The Black Tent
Tags: romantic

Plot synopsis:
The film begins with a tank battle where blonde-haired Captain Holland (Anthony Steel) is sprawled unconscious beside his tank on the sand. When he comes to, he walks over the dunes until collapsing near a Bedouin encampment at an oasis. He is found by the sheik's daughter, Mabrouka (Anna Maria Sandri), who takes him to the camp which consists of several black tents.
The film skips forward to a point after the war when Captain Holland's brother, Colonel Sir Charles Holland (Donald Sinden), is guided into the desert by Ali (Donald Pleasence) in search of his brother. They were drawn by a promissory note that had been given by Captain Holland to the Bedouin for their help and eventually taken to the British embassy for payment. Sir Charles sets off to discover the fate of his brother and eventually reaches the Bedouin camp. He is entertained by the camp's chief, Sheik Salem ben Yussef (André Morrel) and sees a young blonde boy in the camp. Later, the Sheik becomes angry at Sir Charles's line of questioning about his brother, the boy, and note and asks them to leave. Before they leave, Mabrouka gives Ali a sock containing Captain Holland's diary which he gives Sir Charles. The film skips back in time to recount the story within the diary.
Captain Holland, having been tended by Mabrouka, recovers. He learns that Mabrouka is the sheik's daughter and is betrothed to Sheik Faris (Michael Craig) from another tribe. When a German reconnaissance vehicle arrives at the camp, Captain Holland hides in some Roman ruins. The senior German officer then finds Holland's service revolver in a tent.
Mabrouka and Captain Holland become romantically involved to the obvious annoyance of Sheik Faris. He colludes with the Germans who return to the ruins where Holland and Sheik Yussef kills them and Faris. The romance between Captain Holland and Mabrouka deepens and they marry.
Learning of the British victory at El Alamein, Captain Holland seeks to return to the British lines but finds that his wife is pregnant. A group led by the Sheik and Captain Holland travel toward the British lines but came across a column of retreating Italian vehicles. Captain Holland sustains a fatal injury rescuing the Sheik.
The film returns to the present day with the Sheik handing Sir Charles a letter with his brother's will bequeathing his estate to his son. Sir Charles discusses this with his nephew but the boy decides to remain with the tribe and burns the letter.

Review: An interesting idea, though its execution is a bit slow and dull..
"The Black Tent" begins with a man in Britain being told that his brother, the heir to the family fortune, MIGHT still be alive in North Africa--over a decade after he was assumed to have died fighting in WWII.
However, when he tracks down the Bedoins who sheltered and healed him during the war, they deny having any other knowledge of him.
After he leaves, however, he finds his brother's diary--someone had stuck it in his belongings in order to let him know the truth.
Most of what follows is a flashback--flashbacks where you learn that the brother was like a son to the Chief and that he even eventually married the man's daughter!
But the story goes beyond that--he even organized the locals into a small guerrilla army which attacked Axis troops!
See the film.By far the best thing about this movie is the location shooting.
The amazing ruins at Sabratha, Libya serve as a backdrop as is the nearby desert.
However beautiful this is, however, the story itself isn't that captivating.
Now it isn't because the idea is bad--it's not.
But he execution seemed very plodding and flat.
The writing could have been better and the actors a bit more charismatic.
Still, a watchable adventure tale that is reasonably watchable..
Lawrence of Libya, or love among the ruins between Tobruk and El Alamein.
Brian Desmond Hurst made many great films but was not much of a director.
He often took care of immensely great and interesting stories with great action and fascinating intrigue and had a knack for getting outstanding music to them as well, but his films are annoyingly impersonal, as if he didn't care about the actors but just focused on getting it all done and the story told.
This is one of those films, typical of him, telling a great story, featuring characters of considerable interest, but coming out with only a very conventional and almost expressionless product.
He just couldn't dramatize.There are many other assets to this film, though, like the photography with the epic and extremely romantic environment, the most romantic scenes taking place in the ruins of an ancient amphitheatre, the most spectacular part of the film, and dwelling long on a very comprehensive Libyan wedding among the bedouins.
