The Desert Fox (1951) is a laudatory biopic of Erwin Rommel, Nazi Germany's most famous General. It's very good movie, featuring James Mason in an excellent performance, and an interesting examination of conflicting war time loyalties. But war movie fans might be disappointed that it focuses on Rommel's apocryphal role in the anti-Hitler Stauffenberg plot, rather than his battlefield prowess.
Field Marshal Erwin Rommel (James Mason) earns fame for his victories in North Africa with his Afrika Korps. But the tide turns against him at El Alamein, where British Field Marshal Montgomery decisively checks his army - largely due to Adolf Hitler's (Luther Adler) refusal to allow Rommel to withdrawal. Rommel is next sent to France, where he prepares Hitler's Atlantic Wall for the Allied invasion of Europe. Hitler's incompetent management of the war leads to disaster on D-Day, and Rommel decides to throw in with a group of anti-Hitler conspirators.
I read Desmond Young's book The Desert Fox at least three times in junior high school. Young, a British officer who fought against Rommel in North Africa, depicted Rommel as the archetypical "good German," who deep down really hated Hitler all along. This Rommel is a secular saint, a man anyone could admire: a great general, a chivalrous opponent, a man of conscience who stood up against tyranny.
Of course, Young's portrait of Rommel is overly simplified. Rommel probably wasn't involved in the July 20 plot, but was likely singled out by the SS for his vocal criticisms of Hitler's war policies. His personal relationship with Hitler was better than the film suggests, though he loathed the Fuhrer's inner circle. Still, it's easy to see how Rommel, a man admired by Montgomery, Patton and other opponents, who defied Hitler's orders to round up Jews and execute enemy commandos, had this legend attached to him, and The Desert Fox is a fine tribute.
The Desert Fox is steeped in "good German" rhetoric more strident than the nuances of Decision Before Dawn or Night of the Generals. It seems like all Germany (except a few flunkies) is eager to turn on Hitler, but too afraid to act. Von Runstedt's (Leo G. Carroll) denunciations of Hitler are a bit on the nose, denouncing the "Bohemian Corporal" relying on astrology and his new "wonder weapons" instead of his generals' skill and sense. Rommel's personal conflict makes for interesting drama but narrows its subject's complexity: Rommel is celebrated as honorable in defeat, but with his great victories omitted his military genius doesn't really come across. Patton, this is not.
Director Henry Hathaway presents this as a straightforward docudrama. The film intersperses dialogue scenes with archival combat footage, retaining a relatively fast pace despite the lack of action. An opening commando raid is excitingly-staged but has little to do with the quiet character drama that follows. Battle fans will be disappointed, but fans of good acting have a lot to enjoy.
James Mason is superb. He sells us on Rommel's conflicting devotion to duty and antipathy towards madness, and lends the character grace, humor and tragic gravitas. Luther Adler admirably avoids caricature as Hitler. Jessica Tandy and William Reynolds make a warm impression as Rommel's family. Leo G. Carroll (Rebecca) plays Field Marshal Von Runstedt with wonderfully dry, world-weary humor. Cedric Hardwicke (The Ten Commandments), George Macready (Vera Cruz) and Richard Boone (Hombre) assay smaller roles.
The Desert Fox is a good if simplified biopic of a great military leader. It's unfortunate that they cut out his military leadership, or else it could have been a classic.
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