World War II · Film · 1958
Ice Cold in Alex
A burnt-out British officer, his sergeant major, two nurses and a suspicious South African drive a battered ambulance from besieged Tobruk across minefields and the Qattara Depression, dreaming of an ice-cold beer in Alexandria.
Where it happened
Follow the story across 3 places.
Stop 1: Tobruk, Libya
As the Afrika Korps closes in, Captain Anson's ambulance unit is ordered out of Tobruk and his vehicle gets separated from the rest.
Stop 2: Qattara Depression, Egypt
Key location
The ambulance Katy crosses quicksand and has to be winched backwards up a huge dune while suspicions grow about van der Poel.
Stop 3: Alexandria, Egypt
The survivors finally reach a bar in Alexandria and face a choice about what to do with their passenger.
What really happened
In June 1942 the Axis offensive at Gazala broke the British line, and Tobruk fell on 21 June. Units that escaped streamed east toward Egypt while Rommel's columns chased them, and the Eighth Army finally dug in at El Alamein, a line anchored in the south on the Qattara Depression, a vast salt basin considered impassable for armies.
The film follows Christopher Landon's 1957 novel, based on his own service in the desert, and the crossing of the depression and the escarpment is dramatic licence. German agents really were sent into Egypt in 1942 through the desert, most famously in Operation Salam, which gives weight to the spy subplot.
Where to watch
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Full details
- Original title
- Ice Cold in Alex
- Directed by
- J. Lee Thompson
- Countries
- United Kingdom
- Languages
- English, German
- Released
- 1958
- Period
- –
- Theaters of war
- Mediterranean & Africa
- Themes
- Combat
- Espionage
