The Desert Fox: The Story of Rommel

The Desert Fox is a 1951 American biographical war film from 20th Century Fox about the role of German Field Marshal Erwin Rommel in World War II. It stars James Mason in the title role, was directed by Henry Hathaway, and was based on the book Rommel: The Desert Fox by Brigadier Desmond Young, who served in the British Indian Army in North Africa.

The Desert Fox
Theatrical poster
Directed by	Henry Hathaway
Screenplay by	Nunnally Johnson
Based on	Rommel: The Desert Fox by Desmond Young
Produced by	Nunnally Johnson
Starring	James Mason Cedric Hardwicke Jessica Tandy Luther Adler Everett Sloane Leo G. Carroll George Macready
Cinematography	Norbert Brodine
Edited by	James B. Clark
Music by	Daniele Amfitheatrof
Color process	Black and white
Production company	20th Century Fox
Distributed by	20th Century Fox
Release date	October 17, 1951 (1951-10-17)
Running time	88 minutes
Country	United States
Language	English
Box office	$2.4 million (US rentals)[1][2]

The movie played a significant role in the creation of the Rommel myth: that Rommel was an apolitical, brilliant commander, opposed Nazi policies and was a victim of the Third Reich because of his participation in the conspiracy to remove Adolf Hitler from power in 1944.^[3]

The black and white format facilitated the use of large sections of actual documentary footage of World War II throughout the film. Finnish president and Field Marshal Carl Gustaf Emil Mannerheim's personal Mercedes-Benz 770, a gift received from Adolf Hitler, was used as a prop car during the film's shooting.^[4]

Plot

In November 1941 a British commando unit raids the headquarters of Field Marshal Erwin Rommel unaware the target of their assassination attempt is recovering from nasal diphtheria in Germany.

A phone call from Adolf Hitler prompts Rommel's return to the Afrika Korps. The British Eighth Army under General Bernard Montgomery is poised to counterattack the Axis forces in the Second Battle of El Alamein. With inadequate resources and combat power, Rommel is ordered by Hitler to hold fast and fight to the last man. He contemptuously attributes the order to the “clowns“ surrounding Hitler, demands it be re-transmitted, and crumples the repeated order, signalling his intention to disobey.

Rommel again falls ill and is returned to Germany. An old family friend, Dr. Karl Strölin, Lord Mayor of Stuttgart, visits him in hospital to request he join a group of dissidents plotting to overthrow Hitler. Rommel strongly resists, and is transferred to Western Europe to oversee completion of the Atlantic Wall, which he realizes will be inadequate to repel an Allied invasion.

When the D-Day landings are successful, Rommel and his superior, Field Marshal Gerd von Rundstedt, are handicapped by Hitler's astrology-based belief that the real invasion will come at Calais. Hitler refuses to release troops and tanks desperately needed in Normandy and again forbids an orderly retreat to set up a strong defense in depth.

Rommel risks broaching the topic of a conspiracy against Hitler with von Rundstedt, who refuses to commit, but wishes Rommel success with the plot. Rommel is seriously injured when his staff car is strafed by an Allied plane and returned home to recuperate. When a bomb explodes at Hitler's feet during a meeting of the general staff at the Wolf's Lair, Hitler survives and thousands suspected of complicity are tracked down and executed. Evidence of Rommel's secret participation is gathered, and General Wilhelm Burgdorf charges Rommel with treason. Rommel, a beloved national hero, is given a choice between conviction, destruction of his reputation, and death by garrote, or suicide. The latter would be attributed in public to war wounds, accompanied by the promise his wife and son would be well looked after.

Rommel bids a stoic farewell to his wife, who promises to explain the choice to their son, then climbs into a staff car to meet his fate.

A voiceover of an actor reciting a speech British Prime Minister Winston Churchill delivered to the House of Commons in praise of Rommel for his chivalry in battle, tactical genius, and courageous stance against Hitler leads to the credits.

