A war adventure, made in Mexico, and aimed at boys of all ages. As in The Desert Rats, almost 20 years before, Richard Burton plays a British Army captain (then MacRoberts, here Foster) who crosses swords with the legendary Rommel in the North African desert. That talented German actor Wolfgang Preiss sensitively matches James Mason's classic portrayal of Rommel from earlier films, but the rest of the acting, from an assorted crew of British and Continental players, simply isn't in the same class. Coincidentally, it was director Henry Hathaway, usually to be found in realistic crime stories or John Wayne westerns, who made both this film and Rommel - Desert Fox, in which Mason first etched his brilliant portrait of the German field marshal. The action is plentiful and explosive but - a common Hollywood ploy - extensive sections of it are taken from an earlier Universal desert warfare epic, the Rock Hudson film Tobruk.

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