Editing Ice Cold in Alex

{{Short description|1958 British war film}}
{{Use dmy dates|date=August 2024}}
{{Infobox film
| name           = Ice Cold in Alex
| image          = Ice Cold in Alex poster.jpg
| caption        = British film poster
| director       = [[J. Lee Thompson]]
| producer       = W. A. Whittaker
| based_on       = {{based on|''Ice Cold in Alex''<br/>1957 novel|[[Christopher Landon (screenwriter)|Christopher Landon]]}}<ref name=Landon>{{cite book |last=Landon |first=Christoper Guy |title=Ice Cold in Alex |publisher=William Heinemann |location=London |date=1957 |oclc=561816348 }}</ref>
| screenplay     = Christopher Landon<br/>T. J. Morrison
| starring       = [[John Mills]]<br />[[Sylvia Syms]]<br />[[Anthony Quayle]]<br />[[Harry Andrews]]
| music          = [[Leighton Lucas]]
| cinematography = [[Gilbert Taylor]]
| editing        = [[Richard Best (film editor)|Richard Best]]
| studio         = [[Associated British Picture Corporation]]
| distributor    = <!-- part of ABPC above. -->Associated British-Pathé {{small|(United Kingdom)}}<br/>[[20th Century Fox]]<br/>{{small|(United States)}}
| released       = {{Film date|1958|06|24|UK|1961|03|22|US|df=y}}
| runtime        = 130 minutes {{small|(uncut)}}<ref>[https://web.archive.org/web/20150524154729/http://www.bbfc.co.uk/releases/ice-cold-alex-1958 BBFC.co.uk: Running times for "Ice Cold in Alex"] Retrieved 24 May 2015</ref><br/>76 minutes {{small|(US 1961 Theatrical Version)}}<ref>{{cite web |url=https://www.imdb.com/title/tt0053935/technical |publisher=IMDb |title=Running times for 'Ice Cold in Alex' |access-date=2019-05-04}}</ref>
| country        = United Kingdom
| language       = English
| budget         = 
}}

'''''Ice Cold in Alex''''' is a 1958 British war film set during the [[Western Desert campaign]] of [[World War II]] based on the novel of the same name by [[Christopher Landon (screenwriter)|Christopher Landon]]. Directed by [[J. Lee Thompson]] and starring [[John Mills]], the film was a prizewinner at the [[8th Berlin International Film Festival]].<ref name=awards>{{cite web|url=https://www.imdb.com/title/tt0053935/awards| publisher=IMDb|title= Awards for 'Ice Cold in Alex'|access-date= 2019-05-04}}</ref> Under the title '''''Desert Attack''''', a shortened 79-minute version of the film was released in the United States in 1961. Film critic Craig Butler later referred to the shortened version as nonsensical.<ref name=Archer>{{cite news |title=Shortened 'Desert Attack' From Britain |first=Eugene |last=Archer |date=23 March 1961 |work=The New York Times |url=https://www.nytimes.com/1961/03/23/archives/shortened-desert-attack-from-britain.html }} This review states the length of ''Desert Attack'' as 64 minutes. Subsequent reviews indicate a length of 79 minutes.</ref><ref>{{cite web |url=https://www.imdb.com/title/tt0053935/releaseinfo |publisher=IMDb |title= Release dates for 'Ice Cold in Alex'|access-date= 30 December 2011}}</ref><ref name=Butler>{{cite web |title=Ice Cold in Alex |publisher=AllMovie |last=Butler |first=Craig |url=https://www.allmovie.com/movie/ice-cold-in-alex-v89153/review }}</ref>

==Plot==
Captain Anson, the officer commanding a British [[Royal Army Service Corps|RASC]] [[Field Ambulance|Motor Ambulance Company]] in [[Tobruk]], is suffering from [[Posttraumatic stress disorder|battle fatigue]] and [[alcoholism]]. Ahead of the [[Axis capture of Tobruk]] by the German [[Afrika Korps]], Anson and most of his unit are ordered to evacuate to [[Alexandria]]. During the evacuation Anson, [[Mechanist Sergeant-Major (British Army)|MSM]] Tom Pugh and two nurses, [[Nursing#Premodern|Sister]] Diana Murdoch and Sister Denise Norton, become separated from the others in an [[Austin K2/Y]] ambulance nicknamed Katy.{{refn|group="Note"|These vehicles were commonly known as Katys or Katies during their wartime service.<ref>{{cite web |last1=Wilkins |first1=Tony |title=Austin K2/Y Heavy Ambulance |url=https://defenceoftherealm.wordpress.com/2016/05/14/austin-k2y-heavy-ambulance/ |website=Defence of the Realm |access-date=11 August 2018 |date=14 May 2016 |archive-date=7 July 2018 |archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20180707202500/https://defenceoftherealm.wordpress.com/2016/05/14/austin-k2y-heavy-ambulance/ |url-status=dead }}</ref>{{self-published inline|date=August 2018}}}} The quartet decide to drive across the desert back to British lines.

