Of the several movies that Hollywood made about conflict in the desert on World War II, Sahara and Five Graves to Cairo are remakes of movies that were set somewhere else. John Howard Lawson, who would be blacklisted later, incidentally, derived his storyline from a Russian prewar movie about a patrol of soldiers beleaguered by Asian bandits. This situation came to be one of the most interesting plots of its time because it lent itself readily to a wartime analogy.
Humphrey Bogart stars as a commander of a U.S. tank crew who are detached from the main body of the army. They journey through the desert, growing in number along the way by picking up stragglers; some of whom are Montgomery’s tommies (with Lloyd Bridge, among others) and a tall African (Rex Ingram) with his garrulous Italian prisoner (Oscar-nominee J. Carrol Naish) who cannot wait to tell his new comrades about his relatives in “Peets-a-bourg Pennsylvania.” They reach a ruin that was once an oasis and there they are beset by a small contingent of Germans who think that there is still water to be claimed there. The deadlock between the bilingual democrats and the Nazis is a great example of suspense.
This Columbia production is for Bogart a rare break from Warner Brothers, where he always perceived himself to be embattled. He must have been very pleased, as his portrayal of Sgt. Joe Gunn is one of the kindest and most earnest performances the actor ever showed us. This is a great movie.
. –Richard T. Jameson