This starts out on a very dramatic note as the officer in charge of a British patrol somewhere in the desert (it's presumably World War I and the desert is presumably in Iraq, since later in the movie there's a mention of "Mesopotamia") is shot by a sniper as he leads his troops. The problem? The officer hasn't shared his orders with anyone, so the patrol (now led by a Sergeant) has no idea what it's supposed to do, or where it's supposed to go. So, the basic premise is set up right from the start. After that dramatic opening, the movie does plod along a little bit for a while, with nothing much for the viewer to do but watch the soldiers traipse through the desert. It picks up steam again, though, when the patrol stumbles upon an oasis with an abandoned mosque. This provides water and shelter, but also makes them a fairly easy target for the mysterious snipers, who start to pick the patrol off one by one.
This is a pretty good movie. It gets a bit wordy at times as the various soldiers reflect on their personal lives, and while we do learn a lot about what they have back home, it seemed artificial - people generally don't talk that way. Still, there's real suspense involved as the movie winds down, because you really don't know if any of these guys are going to be able to come out of this alive. In addition to Victor McLaglen as the Sargeant, the cast is highlighted by Boris Karloff as a soldier who's also a religious fanatic. I wasn't taken by his performance at first. He seemed to have an other-wordly look and sound that would have suited his character of Ardath Bey in "The Mummy" but didn't seem - at first - to work here. But as the movie goes on, and Karloff's "Sanders" begins to go insane under the pressure, that type of presence begins to make sense and actually works quite well by the end.
A very good movie. 7/10
This is a pretty good movie. It gets a bit wordy at times as the various soldiers reflect on their personal lives, and while we do learn a lot about what they have back home, it seemed artificial - people generally don't talk that way. Still, there's real suspense involved as the movie winds down, because you really don't know if any of these guys are going to be able to come out of this alive. In addition to Victor McLaglen as the Sargeant, the cast is highlighted by Boris Karloff as a soldier who's also a religious fanatic. I wasn't taken by his performance at first. He seemed to have an other-wordly look and sound that would have suited his character of Ardath Bey in "The Mummy" but didn't seem - at first - to work here. But as the movie goes on, and Karloff's "Sanders" begins to go insane under the pressure, that type of presence begins to make sense and actually works quite well by the end.
A very good movie. 7/10