As they depart they come across an [[Afrikaner]] [[Union of South Africa|South African]] officer, Captain van der Poel, who carries a large pack, to which he seems very attached. After the South African shows Anson two bottles of gin in his backpack, van der Poel persuades Anson to let him join their drive to the safety of the British lines in Alexandria.

[[File:DesertAttack60-PublicityStill152.jpg|thumb|right|Publicity poster for the North American release of the film. The ambulance, Katy, has become stuck in the sand.]]
En route the group encounters various obstacles, including a [[minefield]], a broken suspension spring - during its replacement van der Poel's great strength saves the group when he supports Katy on his back when the jack collapses - and the dangerous terrain of the [[Qattara Depression]].

Twice the group encounters motorised elements of the advancing [[Afrika Korps]]; in one encounter they are fired on and Norton is fatally wounded. Anson blames himself and his drinking for Norton's death, and vows not to drink any alcohol until he can have an "ice-cold [[lager]] in 'Alex'". Van der Poel, who claims to have learned German while working in [[German South West Africa]], is able to talk the Germans into allowing them to go on their way. The second time, however, the Germans seem reluctant until van der Poel shows them the contents of his backpack.

This pack becomes the focus of suspicion. Pugh, already troubled by van der Poel's lack of knowledge of the [[South African Army]]'s [[Benghazi burner|tea-brewing technique]], follows him when he heads off into the desert with his pack and a spade (supposedly to dig a [[latrine]]). Pugh thinks he sees an antenna. Later, at night, they decide to use the ambulance headlights to see what van der Poel is really up to. He panics, blunders into some [[quicksand]] and submerges his pack, though not before Anson and Murdoch see that it contains a radio set. They drag him to safety. While he recovers, they realise he is probably a German spy but decide not to confront him. During the final leg of the journey Katy must be hand-cranked in reverse up a sand dune [[escarpment]] and van der Poel's strength is again crucial to success.

Continuing their drive, the party discuss their conviction that van der Poel is a spy and decide that they do not want to see him shot. When they reach Alexandria, Anson delivers everyone's papers except van der Poel's to the Military Police check point and (off-screen) reports to the MP's senior officer that "van der Poel" is a German soldier whom they met lost in the desert and has surrendered to them under his [[parole]] (word of honour). Anson secures the MP's agreement to allow the party to enjoy a beer with their ‘captive’ before taking him into custody as a prisoner of war.

The party then make their way to a bar and Anson orders a cold beer, which he consumes with relish. But before they have drunk their first round a [[Royal Military Police|Corps of Military Police]] officer arrives to arrest van der Poel. Anson orders him to wait until the time previously agreed. Having become friends with van der Poel and indebted to him for saving the group's lives, Anson tells him that if he gives his real name he will be treated as a [[prisoner of war]] rather than as a spy (which would mean execution by firing squad).

Van der Poel admits to being ''[[Hauptmann]]'' Otto Lutz, an engineering officer with the [[21st Panzer Division]]. Pugh, noticing that Lutz is still wearing fake South African [[dog tag]]s, rips them off before the police see them. After saying his farewells and concluding that they were "all against the desert, the greater enemy", Lutz is driven away, with a new respect for the British.

== Cast ==
{{Div col}}
* [[John Mills]] as [[Captain (British Army and Royal Marines)|Captain]] Anson
* [[Sylvia Syms]] as [[Nursing#Premodern|Sister]] Diana Murdoch
* [[Anthony Quayle]] as Captain van der Poel/[[Hauptmann]] Otto Lutz
* [[Harry Andrews]] as [[Mechanist Sergeant-Major (British Army)|MSM]] Tom Pugh
* [[Diane Clare]] as Sister Denise Norton
* [[Richard Leech]] as Captain Crosbie
* [[Liam Redmond]] as [[Brigadier]], Deputy Director Medical Services
* [[Allan Cuthbertson]] as the Brigadier's Staff Officer
* [[David Lodge (actor)|David Lodge]] as [[Royal Military Police|CMP]] Captain (tank trap)
* [[Michael Nightingale]] as CMP Captain (checkpoint)
* [[Basil Hoskins]] as CMP Lieutenant (Alexandria)
* [[Walter Gotell]] as 1st German Officer
* [[Frederick Jaeger]] as 2nd German Officer
* [[Richard Marner]] as German Guard
* [[Peter Arne]] as British [[Long Range Desert Group]] officer at oasis
* [[Paul Stassino]] as the barman
{{Div col end}}

