Escape in the Desert
| Escape in the Desert | |
|---|---|
Alan Hale, Sr. Samuel S. Hinds | |
| Cinematography | Robert Burks |
| Edited by | Owen Marks |
| Music by | Adolph Deutsch |
Production company | |
| Distributed by | Warner Bros. |
Release date |
|
Running time | 79 minutes |
| Country | United States |
| Language | English |
Escape in the Desert is a 1945 American
Plot
The action takes place in the southwestern United States late in World War II. Four POWs from Nazi Germany escape American custody and eventually wind up taking over a small gas station/hotel in the desert. They plan to obtain a fueled-up vehicle and flee the country. A Dutch military pilot traveling through America, on his way to fight in the Pacific, is initially mistaken by some locals as one of the Nazis. Eventually, however, he helps lead the resistance against the Germans.
Cast
- Jean Sullivan as Jane
- Philip Dorn as Philip Artveld
- Irene Manning as Lora Tedder
- Helmut Dantine as Capt. Becker
- Alan Hale, Sr.as Dr. Orville Tedder
- Samuel S. Hinds as Gramp
- Bill Kennedy as Hank Albright
- Kurt Kreuger as Lt. Von Kleist
- Rudolph Anders as Hoffman
- Hans Schumm as Klaus
- Blayney Lewis as Danny
Reception
In his May 12, 1945 review, New York Times critic Bosley Crowther compared the film unfavorably with its predecessor:“Aside from the Arizona locale and a few vague theatrical landmarks, there is nothing about this picture to remind you of the play or previous film. The original found dramatic conflict between a notorious gangster "on the lam" and a disillusioned intellectual who was a veteran of the first World War. The present film sets a young Dutch flier who is hitch-hiking across the United States against a band of Nazi soldiers who have escaped from a desert prison camp. And whereas the former had something of depth and perception to it, the present is just a melodrama of the sock-and-bust-'em school. Perhaps that is all the Warners ever meant that it should be… only Samuel S. Hinds as a genial "sourdough" has real attractiveness. The climax finds the Nazis shooting it out with a sheriff's posse in Western style. But that only serves to clinch the genre of the picture, which is suspected from the start.”[3]
References
- ^ "Escape in the Desert (1945) – Overview". TCM.com. 1945-05-11. Retrieved 2015-07-11.
- ^ Crowther, Bosley (1945-05-12). "Movie Review – The Bullfighters – The Screen; 'Escape in the Desert' New Attraction at Strand". NYTimes.com. Retrieved 2015-07-11.
- ISSN 0362-4331. Retrieved 2023-02-28.
External links
- Escape in the Desert at IMDb
