Don't listen to the negative reviews

The performances transcend the film's tropes, grounding it in characters that feel more complete than this subgenre often produces.

Wow! What a bizarre film! Unfortunately the few funny moments there were were quite overshadowed by it's completely weird and random vibe throughout.

The acting in this movie is really good.

Associated British Picture Corporation went to Libya in 1958 to film most of this World War II drama. It filmed the movie in the region and terrain in which the story takes place. "Ice Cold in Alex" is based on a true story from a 1957 novel of the same name by British author Christopher Landon. He also wrote the screenplay for the film. Landon studied medicine at Cambridge University. During WWII, he served in North Africa in the 51st Field Ambulance of the Royal Army Medical Corps. He was a major at the end of the war, and began writing novels soon after. He was only 50 years old when he died in 1961 from accidental alcohol and barbiturate poisoning in London. This film has a small but fantastic cast. Four main characters are together throughout almost the entire film. John Mills, Harry Andrews, Sylvia Syms, and Anthony Quayle give superb performances. Probably no setting is more difficult to write a story about than the desert, to hold the attention and interest of an audience. That may be why so few desert films have been made, including films of the war in North Africa. The North Africa Campaign lasted almost three years (June 1940 – May 1943), a full year longer than the European Campaign (July 1943 – May 1945) that ended the war. The few very good desert war films that were made all have had unusual or very interesting plots that have been able to hold the interest of viewers. This film is exceptional in that regard as well. Not only is there considerable intrigue in the plot, but this film, more than any other I can think of, shows the human toil and travail of the desert war experience. All of the cast contribute to this image, and John Mills' role as Captain Anson, is worthy of an Academy Award. The movie didn't receive any Oscar nominations but it did receive three BAFTA nominations. Anthony Quayle was nominated for Best British Actor. The film's omission from the Academy Awards may have been due to its late release date in the U.S. It debuted in London on June 24, 1958, but didn't hit screens in the States until March 22, 1961. And that was a heavily edited version (54 minutes shorter) and billed under the title, "Desert Attack."This is one of the best World War II films ever made, and one of just a few superb movies about the war in North Africa. It is a must for any serious war film library.

Ice Cold in Alex is a really bothering, really engrossing character drama set amidst the backdrop of the sweltering deserts of North Africa during World War Two. Few films that I've seen have been able to project the intense frustration; desperation and sheer exasperation of a scenario as wrapped up in danger, humidity and tension as well as J. Lee Thompson's 1958 wartime drama does here. Here is the film wherein fully grown men can spend the majority of a long filmic runtime shirtless, yet purvey the film's integral notions of masculinity and such through leadership; teamwork and responsibility. The film, a far cry from modern standards to this extent, is never episodic nor does it ever have a tendency to drag in spite of its premise; a film that decides against utilising the nearby presence of a Nazi force as a meagre reason for antagonism; instead, relies on the distrust, animosity and character flaws inherent in the group we're following to propel the drama as well as any sort of conflict in so much each are the foils of one another.We begin in a manner already tried and tested in relation to how explorative wartime dramas can kick off; in that as with "Casablanca", we zoom in on a map of the very place the film will transpire over the next few hours: North Africa, and a North Africa buckling under the strain of conflict. The film depicts a handful of people occupying an ambulance just about large enough to carry our central characters; three men, two of whom are from two varied parts of England and a third who's South African, accompany two women, in what is broadly speaking a group of core characters designed to epitomise the conjoined war effort from both genders; all parts of Britain and its Commonwealth. Their goal is to make it to Egypt, an apparent safe haven away from the immediate wartime frontline.The war is savaging the British outposts here in the likes of Torbruk, and a camp is on the way to being destroyed thus is being evacuated by British forces. Two such people on the way out are skilled Army Mechanic Tom Pugh (Andrews) and a character more suggestive of a lead in Captain Anson (Mills), the latter of whom has a drinking problem born out of the fact he once escaped a P.O.W. camp and nearly died of thirst in the desert on the trek back. This unhappy event from prior in his life is something he drowns with the being able to swig the odd item of liquor any-which time he can. Pugh wants this addiction quashed, and the film will go to wonderful lengths to depict Anson's battle with alcoholism as the adventure comes to aid in his tackling of it. The arc is epitomised in the later line "Worth waiting for...", when the character accepts there is a time and a place for an alcoholic beverage and that it shouldn't be used as a means to kill pain nor to escape responsibility.Adding extra dramatic weight to proceedings is that aforementioned South African, an Afrikaans soldier and a Captain named Van der Poel (Quayle); a man with what appear to be good intentions and a healthy work ethic, but a character whose immediate introduction, as he towers over our Anson from the elevated position of a rock, never struck us as a particularly level-headed way to introduce him. True enough, impeccably timed later revelations add an extra dynamic to the already gripping action and veer the film down avenues all the more rewarding. Said revelation, aside from its immaculate timing in a story telling sense, is constructed with a genuine sense of cinematic thought, as Thompson captures the event through a lighting dynamic of bright meshed together with pitch black as true allegiances are revealed and exposés are made bare through a literal action of shedding light on something.Screenwriter T.J. Morrison does so well with the premise to the scenario; a singular line journey, a "road movie" if you will wherein the "road" is little but a dusty, sandy track ill-suited to motor vehicles, that he manages to keep the film from ever feeling episodic as the next barrier rears up and the next obstacle must be hurdled. The characterisation is tight, the structure of the animal rigid and the approach dogged. The director ekes out such an atmosphere born out of the conditions and ramifications everyone finds himself in, that it's hard not to be gripped the entire time.