==Production==
The film was based on the 1957 novel ''Ice Cold in Alex'' and its serialisation (as ''Escape in the Desert'') in the magazine ''Saturday Evening Post''.<ref name=Landon /> ''The New York Times'' described the book as "an excellent escape story played out in the best Hitchcock manner."<ref>Three Men And a Girl: Three Men And a Girl
By HERBERT MITGANG. ''The New York Times'', 17 February 1957: BR4.</ref>

The screenplay contains multiple key changes from the novel, including making Anson rather than Pugh the protagonist. ABPC bought the rights and assigned T. J. Morison to collaborate on a treatment with Landon under the supervision of Walter Mycroft.<ref>{{cite book |title=British Cinema of the 1950s: The Decline of Deference |first1=Sue |last1=Harper |first2=Vincent |last2=Porter |page=88 |publisher=Oxford University Press |date=2007 |isbn=9780198159353 |oclc=144596062}} Originally published in 2003.</ref>

Richard Todd says he turned down a lead role because he felt the story was far fetched and he was getting tired of military roles.<ref>{{cite book|first=Richard|last=Todd|title=In camera : an autobiography continued|year=1989|publisher=Hutchinson|url=https://archive.org/details/incameraautobiog0000rich/page/188/mode/1up?|page=188}}</ref>

The producers had intended to shoot the location work for ''Ice Cold in Alex'' in Egypt, but they had to switch to Libya because of the [[Suez conflict]].{{citation needed|date=April 2024}}

Filming began 10 September 1957.<ref>{{cite magazine|magazine=Variety|url=https://archive.org/details/variety208-1957-11/page/n13/mode/1up?q=%22ice+cold+in+alex%22|date=November 1957|page=14|title=Hollywood Production Pulse}}</ref>

Sylvia Syms (Sister Murdoch) said in a 2011 interview about the film that conditions during the desert shoot were so difficult it felt like they were actually in the situation the film portrays. She said: "You may find this hard to believe, but there was very little acting. It was horrible. We ''became'' those people ... we ''were'' those people". She said that today people would probably call it [[method acting]], but added: 'We didn't know what Method Acting was, we just called it 'getting on with it'." Syms said that during the scene where the ambulance rolls backwards down the hill narrowly avoiding her, the actors assumed there would be a hawser to stop the vehicle if anything went wrong, but there was not. The actress said she was "pretty sure" Mills, Quayle and Andrews angrily upbraided director J. Lee Thompson for this risky approach. She added: "He liked to push actors a bit". The quicksand sequence was filmed in an ice cold artificial bog in an English studio (some scenes were shot at [[Elstree Studios (Shenley Road)|Elstree]])<ref>{{cite book|last=Warren|first=Patricia|title=British Film Studios: An Illustrated History|location=London|publisher=B. T. Batsford|year=2001|page=73}}</ref> and was "very tough" on Quayle and Mills. Syms said the producers got a good deal out of her for "£30 a week", adding: "But I made a lot more when they turned it into an advert for Carlsberg". She said there are "no false heroics in it" and that she had been told by desert war veterans it is a good picture of soldiers in that theatre of war, adding: "I am proud of it".<ref name=Syms>A 22-minute interview with Sylvia Syms was first published in the 2015 DVD release. See {{cite AV media |title=Ice Cold in Alex |location=United Kingdom |publisher=Studio Canal |date=2015 |medium=Blu-Ray DVD (region B/2) |oclc=988601487}} .<!--original bare URL citation: http://www.studiocanal.co.uk/Film/Details/dff85f52-83f0-4618-9021-9e85016ae885--></ref>

There were a number of British films being shot in Africa around this time, including ''[[No Time to Die (1958 film)|No Time to Die]]'', ''[[Nor the Moon by Night]]'' and ''[[The Black Tent]]''.<ref>BRITAIN'S MOVIE SCENE: J. Arthur Rank Approves Common Market-
By STEPHEN WATTS. ''The New York Times'', 27 October 1957: X7.</ref>

