Desert Fox (1951)

Once you get past the opening rather stagey scenes, of British commandos raiding a German headquarters building in north Africa, hoping to kill the Desert Fox in his lair, the rest of the film is carried along guite well, by the great performance of James Mason, as Rommel. This performance is the only reason I rated this film as four stars, without Mason I would have been disapointed.

Other members of the cast do fine jobs too, notably Cedric Hardwicke and Leo G. Carroll. One can find good entertainment based on real events.

D-Day: the invasion of Normandy, is a highlight of this film. There are several minutes of what appears to be genuine newsreel footage of the storming of the beaches: the ships off shore, the guns, the planes, brave men falling. It's all very real at this point.

"The Desert Fox" was made in an era when the directors, producers, and the Hollywood Establishment in general, were less preachy, and less likely to distort the truth in order to promote a social agenda. That is a big plus for this film.

On the down side: the film starts off with several undisclosed advertisements for other videos, of like kind, by Fox. This is borderline dishonest, as consumers have paid for entertainment and expect it to be commercial free. At the very least, the ads should be disclosed, before anyone makes a purchaseing decision.

All in all, "The Desert Fox" is good entertainment and deserves a look.


DVD features a nice transfer of a great film   April 28, 2003
Darren Harrison (Washington D.C.)
39 out of 44 found this review helpful

I recently saw an advance review copy of the DVD "The Desert Fox" and I was surprised at the nice quality of the transfer of what is an exceptional movie. Based on the exploits of the famed German general Erwin Rommel the DVD has a crisp clean transfer. Included on this disc is the original theatrical trailer which remarkably, considering it's age, is also reproduced here in relatively good condition.
Considering it's low price this addition to the Fox War Classics catalog is easy to recommend.


Not enough action   December 8, 2003
David C. Read (Glendale, CA USA)
19 out of 23 found this review helpful

This movie is misleadingly named. Although Rommel was indeed the commander of Germany's Afrika Corp in World War II, and there earned a reputation as a master tactician, that is not what this movie is about. Two-thirds of this movie's 88 minute length focuses on Rommel's minor role in a conspiracy to kill Hitler. The conspiracy failed, and Rommel eventually paid with his life for his involvement. (In truth, Rommel was lucky. The other conspirators were hanged on piano wire and died a painful death. Because he had been built up into a national hero, Rommel was given the opportunity to take poison, and the public was told he died of war wounds.

I'm afraid most viewers, jaded by modern F/X and action laden efforts like Saving Private Ryan, will be disappointed with this rather inexpensively made effort from 1951. There is very little action other than a commando raid during the first five minutes of the movie. The little remaining action is actual stock footage of the war, skillfully cut into the film. The movie is very talky, focusing on Rommel's relationship with his wife and son, Field Marshal Von Rundstedt, and Adolph Hitler.

I have to admit that when I watched an early scene that showed Rommel in North Africa, wearing a long black leather overcoat consulting with his officers, I said to myself "pure Hollywood! there is no way he would have been wearing that in the hot desert." Then I went to my library and consulted a book on Rommel, lavishly illustrated with photographs. Not only was Rommel wearing the black leather overcoat, he was dressed precisely as depicted in the movie. There is also a remarkable resemblance between Rommel and James Mason, who does an outstanding job portraying Rommel in the movie. The moviemakers got it right, and I was wrong.


Good but not Great.   February 22, 1999
14 out of 14 found this review helpful

This was not the great film I thought it would be. The reason is simple, the film skips entirely Rommel's great achivements and instead focuses on his downfall. I spite of being called "The Desert Fox", for the majority of this movie the "Fox" is not in the desert. I envisoned the film covering Rommel's victories in Africa but there is ony a slight mention of them at the end. The movie starts of with Rommel at El Alemien, and losing. The rest of the film is Rommel off and on in the hospital, in his home and arguing with Field Marshal Rundstedt. I could understand this if the film had been made in wartime, and was just propaganda, but it wasn't. The movie also gave the immpression that Rommel was fully involed with the plot to kill Hitler which is not true. He had been asked to join the conspiracy but never really gave a straight answer although he was totally against Hitler at the time. In spite of all the bad, this is still a pretty good movie and I gave it 3 stars. James Mason does a great job and the film paints a good picture of the downfall of Rommel, including the lengthly scene of Rommel charged with treason and his blackmail to suicide. All in all it's a good movie and anyone with an interest in the man Erwin Rommel should see it.


A Proper Tribute To The Desert Fox   July 27, 2004
Octavius (United States)
13 out of 14 found this review helpful

Henry Hathaway's 1951 film on Erwin Rommel, Nazi Germany's most brilliant tactician whose indirect involvement in a failed plot to assassinate Hitler resulted in his untimely death.

The film is a character study and focuses more on Rommel's relationship with Hitler and the German High Command as opposed to his achievements as a military tactician. Because the nature of his death wasn't very well known at that time, the film focuses on Rommel's deteriorating relationship with Hitler and his eventual participation in the assassination plot. This is normal since, with the film being made only 6 years after the end of WWII, audiences would have been quite unreceptive to a film glorifying a German general's military exploits against allied forces.

All in all, James Mason delivers a brilliant performance as a man who is struggling with his conscience. Is his duty as a general to just obey Hitler or to protect Germany from destruction? What should he do when Hitler's megalomania is a greater threat to Germany than the Allies themselves? How can he be a good soldier and live with himself by committing treason: even if treason is the only logical alternative? Although the film isn't entirely accurate in its history, it succeeds in capturing all of the internal conflicts Rommel must have suffered in deciding what to do. The film is also accurate in portraying the impossible dilemma faced by Von Runstedt and others in the German High Command with Hitler's incessant meddling in military planning and execution. As the movie shows, by 1944 Hitler assumed direct control of virtually all military operations in the major theaters with disastrous results (i.e. insisting that most heavy guns and panzer divisions remain in Calais even when the D-Day invasion was well underway). This dilemma was dealt with humor in the movie when Von Runsted sarcastically tells Rommel about how corporals (i.e. Hitler) are such brilliant strategists and tacticians who clearly know far more about waging war than your run-of-the-mill Field Marshalls: "You know how rigid those corporals can be."

Altogether a great film that sheds light on the character of one of the greatest military tacticians of the 20th Century. A film not to be missed.