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Desert Victory is a British film of genre War directed by Roy Boulting released in USA on 13 april 1943
Desert Victory (1943)
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Add to a movie listReleased in USA 13 april 1943
Length 1h
OriginUnited-kingdom
Themes Documentary films about war, Documentary films about historical events, Political films, Documentary films about World War II
Rating63%
Desert Victory is a 1943 film produced by the British Ministry of Information, documenting the Allies' North African campaign against Field Marshal Erwin Rommel and the Afrika Korps. This documentary traces the struggle between General Erwin Rommel and Field Marshal Bernard Montgomery, from the German's defeat at El Alamein to Tripoli. The film was produced by David MacDonald and directed by Roy Boulting who also directed Tunisian Victory and Burma Victory. Like the famous "Why We Fight" series of films by Frank Capra, Desert Victory relies heavily on captured German newsreel footage. Many of the most famous sequences in the film have been excerpted and appear with frequency in History Channel and A&E productions. The film won a special Academy Award in 1943 and the 1951 film The Desert Fox: The Story of Rommel took sections of the film for its battle footage.
The film has been criticised for emphasizing the British role in the victory, while playing down the American contribution to the battle. Mark Harris, author of the "Five Came Back: A Story of Hollywood and the Second World War," a novel about the role five prominent Hollywood directors played in the war, has stated in an interview on Turner Classic Movies that when asked about the omission, the British war department retorted that the Americans "didn't have any good footage." A sequel, "Tunisian Victory," was produced as a co-allied production between British and American propaganda agencies, with American film makers Frank Capra and John Huston allegedly restaging actual events, such as liberations, as well as tank and air battles (some of which was actually filmed in Orlando, Florida) to achieve high quality footage that the British couldn't refuse. The British supposedly knew immediately that the footage was fake, but since they themselves restaged much of the footage, this uneasy collaboration continued.
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Suggestions of similar film to Desert Victory
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Tunisian Victory (1944)
, 1h15Directed by John Huston, Frank Capra, John Boulting, Roy Boulting, Hugh St Clair Stewart
Origin United-kingdom
Genres War, Documentary
Themes Documentary films about war, Documentary films about historical events, Political films, Documentary films about World War II
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Operation Malaya (1953)
, 1h17Directed by David MacDonald
Origin United-kingdom
Genres Drama, Documentary
Themes Documentary films about war, Documentary films about historical events
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Rating27%
Scenes from the action of English troops against Communists in Malaya, focusing around the tracking down of a group of communist who killed a rubber planter. Scenes included:
Men of the Lightship (1940)
, 24minutesDirected by David MacDonald
Origin United-kingdom
Themes Documentary films about war, Documentary films about historical events, Political films, Documentary films about World War II
Rating62%
In 1940, the East Dudgeon lightship's seven-man crew are waiting for the arrival of another crew to relieve them of their duties so they can return home. While they are waiting, a momentary danger is encountered and dealt with: a drifting mine comes perilously close to the ship and the crew call for a minesweeper to destroy it.
Sailor of the King (1953)
, 1h23Directed by John Boulting, Roy Boulting
Origin USA
Genres Drama, War, Action
Themes Seafaring films, Transport films, Political films, Children's films
Actors Jeffrey Hunter, Michael Rennie, Peter van Eyck, Wendy Hiller, Bernard Lee, Victor Maddern
Rating66%
During the First World War, Lieutenant Richard Saville, a young British naval officer on five days leave, and Miss Lucinda Bentley, a merchant's daughter from Portsmouth, get talking on the train up to London. Halfway along their journey, they miss their rail connection and spend a romantic holiday in the countryside of southern England. When Saville proposes to her, she accepts, but on the day they are due to go back to Portsmouth, she changes her mind, asking Saville to realise that neither he nor she could bear being parted for the long periods he would be at sea. They part, seemingly forever.
