459 Sahara

[MichaelB]

SAHARA
(Zoltán Korda, 1943)
Release date: 20 January 2025
Limited Edition Blu-ray (UK premiere)

Pre-order here

Humphrey Bogart (The Harder They Fall), Bruce Bennett (Undertow) and J Carrol Naish (The Lives of a Bengal Lancer) star in Sahara, a thrilling tale of World War II heroism from director Zoltán Korda (A Woman’s Vengeance).

Separated from his unit following the fall of Tobruk, Master Sergeant Joe Gunn (Bogart) and his crew flee in a tank across the Sahara, picking up a variety of stragglers and prisoners along the way. With their survival entirely dependent on the water from a depleted well, the group must defend it against a whole German battalion.

Produced by Harry Joe Brown (Buchanan Rides Alone) and shot under harsh conditions in the unforgiving landscape of the Colorado Desert, the production of Sahara utilised an entire US Army division as extras, adding to the film’s gritty sense of realism.

INDICATOR LIMITED EDITION BLU-RAY SPECIAL FEATURES

• High Definition remaster
• Original mono audio
• Audio commentary with screenwriter and novelist C Courtney Joyner (2025)
• Ehsan Khoshbakht on ‘Sahara’ (2025): appreciation by the curator, filmmaker, and editor of The Lady with the Torch: Columbia Pictures 1929–1959
• Building a Tank (1942): documentary short on the work of the Detroit Tank Arsenal, and the manufacture and testing of the M-3 Lee tank which prominently features in Sahara
• The Siege of Tobruk (1942): documentary short produced by the UK’s Army Film Unit detailing the World War II military campaign in the North African port of Tobruk during 1941, which preceded the events portrayed in Sahara
• Original theatrical trailer
• Image gallery: promotional and publicity material
• New and improved English subtitles for the deaf and hard of hearing
• Limited edition exclusive booklet with a new essay by Imogen Sara Smith, an archival interview with actor Kurt Kreuger, an archival on-set profile of Humphrey Bogart, a look at how the film’s promotion assisted the war effort, new writing on the short films, and film credits
• UK premiere on Blu-ray
• Limited edition of 3,000 copies for the UK
• All features subject to change

#PHILE459B
BBFC cert: PG
REGION B
EAN: 5060697924046

[domino harvey]

Nice! My write up from the War List

Sahara (Zoltan Korda 1943) Exciting African WWII tale with Bogart leading his crew of men in an armed defense of a non-existent desert oasis. Some intriguing wartime characterizations result from the film's sympathetic treatment of an Italian prisoner of war (An Oscar-nommed J Carrol Naish) versus the spiteful german captive (the suggestion here seems to be that Italian soldiers fighting for the Axis were more victims than complicit partners), and the film gives ample screentime to many of the more tortuous effects of being stuck in the desert without water.

[What A Disgrace]

I was about ready to brush off the whole lot of this announcement, but this one does sound like a genuinely great movie. I'll bite.

[Finch]

Me too. Was amused by Bogart's name being bigger even than the film's title in the poster that Nick chose for Indicator's cover.

[MichaelB]

Immediately post-Casablanca, I imagine!

[ryannichols7]

very glad this was one of the Sony titles - I remember it was speculated for the Bogart noir set, but this clearly works just fine as a standalone. those short films are a pretty inspired inclusion, much like the Ford one for Midway. I expect it'll be a fast seller...

[MichaelB]

While some of the noir titles admittedly stretch that definition, Sahara would break it altogether!

It's unambiguously a war movie with no pretensions towards being anything else, and would have stuck out like the sorest of thumbs in the Bogart set.

(Either that or the box would have to have had a different overall title, and the previous Columbia Noir boxes had all sold very well.)

[MichaelB]

Final specs:

[MichaelB]

Sabeavra.

[Tuco]

Growing up in the LA area in the 60s, this seemed to be on TV every couple of months - a fascinating film for a ten-year old kid! I believe it's one of the better examples of a WWII movie made during the war; maybe a bit lighter on the "why we fight" speechifying than most. Excellent action sequences, and of course, lots of dead Nazis. My apologies to any fascists here on the forum (not). Plus we get Bogie and a very good supporting cast. J. Carrol Naish (Irish-American) as Giuseppe was nominated for a best supporting actor academy Award. Soon after, he was a mad Japanese scientist in the first "Batman" serial. Talk about range!

Not surprisingly, another excellent Indicator release.

[MichaelB]

Excellent action sequences, and of course, lots of dead Nazis. My apologies to any fascists here on the forum (not).

Although it's impressively nuanced on the subject of members of the Axis powers, with Giuseppe treated far more sympathetically despite notionally being on the same side as the Nazis - even in 1943 there was a general understanding that the Italians were far less committed to the cause of Fascism than their German counterparts (as the film pretty much spells out in a dialogue exchange).

[MichaelB]

And The Digital Bits' review makes another key point:

How many Hollywood studio movies from the 1940s, for example, can you name that feature a black character who not only is treated as an equal but does the single most heroic act in the picture? Go ahead, I’ll wait.

[MichaelB]

Mondo Digital - and I second the recommendation to watch the short The Siege of Tobruk before the main feature, as it's a very useful getting-up-to-speed primer when it comes to the history of what the Allies were doing in Libya in the first place, something that audiences in 1943 would have been more aware of going in.

[Maltic]

Excellent action sequences, and of course, lots of dead Nazis. My apologies to any fascists here on the forum (not).

Although it's impressively nuanced on the subject of members of the Axis powers, with Giuseppe treated far more sympathetically despite notionally being on the same side as the Nazis - even in 1943 there was a general understanding that the Italians were far less committed to the cause of Fascism than their German counterparts (as the film pretty much spells out in a dialogue exchange).

Cf. the bel canto general in Five Graves to Cairo (1943), humiliated and ignored by Rommel.

[domino harvey]

J. Carrol Naish (Irish-American) as Giuseppe was nominated for a best supporting actor academy Award. Soon after, he was a mad Japanese scientist in the first "Batman" serial. Talk about range!

Naish was well-known for playing other ethnicities. I've seen a lot of his films and for me his best role was as a Mexican in A Medal for Benny, for which he was again nominated for an Oscar (and won the Golden Globe). That film is one of the most interesting wartime efforts to come out of Hollywood and it illustrated how the studios truly managed to reach every conceivable audience