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The Desert Rats

  • 1953
  • Approved
  • 1h 28m
IMDb RATING
6.7/10
5.5K
YOUR RATING
The Desert Rats (1953)
Richard Burton plays a Scottish Army officer put in charge of a disparate band of ANZAC troops on the perimeter of Tobruk with the German Army doing their best to dislodge them.
Play trailer2:38
1 Video
11 Photos
ActionAdventureDramaWar

Richard Burton plays a Scottish Army officer put in charge of a disparate band of ANZAC troops on the perimeter of Tobruk with the German Army doing their best to dislodge them.Richard Burton plays a Scottish Army officer put in charge of a disparate band of ANZAC troops on the perimeter of Tobruk with the German Army doing their best to dislodge them.Richard Burton plays a Scottish Army officer put in charge of a disparate band of ANZAC troops on the perimeter of Tobruk with the German Army doing their best to dislodge them.

  • Director
    • Robert Wise
  • Writer
    • Richard Murphy
  • Stars
    • Richard Burton
    • James Mason
    • Robert Newton
  • See production info at IMDbPro
  • IMDb RATING
    6.7/10
    5.5K
    YOUR RATING
    • Director
      • Robert Wise
    • Writer
      • Richard Murphy
    • Stars
      • Richard Burton
      • James Mason
      • Robert Newton
    • 46User reviews
    • 7Critic reviews
  • See production info at IMDbPro
    • Nominated for 1 Oscar
      • 1 win & 1 nomination total

    Videos1

    Trailer
    Trailer 2:38
    Trailer

    Photos10

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    Top cast51

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    Richard Burton
    Richard Burton
    • Capt. 'Tammy' MacRoberts
    James Mason
    James Mason
    • Field Marshal Erwin Rommel
    Robert Newton
    Robert Newton
    • Tom Bartlett
    Robert Douglas
    Robert Douglas
    • General
    Torin Thatcher
    Torin Thatcher
    • Col. Barney White
    Chips Rafferty
    Chips Rafferty
    • Sgt. 'Blue' Smith
    Charles 'Bud' Tingwell
    Charles 'Bud' Tingwell
    • Lt. Harry Carstairs
    • (as Charles Tingwell)
    Charles Davis
    • Pete
    Ben Wright
    Ben Wright
    • Mick
    Patrick Aherne
    • English Officer
    • (uncredited)
    John Alderson
    John Alderson
    • Corporal
    • (uncredited)
    Frank Baker
    Frank Baker
    • British Officer
    • (uncredited)
    John Blackburn
    • Sergeant
    • (uncredited)
    Robert Boon
    • German Lieutenant
    • (uncredited)
    Frederic Brunn
    • German Gunner
    • (uncredited)
    Arthur Brunner
    • German Radio Man
    • (uncredited)
    Paul Busch
    Paul Busch
    • German Orderly
    • (uncredited)
    Paul Cavanagh
    Paul Cavanagh
    • Colonel
    • (uncredited)
    • Director
      • Robert Wise
    • Writer
      • Richard Murphy
    • All cast & crew
    • Production, box office & more at IMDbPro

    User reviews46

    6.75.5K
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    Featured reviews

    7MOscarbradley

    An excellent war picture

    It wasn't a great part and it wasn't a great film but this early performance from Richard Burton showed just how great an actor he might become. Unfortunately Hollywood, Taylor and the bottle often seemed to get in the way. In "The Desert Rats" he is the young officer leading his men into battle or more specifically, into the battle for Tobruk and he really is very good and as war films go, this is a tight and exciting picture, (it clocks in at under 90 minutes). Robert Wise was the director and you can tell this movie was directed by a great editor; there isn't a wasted moment in the whole film and the action scenes are brilliantly handled. James Mason once again appears as Rommel and there's a fine supporting performance from Robert Newton as Burton's old schoolmaster, now a private in his command.
    10eskeene

    One of my favorites!