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, 1h35Directed by John Boulting, Roy Boulting
Origin United-kingdom
Genres War, Comedy
Themes Military humor in film, Political films
Actors Ian Carmichael, Richard Attenborough, Dennis Price, Terry-Thomas, John Le Mesurier, Miles Malleson
Rating63%
During World War II, the young undergraduate Stanley Windrush (Ian Carmichael), is conscripted into the British Army. Unlike his friend Egan (Peter Jones), Windrush is a most reluctant soldier and struggles through basic training at Gravestone Barracks. Failing his officer selection board, he is posted to a holding unit, under the command of Major Hitchcock (Terry-Thomas). Most of the soldiers there are malingerers and drop-outs.
Thunder Rock (1942)
, 1h52Directed by John Boulting, Roy Boulting
Origin United-kingdom
Genres Drama, War, Fantasy
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Actors Michael Redgrave, James Mason, Barbara Mullen, Lilli Palmer, Finlay Currie, Frederick Valk
Rating64%
During the late 1930s, David Charleston (Redgrave) is an ambitious campaigning newspaper journalist, a fierce opponent of fascism and the British policy of appeasement. He wishes to alert his readers to the dangers of German rearmament and the folly of ignoring what is going on in Europe, but the reports he submits are censored by the editor of his newspaper. He subsequently quits his job and sets off on a speaking tour around the country under the slogan "Britain, Awake!" The lack of interest and response indicates that Britain is happy to keep slumbering. The final straw comes when Charleston is at the cinema, and the newsreel feature comes on the screen detailing the German occupation of the Sudetenland. The audience show themselves completely uninterested in the newsreel, taking the opportunity to chat among themselves or go in search of refreshments. In despair at the way his countrymen seem totally oblivious to the ever-more impending doom which is about to engulf them, and appear to be content to go about their daily business as normal while all the time sleepwalking towards disaster, he decides to turn his back on Britain and find a far-flung location where he can withdraw from the world and all its contemporary woes.
High Treason (1951)
, 1h30Directed by Roy Boulting
Genres Thriller, Action, Crime
Themes Spy films, Films about terrorism, Political films
Actors Liam Redmond, Anthony Bushell, André Morell, Kenneth Griffith, Joan Hickson, Anthony Nicholls
Rating66%
Enemy saboteurs infiltrate the industrial suburbs of London, intending to plant high-powered bombs at several factory sites. Their motivation is to cripple the British economy and enable subversive forces to insinuate themselves in the government. The saboteurs are thwarted not by the traditional counterintelligence agents but by workaday London police officers.
The Moonraker (1958)
, 1h22Directed by David MacDonald
Origin United-kingdom
Genres Swashbuckler, Action, Adventure
Themes Political films
Actors George Baker, Sylvia Syms, Marius Goring, Peter Arne, Clive Morton, Gary Raymond
Rating59%
After the Battle of Worcester at the end of the Second English Civil War, the main aim of General Oliver Cromwell (John Le Mesurier) is to capture Charles Stuart (Gary Raymond), son of the executed Charles I. However, the dashing Royalist hero nicknamed "the Moonraker" (George Baker) prepares to smuggle him to safety in France, under the noses of Cromwell's soldiers. According to the story, the hero is called "the Moonraker" after the smuggler term, Moonrakers, sometimes claimed to hide contraband in the village pond and to rake it out by moonlight.
Fame Is the Spur (1947)
, 1h56Directed by John Boulting, Roy Boulting
Origin United-kingdom
Genres Drama
Themes Political films
Actors Michael Redgrave, Rosamund John, Bernard Miles, David Tomlinson, Carla Lehmann, Hugh Burden
Rating66%
When a young man from a North country mill town (Michael Redgrave) commits to help the poverty stricken workers in his area, he takes as his Excalibur a sword passed down to him by his grandfather from the Battle of Peterloo, where it had been used against workers. As an idealistic champion of the oppressed, he rises to power as a Labour M.P., but is seduced by the trappings of power, and finds himself the type of politician he originally despised.
Soft Beds, Hard Battles (1974)
, 1h31Directed by John Boulting, Roy Boulting
Origin United-kingdom
Genres Comedy
Themes Military humor in film, Films about sexuality, Films about prostitution, Political films, Histoire de France, L'Occupation allemande en France
Actors Peter Sellers, Lila Kedrova, Curd Jürgens, Béatrice Romand, Jenny Hanley, Vernon Dobtcheff
Rating53%
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