April 4, 2022

Henry Fonda is a bit of a fish out of water in rather thin wartime effort. He is "Spence", a Canadian sent to fight in North Africa during WWII. When his sergeant "Kelly" (a creditable effort from Thomas Mitchell) comes a cropper and their convoy destroyed, he must lead his men through the desert to try and reach safety. Peppered within this rather onerous trek, we are shown retrospectives of the life he left behind with ("Valentine") Maureen O'H… read the rest.

Henry Fonda is a bit of a fish out of water in rather thin wartime effort. He is "Spence", a Canadian sent to fight in North Africa during WWII. When his sergeant "Kelly" (a creditable effort from Thomas Mitchell) comes a cropper and their convoy destroyed, he must lead his men through the desert to try and reach safety. Peppered within this rather onerous trek, we are shown retrospectives of the life he left behind with ("Valentine") Maureen O'Hara and the man she thinks she is going to marry "Tom" (Reginald Gardiner). O'Hara was much better with lively roles, she doesn't play very well here at all. The production is remarkably basic. There are plenty of sound stage desert scenes with back-projections going on, and there really is a distinct paucity of action until the last ten minutes or so. It's a morale-boosting effort for the folks back home in an USA yet to enter the fray, little more. Nothing much more to say... It's watchable, but forgettable.

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