higly recommend it for your war classics collection--and it even stars a young great actor in his early prime, Richard Burton!
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