    This was the first movies I was ever allowed to stay up and watch on the old Saturday Night At The Movies show on NBC so it has always had a fond place in my heart. Although some might dismiss it as clichéd, it is a tight, well told story that some of today's films might do well to emulate. The realism, ambivalence, and irony of today's war films is definitely missing but one should remember that this was the "good" war. While the other reviewers may criticize its historical accuracy, as someone who grew up hearing war stories from American and Canadian WWI and WWII veterans, it does capture the feeling of a period without going overboard on heroics or far-fetched plot twists.
    7freemantle_uk

    Old-skool War-film

    The North Africa Campaign, the Siege of Tobruk and the Desert Rats all have an important place in the British and Australian Psyche during and after the Second World War, and it took less then 10 years after the war for a film about the Siege to be made.

    In 1941 British and Australian troops had control of the fortress town of Tobruk in Libya. Tobruk gets surrounded by German and Italian troops as the Axis tries to take Egypt and the Suez Canal. The British high command order the Australian General Leslie Morshead to hold Tobruk for 2 months to disrupt the German supply lines. Morshead was a clever commander, trapping German tanks to make them useless and made his troops fight a tough guerrilla campaign. The main focus of the film is on a British officer, 'Tammy' MacRoberts who is given command of a fresh batch of Australian troops, including his former school master. He has to train his troops to get them ready for the battle and first the bitter war.

    The acting isn't that good, the Australian accents were awful and it would have been easier if their casted Australian actors. As well their seem to be an American officer with the British and Australians ones, I don't know why? What makes the film work is the war scenes. They are well done and you get to feel the action and sweat of battle. The film is also a short, tort experience. Also there is an historical inaccuracy; the Desert Rats was the name for the 9th Armoured Division of the British Army, not the 7th Australian Army. However Rommel did call the army the rats of Tobruk.

    Personally I would like to see a new film about the war in North Africa because their are many interesting stories and battles, from the Battle of El-Alamein, the story of Rommel and Montgomery, Operation Touch, the Birth of the SAS, etc... The Siege of Tobruk would also make an interesting story for a modern film.
    7ma-cortes

    One of the most realistic and best of the fifties war movies with excellent direction by Robert Wise

    1941 Lybian desert, North Africa. German forces are pushing through to Suez, the key to the Middle East , only Tobruk is still holding out, there's a considerable unit there. With the British in full retreat, nothing stood in Rommel's way but the tiny garrison of Empire troops cut off in the fortress won of Tobruk.Meantime, Germans dropping leaflets captioning : Surrender! German forces have surrounded Tobruk, it is useless to try to escape. Single soldiers waving handkerchiefs will not be fired upon. Aussies..do not sacrifice yourselves needlessly. Lay down your arms. Surrender! . The picture is the story of Tobruk and the men who made up its garrison, of the fight they made against the pick of Hitler's troops and of the nickname they won with blood and bore with pride: ¨The Deser Rats¨. British headquarter Cairo's ordered to take up defensive positions for two months ,reunited the officers(Robert Douglas, Torin Thatcher, among others) deal the Tobruk 's defense : the positions are the following, the first line of defense ,using the old Italian perimeter, the second line by Colonel White's supporting artillery and the inner fortification. The British plan of defense is based chiefly on the belief of a Bilzkrieg by Rommel(a splendid James Mason reprise his role from ¨The Desert fox¨). The general proposes to let Rommel's tanks come through here unopposed, leaving the tanks to proceed up this avenue alone. Colonel White will have moved artillery to line both sides of the avenue.Meanwhile the soldiers are already digging positions for the captured Italian field-pieces. So, the longer we hold our fire, the deeper Rommel's tanks will advance into this box and the easier they will be to destroy. The General assigns to McRoberts, an infantry captain with battle experience, twice decorated, he must put into the line.The crusty captain( a stiff but sensitive acting by Richard Burton) takes a charge of an Australian division formed by valiant soldiers and a kind-hearted schoolmaster alcoholic(sensible performance by Robert Newton steal the show as drunk turned reluctant soldier) fighting a desperate rearguard action against overwhelming German forces.