== Music ==
Although some sources claim that music was kept to a minimum, there is in fact a great deal of dramatic underscoring. [[Leighton Lucas]] wrote a stirring [[march (music)|military march]] called "The Road to Alex", which was the main theme, and a "Romance".<ref>{{cite web |url=http://www.rfsoc.org.uk/llucas.shtml |website=The Robert Farnon Society |title=A MUSICAL ALL-ROUNDER: LEIGHTON LUCAS (1903–1982) |author=Scowcroft, Philip L. |url-status=dead |archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20101015043911/http://www.rfsoc.org.uk/llucas.shtml |archive-date=15 October 2010 }}</ref>

==Reception==
===Box office===
The film was one of the twelve most popular at the British box office in 1958 (that list included several other war related movies – ''[[The Bridge on the River Kwai]]'', ''[[The Camp on Blood Island]]'', ''[[Dunkirk (1958 film)|Dunkirk]]'', ''[[The Key (1958 film)|The Key]]'', ''[[Carve Her Name with Pride]]'', ''[[The Wind Cannot Read]]'' – as well as ''[[Carry On Sergeant]]'', ''[[A Cry from the Streets]]'', ''[[Happy Is the Bride]]'' and ''[[Indiscreet (1958 film)|Indiscreet]]''.)<ref>{{cite magazine|magazine=Variety|url=https://archive.org/details/variety214-1959-04/page/n211/mode/1up|title=Britain's Money Pacers 1958|date=15 April 1959|page=60}}</ref><ref>{{cite magazine |url=https://archive.org/details/Screen_Volume_32_Issue_3/page/n17 |magazine=Screen |page=259 |volume=32 |issue=3 |title=The popular cash and culture in the postwar British cinema industry |first=Janet |last=Thumim}}</ref> ''Kinematograph Weekly'' listed it as being "in the money" at the British box office in 1958.<ref>{{cite magazine|magazine=Kinematograph Weekly|date=18 December 1958|first=Josh|last=Billings|page=7|title=Others in the Money}}</ref>

===Awards===
The film was nominated for several awards:<ref name=awards />
* '''Winner''' [[International Federation of Film Critics#FIPRESCI Award|FIPRESCI Award]] at the [[Berlin International Film Festival]]
* '''Nominated''' [[BAFTA Award for Best Film]]
* '''Nominated''' [[BAFTA Award for Outstanding British Film|BAFTA Award for Best British Film]]
* '''Nominated''' [[BAFTA Award for Best Actor in a Leading Role]] ([[Anthony Quayle]])
* '''Nominated''' [[BAFTA Award for Best British Screenplay]] (T. J. Morrison)
* '''Nominated''' Golden Bear [[Berlin International Film Festival]]

===Legacy===
The film is arguably the best known credit for Sylvia Syms.<ref name="filmink">{{cite magazine|magazine=Filmink|first=Stephen|last=Vagg|url=https://www.filmink.com.au/the-surprisingly-saucy-cinema-of-sylvia-syms/|title=The Surprisingly Saucy Cinema of Sylvia Syms|date=22 February 2023|access-date=23 February 2023}}</ref>

==Home media==
A Region B/2 Blu-ray restoration of ''Ice Cold in Alex'' was released in the United Kingdom on 18 February 2018.<ref>{{cite web |first=Svet |last=Atanasov |date=6 March 2018 |title='Ice Cold in Alex' Blu-ray |work=Bluray.com |url=https://www.blu-ray.com/movies/Ice-Cold-in-Alex-Blu-ray/196388/#Review}}</ref> A restored region B/2 version was previously released on 11 September 2011.<ref name=Atanasov11>{{cite web |first=Svet |last=Atanasov |date=25 March 2011 |title='Ice Cold in Alex' Blu-ray |work=Bluray.com |url=https://www.blu-ray.com/movies/Ice-Cold-in-Alex-Blu-ray/21014/#Review |quote=I cannot recommend J. Lee Thompson's Ice Cold in Alex highly enough. It is a very entertaining, beautiful film, which has been recently restored and now released on Blu-ray. ... VERY HIGHLY RECOMMENDED.}}</ref> In March 2020, the film was released on Blu-ray in region A/1 (North America) by Film Movement Classics in a five-film set called ''Their Finest Hour 5 British War Classics''.

