JohnHowardReid VIEWERS' GUIDE: The censor says, "Suitable for all". Who am I to argue?COMMENT: Although Mason again essays the role of Rommel, he makes only a few brief appearances and plays the character differently from his study in The Desert Fox. Half the time he speaks German with an English accent, and the other half English with a German accent! What is more, he comes closer to the conventional Hollywood portrait of the Nazi officer, playing Wagner in his tent and exchanging "Ve will conquer zee vorld!" dialogue with Richard Burton's sassy British POW.Of course, these changes are not directly attributable to Mason, but are the work of the scriptwriter and the director, who could not have anticipated that The Desert Fox and Desert Rats would be re-issued as a double bill. All the same, it is disconcerting.Otherwise, both writing and direction are very smooth. Richard Burton and Robert Newton are ingeniously worked into the cast, Robert Douglas makes an acceptable C.O. and there are some dinky-di Aussies on hand including Chips Rafferty, Charles Tingwell and Michael Pate (most of whose part, he tells me, landed on the cutting-room floor).The action scenes are excitingly staged, but on the whole the film is a mite disappointing. The direction is too restrained, too soberly realistic, and doesn't go all out for the grand adventure epic like Hathaway's Lives of a Bengal Lancer or Chauvel's 40,000 Horsemen that the film's publicity leads us to expect.On the other hand, the fictitious narrative involving Newton and Burton, though ingenious, is neither convincing enough nor sufficiently realistic to put the film in the semi-documentary category. So the film tends to fall between two stools. This is unfortunate as within its limits, the film does well, and successfully accomplishes what it sets out to do, namely to provide an entertaining and action-filled if fictitious narrative, set against the realistic backdrop of the siege of Tobruk.

Syl I am sure there were hundreds of films based on World War II. In this case, the Allies are in Northern Africa where they capture German Nazi Rommel. I just wanted to see Richard Burton act in this film. The location is in the desert with the oppressive heat. The Allies are fighting the Nazis. The film is a depiction of the battle of Tobruk. I don't know much about the Second World War in Northern Africa but Rommel was also known as the desert fox. The cast is fine but the story line appears to be slow moving too. James Mason is fine as Rommel. I can't compare his performance to anybody playing Rommel so he was fine to me. I hate to write that my ignorance fails me when it comes to the battlefields of any war.

oscar-35 *Spoiler/plot- The Desert Rats, 1953. A fictional account of a British officer in command of ANZAC Austrialian troops defending the North Africa city of Tobruk from Rommel's Afrika Korps in WW2.*Special Stars- Richard Burton, Robert Newton, James Mason, Torin Thacter, Robert Douglas, Charles Tingwell and Chips Rafferty. DIR: Robert Wise. DIR: Robert Wise.*Theme- Audacity in warfare can win battles.*Trivia/location/goofs- American film. Early film role for Richard Burton. James Mason played Rommel again in a 20th century Fox film two years before in 'Desert Fox'. One high British general officer staff member has an obvious American accent during a important briefing. The armor tanks in this film are really American due to the lack of historic panzers so soon after the war. Some German uniform items are clearly WW1 vintage.*Emotion- A good post ww2 film in which the Brits are patriotically but respectfully accounting their win over Das Afrika Korps. Satisfying and somewhat historical with very good casting.*Based On- Historic account of the Tobruk battle.

bkoganbing Before Australia and New Zealand were threatened with attack on the home front, they sent as they did in the First World War, an expeditionary force to help Great Britain protect the Suez Canal, the lifeline of the British Empire. Aussies and Kiwis made a great deal of the army that General Wavell was commanding from Cairo. They have always had a reputation as an informal people and it's with a bit of surprise that spit and polish Scots officer Richard Burton is put in charge of a batallion in a forward area of the defense perimeter surrounding Tobruk. The men and Burton don't take to each other too readily, but gradually the troops grow to respect Burton as a courageous fighting man.Burton as it happens gets a bit of assistance from an unexpected quarter. His old schoolmaster Robert Newton had immigrated to Australia and enlisted in their army at the start of World War II. When not focusing on the battle sequences, The Desert Rats is about the relationship between Burton and Newton. All the rules about army discipline and separation of officers and enlisted men go by the boards here. Burton who's been under a strain like everyone else under siege at Tobruk gets a safety valve in Newton. An old friend from the past, a father figure if you will, gives Burton someone he can confide his innermost thoughts and fears to. Sad to say the alcoholic Mr. Newton gives a refrained and dignified performance as a middle aged alcoholic schoolmaster. A role he could understand all too well from real life. He complements Burton's performance every step of the way in this film. Look for some good performances from Australian actors Charles Tingwell and Chips Rafferty. Though this is a film about the Allied forces at Tobruk in 1941 and no Americans were officially fighting, this is an American production. So these two guys made their American cinema debuts. Tingwell never made another American film, but Rafferty came back a few times and his presence makes every film he's in just a bit better.You might recognize Michael Rennie's voice doing the offscreen narration for The Desert Rats. The Desert Rats is a timeless wartime classic about the strain of command at every level of the Armed Services.