Word: rommels
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After every war, indeed after almost any period of high feeling, there is a time of reassessment. "The Desert Fox" is Twentieth Century Fox's contribution to this period. Its thesis is that of Desmond Young's book on General Erwin Rommel. That is, it tries to show that Rommel, a fine field general in any Army textbook, was at the same time a fine man who came to hate Hitler, one whose political naivete finally led to his suicide to save his wife...
...undoubtedly, an interesting movie. Beginning with an unusual and active prologue, "The Desert Fox" flashes back for complete coverage of Rommel's life from the British breakthrough at EI Alamein to his suicide in 1945. James Mason, as the general, succeeds in portraying the character called for by the script. It almost appears possible for a man to be at once a hard, supremely competent Field Marshal and a confused, incredibly native politician...
...Desert Fox brings in James Mason with a glorification of German General Erwin Rommel. At the Paramount and Fenway...
...rest of the film deals with the progress of the conspiracy and with Rommel's rather lefthanded endorsement of the plotters' aims. To convince himself he has no alternative, Rommel visits Hitler for a tingling interview. He comes away more depressed by the Führer's irrationality than by his ideology. But when the attempt is made on Hitler's life, Rommel is again in the hospital, this time having been shot up by British fighter planes while directing the crumbling German defenses in Normandy. During the blood purge of the conspirators, Rommel gets...
James Mason brings a brooding intensity to the role of Rommel, sharply points up the contrast between his brilliance in the field and his uncertainty in public life. Unfortunately for the pace and excitement of the movie, Rommel is shown too seldom on the battlefield, and then only in defeat. The script, by Producer-Writer Nunnally Johnson, has the competence of journalistic history, but most of the excitement is packed into the picture's opening moments, during an ill-fated British Commando raid on Rommel's North African headquarters...