Name: The Black Tent
Genre: Romance, Drama, Action
Released: 1956-04-09
Duration: 93 min
Rating: 6.4
Cast: Donald Sinden, Anthony Steel, Anna Maria Sandri, André Morell, Donald Pleasence

The Black Tent

During the British retreat through Libya, a British officer takes shelter with a group of Arab Bedouin. He marries the chief's daughter. Sometime later, his younger brother, who had believed him to be dead, is informed that he may be alive in Libya - prompting him to set out and search for him.

RomanceDramaAction

DirectorBrian Desmond Hurst

WritersBryan Forbes, Robin Maugham

StatusReleased

LanguageEnglish

Release DateApril 9, 1956

Runtime1h 33m

John Chard

@John Chard

March 9, 20155/10

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? 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. 5/10