Escape in the Desert is a thinly disguised remake of The Petrified Forest (1936), updated with a WW II angle. Cynical Dutch pilot Philip Artveld (Philip Dorn) pays a visit to the American desert before being shipped off to the Front. He wanders into a lonely inn, where he befriends starry-eyed watiress Jane (Jean Sullivan). Before long, Philip, Jane, and several other innocent bystanders find themselves being held captive by a group of escaped German POWS, led by Captain Becker (Helmut Dantine). The existentialist philosophy of the original Robert E. Sherwood play is replaced with a great deal of Nazified prattle and All-American flagwaving, with misplaced moments of comedy relief from Alan Hale and Irene Manning. While Petrified Forest is regarded as a classic, Escape in the Desert is generally dismissed as a contrived propaganda piece.
by Hal Erickson
synopsis
- Hostage Situations
- Military
- MIA (Missing In Action)
- Jail
- Motel
- Lock-up
- Nazism
- Responsibility
- Yankee [Northerner]
- Propaganda
- Prison
- Pacific
- Hitchhiking
- Hitchhiker
- Brig