leethomas-11621 Jurgens gives a wonderful performance and Burton was never better. A largely peaceful war movie. In this age of drone warfare Leith's disdain for Brand's fear of close combat is especially relevant. (viewed 9/16)

Jeff (actionrating.com) Just another British anti-war movie with all the usual ingredients…secret mission, getting lost in the desert, Richard Burton etc. This one decides to focus a little more on the conflict between the two officers in command. Which means less time for actual plot development and good combat sequences…or any combat sequences for that matter. There's only one real battle, and it's near the beginning. The rest of the movie just coasts along till its disappointing ending. In addition, it feels cheap, as if corners were cut in order to spend as little money as possible. And with a love triangle dominating the subplot, this really doesn't even feel like a war movie. You almost forget there is a war going on. Which is not good for a movie that is supposed to be about a secret mission. In short, rather than a good war movie, this is a boring love story that happens to be incidentally taking place during World War II. 1.5 out of 5 action rating

screenman This is one of those 'before I was a megastar' turkeys that are best forgotten.Starring Richard Burton and Kurt Jurgens as British army officers serving in the middle-east during WW2; they are also the male corners of a predictably tedious love-triangle.Despite themselves and a decent sprinkling of familiar faces from the time, they all collectively fail to salvage anything but their pay-cheques from this formulaic hokum.Quite frankly; it's inept. In fact it's boring. The mission seems badly-planned and implausible from the outset. The conflicts are contrived, the tension scarcely noticeable. More effort seems to have gone into the model of the town that everyone is poring-over at the outset than has been applied to the 'real' stage sets. Filmed in black and white, that and the lighting are at least competent, but sound, effects, editing and script scarcely manage B-movie standards. The jealous exchanges between Burton and Jurgens are particularly banal and stagy.Unless you happen to be a rabid fan of either star, this is definitely one to miss. Which is a shame really; its 1950's vintage and black-&-white photography seem to promise so much more. The similarly styled and vintaged 'Ice Cold In Alex' could knock it into a cocked hat.

funkyfry I liked this one quite a bit. First of all Richard Burton was a great actor, and this is the best performance I've seen from him. You can feel his world weariness just dripping off him. Curd Jurgens is also really good in a very demanding role. Basically the whole movie is about their relationship, and they hate each other. There's no big resolution where they suddenly respect each other like you would get in a formula movie. A lot of the point is that Jurgens' character isn't respectable, and the main revelation is that he comes to feel the same way. But he's not villainous, it's easy to empathize with him even though he is sort of a cretin.The cinematography is really extraordinary, especially the scenes in the desert. It reminds me of Lean's "Lawrence of Arabia" from a few years later. I wouldn't be surprised if there was an influence. The relationship is also slightly similar to the one between O'Toole and Shariff's characters in that film.The movie is deceptively course and 2 dimensional, like the combat dummies who are the first and last images we see in the film. Stick figures, pretending to be men, setting themselves up as targets. It doesn't ask us to feel sorry for the characters or to admire them, they aren't "larger than life" the way most characters are in war movies. I felt like the movie was saying that war is a natural state of mankind, not some kind of romantic adventure.