We don't have many films from Libya, this is from long before the days of Khadaffi and Isis and all that jazz, and what you are shown is a paradise among the bedouins in the shadow of the dramatic turnings of the second world war by Tobruk and El Alamein.What especially lifts this film is the splendid music by William Alwyn adding another dimension of colours to the already resplendently colourful film, enhancing especially the romantic scenes with that extra touch which the actors and dialogue are not able to provide.The script is by Bryan Forbes together with the author of the novel, Robin Maugham, and there is nothing wrong with the script, the saga being so humanly interesting as it is, but such a tale could have been made so much more of.
It's the stuff of Lawrence of Arabia, Rudolf Valentino's sheiks and even of Charlton Heston's Moses in the desert.Of course you come to think of Hurst's other films, like "Dangerous Moonlight" (with the Warsaw Concerto), "Simba" (of Mau-Mau in Kenya), the Malta Story with Alec Guinness, Hungry Hill and The Lion has Wings, and they all suffer from the same thing: great stories, but crippled by lack of flesh to the bones, as if the director thought the actors were of secondary importance to the epic.Nevertheless, it's definitely worth giving a chance, for its exotic settings, its great story (with a surprisingly apt end), its splendidly coloured desert environments, its romance among the ruins, and its very vivid music, the most alive part of the film..
Great scenery, terrible plot.
Even as a fan of Donald Sinden, this is only an OK offering.
The most enjoyable part has to be the amazing locations, set in Libya.
The original story was obviously a long novel that was a real struggle to compress into a script.
Well it's more multi-coloured than black..
But I'm just being facetious!
Brian Desmond Hurst directs, Anthony Steel and André Morell star, Bryan Forbes and Robin Maugham write, William Alwyn scores the music and Desmond Dickinson photographs in VistaVision Technicolor.It looks lovely, the Libya locations amazing, yet it's a dull and uneventful movie.
Story concerns Capt.
David Holland (Steel), who during WWII in the North African campaign gets injured and winds up being nursed by some Bedouin natives.
He promptly becomes part of the crowd, falls in love with the Sheik's daughter and instigates a repel the Nazis front with the natives.
But what happened next?
But what happened next?
Holland's brother, Col. Sir Charles (Donald Sinden), travels to Libya to find out.What he finds is obviously what we find out, that there's an inter racial romance at the heart of the story, some mistrust, loyalties born, a small scale battle and a double edged sword of a finale.
It's all very contrived and mismatched, while some of the acting comes dangerously close to being parody supreme.
Not good really and the tech guys deserve a better movie, and so do we.
Oh well, if nothing else it obviously inspired Lawrence of Arabia.
Hee hee hee.
The Mystery Is How They Could String It Out For Two Hours.
This film can be summed up as follows: sumptuous photography; turgid plot; wooden acting.The mystery is how they could string it out for two hours.
The story is that there isn't a story - it's just a travelogue across the Libyan desert.
Michael Craig, who was hot property in British cinema back then, is a blacked-up Arab sheik and has no lines that I can remember.
Blink and you miss him.
I just couldn't work out what Anthony Steele would see in the love interest.
Donald Sinden looks as though he has the mood of someone who has got out of bed the wrong side every morning of the shoot.The only thing that must have stopped this from bombing at the box office was the novelty for the cinema-going public in grey, smog-ridden 1950s Britain of seeing 'real', 'desert' sand in colour, something they could have done on the sea front at Clacton or Bournemouth..
Mildly entertaining, visually splendid, but it could have been much better..
"The Black Tent" was made several years before "Lawrence Of Arabia." Had it been made ten years later, it would have been accused of plagiarism.
Instead it can be said in some respects to anticipate "Lawrence of Arabia".After The Second World War, the heir to an extensive British country estate complete with enormous house and agricultural land travels to Libya to learn what happened to his brother.
With one Arab to guide him, he journeys by camel across the vast deserts to talk with a tribal chief - as also happened in "Lawrence".