==Lager advertisement==
The final scene, in which Mills's character finally gets his glass of lager, was used in the 1980s in beer advertisements on television. The scene was reportedly filmed some weeks after the rest of the film, at Elstree. Real lager had to be used to "look right", and Mills had to drink numerous glasses full until the shots were finished, and was "a little 'heady'" by the end.<ref name=Newark>{{cite book |title=Fifty Great War Films |first=Tim |last=Newark |page=67 |publisher=Bloomsbury Publishing |date=2016 |isbn=9781472820013 |url=https://books.google.com/books?id=wyJHDAAAQBAJ&pg=PA67 }}</ref>

[[Sylvia Syms]] has said that the [[Denmark|Danish]] beer [[Carlsberg Group|Carlsberg]] was chosen because they could never have been seen to be drinking a German lager, since the United Kingdom and Germany were at war during the film. The beer referred to in the original novel is [[Rheingold Beer|Rheingold]], which, despite its German name, is American.<ref name=Syms />

Scenes from the film were used in a late-1980s television advertising campaign for the German [[Holsten]] Pils lager. Each advertisement mixed original footage from a different film (another example was ''[[The Great Escape (film)|The Great Escape]]'', 1963) with new humorous material starring British comedian [[Griff Rhys Jones]] and finishing with the slogan: "A Holsten Pils Production".<ref>{{cite book |title=Film And Television in Education: An Aesthetic Approach to the Moving Image |first=Robert |last=Watson |publisher=Psychology Press |date=1990 |page= 56 |isbn=9781850007159 |url=https://books.google.com/books?id=JkgVjBtwgOkC&pg=PA56}}</ref> In retaliation, rival [[Carlsberg Beer|Carlsberg]] simply lifted the segment in which Mills contemplates the freshly poured lager in the clearly Carlsberg-branded glass, before downing it in one go and declaring, "Worth waiting for!" This was followed by a variation in the usual Carlsberg tagline: "Still probably the best lager in the world."<ref name=Newark />

==Notes==
{{Reflist|group=Note}}

== References ==
{{Reflist}}

==Further reading==
*{{cite web |last=Maltin |first=Leonard |author-link=Leonard Maltin |title=Ice Cold in Alex (1958) |publisher=Turner Classic Movies (TCM) |url=https://www.tcm.com/tcmdb/title/557216/ice-cold-in-alex |quote=Well-handled psychological drama of British ambulance officer, two nurses, and a German soldier brought together in African desert.}} 3 of 4 stars.
*{{cite news |last=Nathan |first=Ian |title=Ice Cold in Alex Review |date=1 January 2011 |magazine=Empire |url=https://www.empireonline.com/movies/ice-cold-alex/review/ |quote=A moving account of a group of strangers surviving the odds brings out one of John Mills' best performances.}} 3 of 5 stars.
*{{cite web |last=Williams |first=Melanie |title=BFI Screenonline: Ice Cold in Alex |url=http://www.screenonline.org.uk/film/id/464914/index.html |date=2014 |access-date=2019-06-17 |publisher=British Film Institute}}<!--Williams is a Reader of Film, Television and Media at the University of East Anglia.-->
*{{cite journal |last=Williams |first=Melanie |title=A Girl Alone in a man's World: ''Ice Cold in Alex'' (1958) and the place of women in the 1950s British war film cycle |journal=Feminist Media Studies |volume=9 |pages=95–108 |date=2009 |doi=10.1080/14680770802619524|s2cid=142658773 }}

== External links ==
* {{IMDb title|id=0053935|title=Ice Cold in Alex}}
*[http://www.screenonline.org.uk/film/id/464914/index.html Ice Cold in Alex] at BFI [[Screenonline]]
*[https://archive.org/details/variety211-1958-07/page/n82/mode/1up?q=%22ice+cold+in+alex%22 Review of film] at Variety
*[https://www.theguardian.com/film/gallery/2011/jun/03/ice-cold-in-alex-gallery-in-pictures Ice Cold in Alex: the shoot in pictures] behind the scenes photo collection
{{J. Lee Thompson}}

{{DEFAULTSORT:Ice Cold in Alex}}
[[Category:1958 films]]
[[Category:1958 war films]]
[[Category:British black-and-white films]]
[[Category:British war films]]
[[Category:British World War II films]]
[[Category:Films directed by J. Lee Thompson]]
[[Category:Films based on British novels]]
[[Category:North African campaign films]]
[[Category:Films set in 1942]]
[[Category:Films set in Libya]]
[[Category:Films set in Alexandria]]
[[Category:Films set in deserts]]
[[Category:Films shot at Associated British Studios]]
[[Category:20th Century Fox films]]
[[Category:Associated British Picture Corporation]]
[[Category:1950s English-language films]]
[[Category:1950s British films]]
[[Category:Films scored by Leighton Lucas]]
[[Category:English-language war films]]