A few nights ago I decided on a whim to look for any Humphrey Bogart film I’d never seen. I landed on Sahara, a 1943 war film that was Bogart’s next flick after Casablanca. (“Bogey + North Africa, that’s the winning formula,” the studio heads thought.)
Bogart is an American tank driver attached to the British tank corps in North Africa, just before El Alamein. They get lost in the desert, pick up some British stragglers, capture a nice-guy Italian and a bad-guy German, and then hole up in an oasis and fight off a horde of thirsty Nazis.
Even though Bogart’s only a sergeant with oil on his coveralls and a Lucky Strike in his mouth, they set it up so that he’s in command (“like the captain of a ship,” one of the higher-ranking Brits says) so that Bogey can bark orders and be The Man, and in that way it’s like McQ or any other bad late-vintage John Wayne movie. His tank is named Lulubelle and he sweet-talks it and takes offense if anyone insults it, and in that way it’s like The African Queen. In the end (spoiler!) Bogart gets nearly everyone on the team killed, but since they slaughter a bunch of Germans, he’s a hero instead of a heel. In that way it’s like every other World War II movie made between 1942 and 1962.
The film was shot in a state park down by the Mexican border, and they had to truck in a bunch of sand to make it look acceptably Saharan. (As if any of us knows what the Sahara really looks like!) Wikipedia says that the crew used to go across the border to Mexicali for dinner, except Bogart would spend his evenings fighting with his wife, Mayo Methot, instead. (The ‘Battling Bogarts,’ they were called.) This was before Bogey dumped her for Lauren Bacall. That’s how I found out that Mayo Methot went to school at Catlin Gable and was buried in Portland, Oregon, an aside of interest only to Oregonians.
I’m not sure you can watch these old war movies with any juicy interest any more. We’re all too used to what are now tired old tropes (the good-guy Americans save the Italian prisoner rather than leave him behind, and he gratefully switches sides and helps them out). The patriotic speeches that were required by the Wartime Whatever Board stick way, way out. Maybe if you’re a film student you can enjoy it, sure, but otherwise… it’s hard to get real “entertainment” out of these flicks.
I will also take the minority position that Bogart is a LOT better onscreen when he’s shaved, wearing a suit, and working indoors than when he’s dressed like a bum and running around outside actually doing stuff. Maybe it worked in The African Queen, where he’s a drunk and a hobo boat pilot, and people love The Treasure of the Sierra Madre, sure. (I don’t!) But give me Casablanca and The Big Sleep and indoor Bogey all day long.
I also found out that they remade this exact film in 1995, with Jim Belushi in the Bogart role. (???)
Rotten Tomatoes gives Sahara (the 1943 version) a 92% on the Tomatometer. This is generous. I can give it only 4 almost-dry canteens out of a possible 11. Sorry, Bogey!