Cast

• James Mason as Field Marshal Erwin Johannes Rommel
• Cedric Hardwicke as Dr. Karl Strölin
• Jessica Tandy as Frau Lucie Rommel
• Luther Adler as Adolf Hitler
• Everett Sloane as General Wilhelm Burgdorf
• Leo G. Carroll as Field Marshal Gerd von Rundstedt
• George Macready as General Fritz Bayerlein
• Richard Boone as Captain Hermann Aldinger
• Eduard Franz as Colonel Claus von Stauffenberg
• Desmond Young as Lieutenant Colonel Desmond Young
• Michael Rennie Narrator
• Paul Cavanagh as Lt. Col. Caesar von Hofacker (uncredited)
• John Hoyt as Field Marshal Wilhelm Keitel (uncredited)
• Walter Kingsford as Vice Admiral Friedrich Ruge (uncredited)
• John Goldsworthy as General Carl-Heinrich von Stülpnagel (uncredited)

Production

The film was based on a book by British army officer and North African Campaign veteran Desmond Young (a lieutenant colonel whose life was effectively personally spared by Rommel's insistence on military law being scrupulously adhered to, depicted early in the film) that sold some 175,000 copies in Britain.^[5][6]

In February 1950, even before the book was published, it was announced that Nunnally Johnson of Fox was leading the negotiations to obtain the film rights to the book. Johnson would write and produce and Kirk Douglas was the first star mentioned.^[7][8][9]

Johnson eventually made the film as the first part of his new five-year contract with Fox.^[10] He normally took ten weeks to write a script but said this one took him eight months because it was so complex, and involved many people who were still alive. While writing it he says the British were generally positive (Rommel had a very high reputation in Britain) but there was some controversy in the US about a Hollywood studio making a sympathetic biography about a German general.^[5][11]

Johnson later said, "If Rommel hadn't been involved in the plot against Hitler, this screenplay wouldn't have been written. Circumstances allowed Rommel to be a pretty good fellow because there were no civilians involved in the North Africa campaigns. I have tried to write the script with detachment. There is no effort to solicit sympathy for him, except in the final sequence. There are the circumstances as he says goodbye to his wife and son to go to his death [which] would undoubtedly create sympathy for any man. Rommel was a very limited man intellectually. His problem was a conflict of loyalties. He followed a false god and when he found that out he risked being a traitor."^[12]

In January 1951 Henry Hathaway, who had signed to direct, left to shoot second unit footage in Germany and North Africa. Richard Widmark was being talked about as a possible Rommel.^[13]

In February 1951, James Mason signed to play Rommel.^[14] Mason's career had been on a downward slide since he moved to the US from Britain and he had lobbied Darryl F. Zanuck to play the role and was so keen to do it he agreed to sign a long-term contract with Fox, to make one film a year for seven years.^[15]

The movie was one of the first to use a cold open.^[16]

Reception

The film was very popular in Britain, despite scattered protests (as explained below).^[17]

Role in Rommel myth

Main article: Rommel myth

The movie played a significant role in the Rommel myth, a view that the Field Marshal was an apolitical, brilliant commander. From 1941, it was picked up and disseminated in the West by the British press, as it sought to explain its continued inability to defeat the Axis forces in North Africa.

After the war, the Western Allies, and particularly the British, depicted Rommel as the "good German" and "our friend Rommel". His reputation for conducting a clean war was used for the West German rearmament as well as reconciliation between the former enemies – Britain and the United States on one side and the new Federal Republic on the other.^[18]

They portrayed Rommel sympathetically, as a loyal, humane soldier and a firm opponent of Hitler's policies. The movie plays up Rommel's role in the conspiracy against Hitler^[19] but leaves Rommel's early association with the dictator largely implied. Critical and public reception in the US was muted, but the movie was a success in Britain, along with a less-known 1953 movie, The Desert Rats, in which Mason reprised his portrayal of Rommel.^[20]

The movie proved one of the suitable tools for the reconciliation among the former enemies. British popular knowledge at that time focused on the reconstruction of the fighting in that theatre of war, almost to the exclusion of all others.^{[citation needed]} The Desert Fox helped in creating an image of the German army that would be acceptable to the British public.^[21]

The film received nearly-universally positive reviews in Britain, but protests at the movie theatres broke out in Vienna and Milan. Basil Liddell Hart, who later edited Rommel's wartime writings into the 1953 book The Rommel Papers, watched the movie with other high-ranking British officers, and reported being "pleasantly surprised".^{[clarification needed][22]}