Desert Victory
BBB.5
(out of 5)
The Allied effort against Rommel in North Africa is documented in this terrific collection of footage taken during World War II. Most documentaries made in the early forties were in the service of providing information on the war effort to audiences who had not yet reached the era of television, hence why this one feels like a long newsreel and not a film with a narrative shape or structure. Existing prints aren’t great, but the film is interesting as research and makes a good companion to Five Graves To Cairo, which came out the same year.
Directed by Roy Boulting, David MacDonald
Screenplay by J.L. Hodson
Produced by David MacDonald
Music by William Alwyn
Film Editing by Richard Best
Cast Tags: Adolf Hitler, Alan Brooke, Alan Cunningham, Arthur Tedder, Bernard L. Montgomery, Claude Auchinleck, Erwin Rommel, Harold Alexander, Henry Harwood, Joseph Goebbels, Wilhelm von Thoma, Winston Churchill
Academy Award
Best Documentary Feature
National Board of Review Award
Best Docuemntary
