A pointer from David Trotter's review in the London Review of Books of David Thomson's The Fatal Alliance: A Century of War on Film. I'm about two-thirds the way through the book and so far the review is far superior. Directed by Nicholas Ray (Rebel Without a Cause, In a Lonely Place) who co-adapted René Hardy's novel with him and Gavin Lambert. In black-and-white.
Thomson positions this film as a forerunner to The Bridge on the River Kwai of the same year. Richard Burton lead, almost dissolutely with his signature baritone blunted, perhaps not yet developed. I guess Liz was still a ways off. His delivery was fully realised however. He's some sort of archeologist drafted into the British war machine in colonial Cairo (as an officer, showing he has class standing despite being Welsh) where he chances to encounter his pre-war squeeze Ruth Roman (Strangers on a Train) who he abandoned for an archeological dig (I think). The plot has her taking improbable revenge by getting hitched to the much older and miscast Curd Jürgens.
Soon enough the men are off to Benghazi to fetch some McGuffin papers from the ever-inept Germans. Things go awry and the all-sorts soldiers are in for a long walk home. (Christopher Lee plays a sergeant.) Stuff happens involving bravery and cowardice, doing one's job and another's duty, using a camel as a medicine cabinet. It reeks of the perfidy of the brass, a minor Paths of Glory (from the same year) but is actually a lot smaller than that.
IMDB trivia: a toxic shoot. Excess details at Wikipedia.
