I found this movie for sale on ebay in DVD format. What I received seemed to be a very good VHS to DVD copy, with no title page or chapters. The movie itself was just like I remembered it from the early sixties. A plane owned by an oil company bellies in during a sandstorm in the North African desert and the pilot and passengers must find a way to survive.
I found it interesting to note how many similarities there were with the James Stewart movie, "Flight of the Phoenix." It made me wonder if the writer of "Phoenix" might have done a variation on a theme. Similarities included an oil company, a North African desert, an airplane bellying in because of a sandstorm, broken radio transmitter, a man with a drinking problem, rationed water, fixing a broken derelict for transportation and evil Bedouins.
All in all it was a pretty good yarn, but there were some hard to believe improbabilities. The idea that a sandstorm could bring down an airplane within a few hundred feet of a buried German tank in an area as vast as the Sahara was a little hard to believe. It was also hard to believe that anyone would be able to disassemble and reassemble a tank engine without a fairly complete set of tools, surely it would take more than would be carried in a fairly small twin engine aircraft. It was also a bit difficult to accept that four men would fail to hear the sound of a DC-3 flying over at about 1000 feet in the middle of the night even if they were sleeping. It was also hard to swallow the British accent of one of the Bedouins.
The main plot is that of survival. Some of the subplots, such as John Dehner's drinking problem, get in the way of an otherwise good story. The tank they found was well away from the battles of North Africa because it had joined with a clan of bad guy Bedouins in a raid on another clan. During that raid a bag of jewels was stolen. The tank escaped into the desert and was buried by a sirocco. John Dehner finds the jewels while looking for a place to hide his booze but keeps it a secret. Our heroes drive the tank straight to raiding bad guys camp at an oasis (another improbability). Our heroes escape the Bedouin camp and head for a French fort battling the bad guys all the way. Sort of a variation on the 'stagecoach in the desert' western movie theme.
I found the movie to be overall entertaining despite its flaws. Maybe because I remember the movie so fondly from my youth, or maybe because it is pretty good B movie.
I found it interesting to note how many similarities there were with the James Stewart movie, "Flight of the Phoenix." It made me wonder if the writer of "Phoenix" might have done a variation on a theme. Similarities included an oil company, a North African desert, an airplane bellying in because of a sandstorm, broken radio transmitter, a man with a drinking problem, rationed water, fixing a broken derelict for transportation and evil Bedouins.
All in all it was a pretty good yarn, but there were some hard to believe improbabilities. The idea that a sandstorm could bring down an airplane within a few hundred feet of a buried German tank in an area as vast as the Sahara was a little hard to believe. It was also hard to believe that anyone would be able to disassemble and reassemble a tank engine without a fairly complete set of tools, surely it would take more than would be carried in a fairly small twin engine aircraft. It was also a bit difficult to accept that four men would fail to hear the sound of a DC-3 flying over at about 1000 feet in the middle of the night even if they were sleeping. It was also hard to swallow the British accent of one of the Bedouins.
The main plot is that of survival. Some of the subplots, such as John Dehner's drinking problem, get in the way of an otherwise good story. The tank they found was well away from the battles of North Africa because it had joined with a clan of bad guy Bedouins in a raid on another clan. During that raid a bag of jewels was stolen. The tank escaped into the desert and was buried by a sirocco. John Dehner finds the jewels while looking for a place to hide his booze but keeps it a secret. Our heroes drive the tank straight to raiding bad guys camp at an oasis (another improbability). Our heroes escape the Bedouin camp and head for a French fort battling the bad guys all the way. Sort of a variation on the 'stagecoach in the desert' western movie theme.
I found the movie to be overall entertaining despite its flaws. Maybe because I remember the movie so fondly from my youth, or maybe because it is pretty good B movie.