Howard Davies

I first saw this film in a cinema in Port Erin, Isle of Man, in 1959. Might've been 1958, memories fade! Family holiday. I watched it again today on TV . The second world war in the desert remains on our screens of late with the excellent SAS series, but this film has it all for me. Continuity, acting, suspense, action, intrigue, intensity, humanity, actors put through hell making it, drunkenness overcome. Though Sylvia Syms got a bit over excited for a man 26 years older?! Thanks to the internet, I've just discovered that in the final scene, we see Harry Andrews meeting his partner for the next 30 years plus. The Lieutenant 'fresh off the boat'. They're buried next to each other now. The film lives on.

What am I now, 70? My partner lived in Italy and speaks Italian. We've been back. There was something about Tucci's series. I loved it. The choices of venues, the photography and the editing were spot on. He brought the politics in. In Sicily, Borsellino and Falcone. He didn't have to go to Lampedusa, but he did. It was just interesting. When you thought it was nearly finished, it was halfway through. Always a sign of of a well paced show. Any second series would be well received, CNN.

Almost comedic? Has it's own style. If you're in the mood for a romp then, why not? Based on real events is always a way in, and it takes you back so well to fifties films. Could've been a stage play. Jews v Gentiles. Doesn't go away, does it?