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Reviewed by UK Guest, 21st May 2003. |
| Review Summary: Stiff upper lips in the best tradition |
Overall Score: 4/5
 
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Review: Ice Cold In Alex is a very straightforward and admirable story of triumph against adversity, set in the inhospitable North African Desert in World War 2. John Mills plays a British Army Captain ordered to evacuate from Tobruk just before it falls to the Germans, and make his way to Alexandria (Alex) in a battered military ambulance. He picks up a motley crew of an experienced sergeant, (Harry Andrews), a nurse (Sylvia Sims) and a mysterious South African (Anthony Quayle) who is not what he seems. The story of their trials and tribulations as they fight both the Germans and the harsh desert is fairly simple. What makes the film is the interplay between the characters. Eventually they triumph, spurred on by the thought of an ice-cold Carlsberg in the Alex officers' club. Not a great film, but certainly worth watching. And once you've seen it, the Carlsberg ad from the mid 1980's will suddenly make sense. In black and white, which doesn't detract at all. And watch for a cameo performance from the actor who later makes a career of playing foreign colonels in films such as The Guns of Navarone and the James Bond series. I saw him once in Lulworth Cove where his family runs a brick-making business - it will probably come up in Trivial Pursuit. |
Ratings
| Value For Money: |
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4 |
| Review Score: |
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4 |
| Recommended? | |
Yes |
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DVD Films