Ice Cold in Alex (1958)
Genre: War / Adventure
Duration: 124 minuten
Alternative titles: Desert Attack / Bestemming Alexandrië
Country:
United Kingdom
Directed by: J. Lee Thompson
Stars: John Mills, Sylvia Syms and Anthony Quayle
IMDb score:
7,7 (7.433)
Releasedate: 24 June 1958
Ice Cold in Alex plot
"3 guys...and a couple of gals...and the mission that led them through 600 miles of burning hell!"
During World War II, an ambulance team was separated from its army unit during an evacuation in North Africa. Captain Anson (John Mills) is an alcoholic and in charge of the team.
Actors and actresses
Captain Anson
Sister Diana Murdoch
Captain van der Poel
M.S.M. Pugh
Sister Denise Norton
Captain Crosbie
Brigadier (D.D.M.S.)
Brigadier's Staff Officer
C.M.P Captain (Tank Trap)
C.M.P Captain (Check Point)
Reviews & comments
mrklm
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- 11629 messages
- 10041 votes
The explanation of the unconventional title comes in the final scene of this well-acted war thriller set in 1941 in the Sahara at the time of the Battle of Tobruk. Captain Anson [John Mills] is assigned with his driver MSM Pugh [Harry Andrews] to take Nurses Diana Murdoch [Sylvia Sims] and Denise Norton [Diana Clare] to Alexandria. On the way they meet the South African Captain Van der Poel [Anthony Quayle] whom, despite their reservations, they decide to take them to their final destination. But the journey through a war zone that is difficult to access naturally causes the necessary problems. This well-acted and well-directed film never gets boring and although there are never any great moments, this is certainly an above-average war film that is definitely worth watching, also because it was largely filmed on location in Libya.
Translated from Dutch · View original
BBarbie
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- 12893 messages
- 7675 votes
Beautiful adventure film with the Sahara during the Second World War as a ruthless backdrop. The powerhouse cast puts on formidable performances, Anthony Quayle in particular. Despite its advanced age, the film has lost none of its appeal.
As an aside, I do wonder if Carlsberg was donated in Alexandria in 1941.
Translated from Dutch · View original
Roger Thornhill
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- 6070 messages
- 2476 votes
A film with multiple focal points (war, survival in the desert, alcoholism, the mystery of Van der Poel's bag), but because everything gets about the same amount of attention, it never becomes a problem. Reasonably convincing acting by John Mills (did he go blond here?), a nice role by Anthony Quayle as a cocky freebooter, acceptable acting by Sylvia Syms, and a standard but good performance by Harry Andrews, completely in line with how he is described in my film guide: "Tough-looking British stage and screen actor. Often plays sergeant-majors or other no-nonsense characters." Beautiful locations (in Libya) that convey the heat well, a wonderfully painful moment with Quayle under the ambulance, and without reaching the intensity of, for example, Le salaire de la peur, this is still a fairly strong stiff-upper-lip-ensemble adventure film.
Only that strange title… of course it refers to a plot line in the film, but although I have come across it more often, I would never have expected a film like this one from it. It is not without reason that this film was released in America under the more appropriate title Desert attack, although the distributor actually immediately linked a completely different film to that other title by cutting 50 minutes from the English original. In fact, when I watch the trailer on YouTube, it turns out that the BBC promised the long original in its broadcast of 18-5-2025 but broadcast the short version, so I actually don't know what rating I should give this. I do feel a bit cheated.
Translated from Dutch · View original
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