The Desert Fox: The Story of Rommel
Director: Henry Hathaway
Year Released: 1951
Rating: 1.5
Slightly whitewashed portrait of Field Marshal Erwin Rommel (James Mason) and how he grew sick of Hitler's micromanagement and poor war strategy, conspired against him and was forced to commit suicide to save his family. Hathaway was never a top-tier filmmaker and the construction of this - mixing in real-life footage of the D-Day invasion and the Afrika Korps - is messy, with the commanding presence of Mason there to try to hold it together. Still, despite the dignity the production affords Rommel, and he was a brilliant general who was respected by his men, it's still important to remember he was an anti-Semitic Nazi dedicated to killing Allied troops and supporting a regime (until the last minute) that massacred millions of innocent people in concentration camps.