After various delays, he is given his brother's diary and learns the truth.
During the war, his brother had become detached from his regiment and had been the sole Briton amongst Arabs - as was the case in "Lawrence Of Arabia" He had led Arab fighters in ambushes on enemy patrols - as also happened in "Lawrence Of Arabia".
The brother had married the daughter of the tribal chief, and eventually had been killed in action against German soldiers.
Again like "Lawrence Of Arabia" the cinematography - here in VistaVision and Technicolor - shows the vastness of the desert and makes it strangely beautiful.Unlike "Lawrence Of Arabia" "The Black Tent" had a journeyman director, and was made with little attention to detail or realism.
All the Arabs speak English fluently and with Received Pronunciation!
Even more ludicrously, the younger brother travels across the desert by camel wearing a suit and tie and city shoes!
He does not even break into a sweat!
More seriously, there is no tension in the movie.
The action sequences are unimaginatively staged, and scenes where suspense should be agonising - such as when Germans enter the Arab camp and discover the British soldier's gun or when German soldiers visit an ancient ruin and take photographs of themselves within a few yards of the fugitive British soldier - are entirely free of tension."The Black Tent" is mildly entertaining and is certainly visually splendid, but it could and should have been much better..
A competent if unspectacular war movie.
Comparisons have been made between this film and Lawrence of Arabia; a rather unfair comparison in my view.
Lawrence of Arabia is based on the actual life and exploits of T.
E. Lawrence, set in the First World War. This is a war film in the mould of Tobruk, set in WWII, where it does fall down is in the long drawn out romance scenes which are something of a distraction.
The script rather reflects the attitudes of the time, and you do have to suspend disbelief a few times, especially as Donald Sinden's character crosses the desert by camel dressed in city clothes, yet remains immaculate throughout.
The nomads all speak perfect English, they can even rustle up a German interpreter when needed, yet have remained entirely unaffected by the outside world.
There really isn't much plot to speak of, yet the cinematography lends the story some distinction.
Average and inoffensive..
An Arabian Nights interval during World War II.
A whole lot of good British actors who've seen and done better in their careers were wasted in this potboiler of a World War II movie with an Arabian Nights interval.
The Black Tent tells the story of Donald Sinden going into the desert to find what happened to his brother Anthony Steel who is missing in action.
What a time Steel had as Sinden learns when he's given the diary that Steel kept.
He was in a firefight with some of Rommel's troops and was the only survivor.
Steel manages to make his way to Sheik Andre Morrell's camp at an oasis near a Roman ruin and their has a little romantic interlude with his daughter Anna-Maria Sandri.
Some of Rommel's stragglers make their way to the sheik's camp, but they're dealt with.During all this time while Steel's having a little R&R the Axis take Tobruk, but then the Eighth Army beats them at El Alamein and puts them in full retreat.
When that happens Steel pulls a Lawrence Of Arabia and leads the sheik's men in an ambush on some of Rommel's troops.
Wouldn't want anyone to think he was on extended furlough would we?
Sadly Steel is killed, but Sinden discovers that he's got himself a juvenile nephew now.
He offers young Terence Sharkey a choice, come back to the United Kingdom for a life as a gentleman or stay in Grandpa's tent.
What do you think he chooses?I guess my review is in the form of this jocular synopsis of this very bad movie.
Even Donald Pleasance as Sinden's desert guide is wasted here.
Pleasance and all the rest of the cast just look downright embarrassed.
They summon up all the enthusiasm of someone awaiting a proctologist..
A bit turgid.
THE BLACK TENT is a British wartime drama told in flashback for the most part.
It's a slow-moving production that unfortunately focuses on romantic material for way too much of the running time, making what plays out quite the bore.
It's a pity, because there are elements of interest in the narrative here, and at times it does get quite moving.
The colour photography looks great; the supporting cast has many interesting faces including Andre Morell and Donald Pleasence, mostly playing Arab characters, bizarrely enough.