The officer leading a British Army patrol in Mesopotamia is sniped from somewhere among the sand dunes. Whatever the patrol was meant to be doing, and where they were meant to go, the officer kept to himself, so The Sergeant (Victor McLaglen) has no better plan than to head north, towards the river.
They reach an oasis, but on the first night, the rookie is knifed in the back, and their horses stolen. So they have water, they have food - if you like dates - and there's even some cover to get out of the sun. But they still don't know where they are, where the brigade is, or where their foes are. The tension rises, especially in Sanders (Boris Karloff?!), whose religious fervor and complete lack of a sense of humor puts everyone on edge.
I forget how long John Ford had been directing films. I thought this would be one of his earlier works, but he's got director credits going back almost 20 years prior to this. He keeps the attackers hidden for almost the entire film. Their presence is marked by the sound of gunshots, sand kicking off the dunes as bullets hit, or by the body of the latest casualty of the patrol. We don't know what they look like, we don't know where they are, we don't know why they're doing this. Are they fighting on the side of the Ottoman Empire, do they just not like interlopers, do they think these guys have stuff worth stealing?
We don't know, and neither does the patrol. So they stew, as all their plans are thwarted. Climbing a tree to get a sense of the land from high ground gets that guy shot. A nighttime mission for two men to reach the river, ends with both bodies returning the next day, on a couple of the missing horses.
The exterior scenes don't really capture the sense of baking heat and blinding glare off the dunes that starts breaking their brains, to where more than one man charges into the dunes, firing at phantoms. Instead, it's the characters and how they interact that sells it. Every lighthearted moments turn ugly. The soldiers are lounging around the spring as Brown regales them with stories of his time with the women of Malay and Java. The next, Brown is mocking Sanders for imploring him to get right with God. Then when Abelson gets tired of Sanders, Brown's ready to fight with Abelson to protect Sanders. Morelli, who seemed so relaxed early in the film, nearly shoots Sanders to make him shut up when they're down to just a few.
A couple of deaths are almost comical. When one soldier climbs a tree to see what he can spy. He reports the only thing he can see is the sun glinting off something in the dunes, then he dies. He doesn't go so far as to say like a scope or gun barrel, but it's pretty obvious he's reporting his own death. In a similar vein, late in the film a British plane flies over and, rather than return to base and report, the pilot lands nearby, gets out of the plane, puts on a pith helmet and grabs a riding crop and makes it about two steps before he gets shot. Kind of a strange choice.
McLaglen, unlike his usual role in later John Ford films, is no loudmouthed oaf here. The Sergeant tries his best, but you can tell he's reacting, rather than acting. He can't anticipate, so he's always trying to douse fires after the fact. He doesn't seem to know what to do with Sanders other than keep him isolated, looking after their wounded corporal, but I don't think he frames it to Sanders as an important job, or something only he can do. A task he's performing to for the good of the patrol. It's more like sending a kid to his room.
In that vein, Karloff plays Sanders as someone who probably means well, but is so awkward people find him off-putting. When he freaks out Morelli, it isn't on purpose. He's probably scared, and Brown has just snuck out on his own, but he told Sanders, and asked him to deliver a note to The Sergeant. So he tries, the same way he tries to wet the corporal's lips while the man's unconscious. He's so earnest, but also so grave, eyes wide and sunken, a distant state like he's sees something in the distance. He's weird, but you get the feeling he's heard that plenty. He has this peculiar, toe-dragging walk, knees bent like he's gonna fall at any moment. Life's not been easy, and so he found refuge in the spiritual.
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