Ice-Cold in Alex (1958)

What better way to ease into a weekend on a Saturday morning than with a black and white war film? Hmmm... Well that's how I began my day this morning. I like the watch the 'classics' of yesteryear, and I've no problem watching old movies, B&W or otherwise. I know some people are a bit sniffy about them, particularly in my generation, but it's nice to watch something without CGI and the trappings of modern Hollywood cinema. 

Ice-Cold in Alex is a jolly good British movie about a small group who are trying to cross the desert in an ambulance to get to Alex(andria), Egypt for an ice cold beer, hence the title. I never used to like war movies - they were something my dad always watched, and they were always boring. Then I grew up and realised some of them are actually worth the time to watch, particularly as I've become more interested in history, and know more about the World Wars. 

I'm not familiar with World War II as it pertains to North Africa though, so perhaps a better understanding of that theatre of war would have helped fill in some of the background of Alex. Without this background, however, the movie is still worth watching, and never boring. Sometimes I find that the mannered acting style and languid pace of older films can result in my mind wandering, but Alex contains performances and a plot that really kept my attention. 

The core cast of 4 includes John Mills and Sylvia Syms (who I've only just realised is the same Sylvia Syms who was in At Home With the Braithwaites [2000-03], and the excellent Victim [1961]) the only names/actors I recognised, plus Anthony Quayle and Harry Andrews, and all are top notch. There's another woman, but her performance and tendency to get delirious about the war marked her out pretty easily as a character who wasn't destined to see the half-way mark, and I turned out to be correct in my judgement here. 

There are some fantastically tense scenes of the ambulance crossing a mine field; Anthony Quayle trapped in quicksand; and the exhausted group hand-cracking the ambulance backwards up a sand dune. The cast do an excellent job of looking hot, sweaty and knackered - I suspect because they were, due to filming in the Libyan desert.

Ice-Cold in Alex is a great British tale of underdogs triumphing over adversity, performed by a first rate cast in spectacular settings. It's also a movie that makes me think more about the experiences of war, and will encourage me to find out more about this period and place.