    This reconstruction of a phase in the battle of Tobruk(deeds also filmed by Arthur Hiller in ¨Tobruk¨ with Rock Hudson) is correctly based on true events, though excessive importance for the Aussies. The actual deeds are based on series of engagements between British and Axis forces over Libyan port. Occupied by Italy 1911, Tobruk was taken by Britain in Operation Battleaxe 1941.It was captured by Field Marshal Erwin Rommel June 1942 after the retreat of the main British force to Egypt, and this precipitated General Sir Claude Auchinleck's replacement by General Bernard Montgomery as British commander. Montgomery recovered it after the second of Battle of El Alamein and it remained in British hands for the rest of the war.
    countryway_48864

    A fine film that highlights an almost forgotten campaign in WWII.

    The Desert Rats is an unpretentious war film that tells a good story with economy. The heroics come without drum-rolls.

    The most fascinating part of this film is to watch both the marvelous Robert Newton and the under-rated James Mason give Richard Burton acting lessons.

    Burton tends to chew the scenery when he snarls, "Good-morning," as though he were the youngest in a large family, doing anything for attention.

    Newton counters Burton's unnecessary histrionics with a beautifully modulated realization of-himself in disguise as Prof. Bartlett, Burton's old instructor. I think this is the most honest look at the REAL Newton on film. The rueful man who clearly understands his inability to stay sober, but still has enough control to see his own and everyone else's situation clearly. He is the kind, timorous, brilliant failure who, in one burst of glory, up-stages his more successful juniors. Newton delivers a truly magical performance.

    James Mason also delivers a balanced and multi-layered Rommel. Of course he practiced playing this brilliant German General in the better-known film, The Desert Fox.

    Burton comes across as pure ham in The Desert Rats, but there IS one scene he has where he is honest and effective. He explains to Bartlett that the picture of the young woman in his wallet is his wife. The picture actually IS Burton's wife, pre-Elizabeth Taylor.

    Otherwise, although Burton is billed as the star, the film belongs to Newton and Mason. See it for the pleasure of their company.

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    Storyline

    Edit

    Did you know

    Edit
    • Trivia
      The film was banned in Egypt, as the British were still occupying the Suez Canal and the Sudan.
    • Goofs
      During the raid on the German camp there is a sign on a building reading "Hauptquartiers". Although the English word "Headquarters" might suggest a plural s, in German there doesn't exist such a form. The correct word would be "Hauptquartier" and the plural "Hauptquartiere"
    • Quotes

      Tom Bartlett: You don't know much about real fear, Tammy. Maybe it comes with age or the bottle. You don't know what it is to be a coward... really a coward. To know it, yet to hope one day something will happen to prove that you're not, yet half the time not really believing that either.

    • Crazy credits
      Opening credits prologue: 1941 LIBYAN DESERT NORTH AFRICA
    • Connections
      Edited into All This and World War II (1976)
    • Soundtracks
      Waltzing Matilda
      (1895) (uncredited)

      Original music by Christina Macpherson (1895)

      (Based on the Scottish tune "Craigielee", music by James Barr, with words by Robert Tannahill)

      Revised music by Marie Cowan (1903)

      Lyrics by A.B. 'Banjo' Paterson (1895)

      Played during the opening credits and often in the score

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    Details

    Edit
    • Release date
      • May 20, 1953 (United States)
    • Country of origin
      • United States
    • Languages
      • English
      • German
    • Also known as
      • Die Wüstenratten
    • Filming locations
      • Mojave Desert, Arizona, USA
    • Production company
      • Twentieth Century Fox
    • See more company credits at IMDbPro

    Box office

    Edit
    • Budget
      • $1,320,000 (estimated)
    See detailed box office info on IMDbPro

    Tech specs

    Edit
    • Runtime
      • 1h 28m(88 min)
    • Color
      • Black and White
    • Aspect ratio
      • 1.37 : 1

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