The Desert Rats (1953)

THE DESERT RATS  (1953)  ¢ ¢ ¢ 1/2
    D: Robert Wise
    Richard Burton, James Mason, Robert Newton,
    Torin Thatcher, Chips Rafferty, Robert Douglas
Richard Burton plays a British army officer assigned to lead a newly arrived company of Australian infantry against Rommel's German tank corps during the siege of Tobruk. The actors playing the Aussies look a little mature to be green recruits, but it's an exciting World War Two action movie, directed with an old editor's skill and economy by Robert Wise. Mason had played Rommel before in "The Desert Fox" (1951), and Burton, in the years before he hooked up with what's-her-name, was a commanding presence on screen. Michael Rennie narrates.