Ice Cold In Alex could never have been made during World War II at the time of the actual fighting. Though it benefits from location shooting in Libya where the action actually took place during the desert war.The time is after the second fall of Tobruk as the British are fleeing from the Libyan desert to regroup along the El Alamein line that General Auchinleck had staked out. John Mills is a captain with a drinking problem and he's in charge of a party of four driving an ambulance out which consists of RSM Harry Andrews and British nurses Sylvia Sims and Diane Clare. Along the way they pick up Anthony Quayle who is South African. He proves to be of invaluable assistance in getting through German lines twice and in other ways. But Quayle has a mission all his own.Coming in on the side of the Allies was a matter of considerable debate in the Union Of South Africa. Jan Christian Smuts carried the day for the Allies, but the opposition party which later imposed the apartheid policies were pro-Axis. They won the post war South African elections and held power until Nelson Mandela took over. The desert turns out to be the real enemy for this little band and they all pull together. One of the company does not make it to the end.In a way that Erwin Rommel would have liked, the Afrika Korps is not portrayed as inhuman monsters by any means. Interestingly enough in the same year Ice Cold In Alex came out, The Young Lions had a German officer machine-gunning helpless British stragglers just like this party is. Maximilian Schell was the Nazi who did the deed in that film and both of these films rank as among my favorite war films ever.The title refers to a cold beer that Mills is determined to have at a favorite bar of his in Alexandria. Ice Cold In Alex has some flawless performances by the entire cast, the desert travelers mesh very well as an ensemble group. The film ranks among the best work that all of the principal players ever did. And the filming in the actual location in Libya was able to blend some black and white newsreel footage in to the story without a seam showing.I saw this film when it first came out in theater in 1958. I was impressed with it then and even more so now.

A group of medics become isolated in the North African desert when travelling to Alexandria to escape a siege. They pick up a South African soldier, and along with this enigmatic man they navigate the hostile terrain…This is a good war drama. The group have to contend with various dangers – the hostile environment, the Germans and an enemy within. The latter is posed by the South African whom they soon discover is a spy for the enemy. This provides dramatic tension as well as asking questions of the group. How do they deal with this spy? He may be an enemy agent but he has shown bravery and tenacity that they required in order to survive their dangerous adventure. So the theme of loyalty is an important one.Despite the war theme, there is very little action to speak of here. The confrontations with the enemy are more tense stand-offs. And the other exciting moments are based around navigating the dangerous terrain, such as the mine-field scene. The small cast are good, with John Mills playing an alcoholic officer; his affliction puts him in some compromising positions that he is forced to deal with, as well as being relevant to the title of the film.Ice Cold In Alex is a small-scale and character-driven war film. It's an adventure-drama as opposed to an action film. So if you prefer your war movies adrenaline-fuelled affairs this may not be the answer for you but if you like these flicks to pose some interesting moral dilemmas then this film should fit the bill.