PodBill Just what I expected

Bereamic Awesome Movie

Juana what a terribly boring film. I'm sorry but this is absolutely not deserving of best picture and will be forgotten quickly. Entertaining and engaging cinema? No. Nothing performances with flat faces and mistaking silence for subtlety.

Kayden This is a dark and sometimes deeply uncomfortable drama

gavin6942 A man (Burt Lancaster) abused by a sadistic mining company cop (Paul Henreid) before he could tell where on their desert property he had found diamonds decides to steal them instead.Glenn Erickson reflected on the background of the film and how it was received when first released, "Although William Dieterle's direction is capable, the script works too hard to introduce an overly familiar collection of stock thriller types ... Critics generally liked Lancaster's performance, even if they slighted the work of Claude Rains and Peter Lorre and saved the bulk of their praise for Paul Henried's nasty villain." Indeed, those who watch the film for Lorre may be disappointed on little screen time he receives.Reflecting decades later, Burt Lancaster singled this out as his least favorite film. That was due to personal reasons, however, so may not necessarily reflect whether this was (in his opinion) his worst performance.

gordonl56 Rope of Sand – 1949 I watched this one last night for the first time in more than twenty years. The last time I was not really "noir aware" so I took the whole thing as a lightweight action adventure. Boy was I wrong! This is a very dark noir with plenty of top noir talent involved. The film's location is a small town in the South African desert. The town is on the edge of a vast diamond country and is ran by the local diamond cartel. Lancaster plays a man with a problem. The problem? He knows where a small cache of diamonds are hidden. They are however inside the cartel's territory and the security tends to shoot first and see who they shot later. A further complication for Lancaster is that the head of the security forces, Paul Henreid, would like a "friendly word" or two. Henreid it seems knows about the diamonds and wants them for himself. Claude Rains plays Henreid's superior who is also in the running for the diamonds. Corinne Calvet plays a tart who makes a living by preying on wealthy men. She stages phony rapes and then blackmails the men for a healthy sum. She tries the gag on Rains who brushes her off but hires her to put the moves on Lancaster. We also have Peter Lorre wandering through doing a take on his Casablanca role. Here he is attempting to buy diamonds instead of selling letters of transit. Everyone seems in on the secret and they are all doing their best to apply a knife to someone else's back. Rains and Henreid really shine here with Henreid in particular standing out. The man makes a first rate villain! Calvet is OK but Liz Scott would have been perfect imo. The standard noir urban surroundings are discarded and replaced by the bleakness of the empty desert. This works quite well in giving the film a real sense of hopelessness.The impressive cast includes Burt Lancaster, Paul Henried, Claude Rains, Sam Jaffe, Nestor Paiva , Mike Mazurki, Peter Lorre and Corinne Calvet . The film was directed by William Dieterle who did such films as The Turning Point, Dark City and The Accused. Producing the film was Hal B. Wallis whose noirs are too many to list. The director of photography was Charles Lang Jr. Lang shot Desert Fury, Sudden Fear, The Big Heat, Man From Laramie, Female on the Beach and Ace in the Hole. Music is by Franz Waxman who scored Sunset Blvd, Rear Window, Dark Passage and He Ran all the Way among others. For a film with all this talent involved it does not get much press. I quite enjoyed it!

mb014f2908 This film is hard to find, but i finally got hold of a decent copy off ebay.co.uk recorded off a satellite channel. I'm glad i finally got to see it, it was very entertaining with numerous plot twists. The quartet of Lancaster, Rains, Henreid and Lorre make great viewing as they try and scene steal off each other at every turn. Claude Rains is smooth, silky and delightfully devious; Lancaster hulks, sulks and looms superbly. There is no discernible chemistry between Lancaster and the 'new' (well to US audiences) Corinne Calvert; which weakens their characters' motivation somewhat. Lancaster seems more in love with himself though, so tough competition for Corinne there. Calvert does a creditable turn here, ( though her French accent can be a little opaque), but she is outclassed easily by the men- Rains wipes the floor with her but she is stunning and exotic enough. Though her final clinch with Lancaster on the ship as they leave the desert hellhole that they've been inhabiting for the last hour and a half, is incredibly drippy and Lancaster looks as if he'd like shot of her big time. But that's the dialogue for you. Henreid is suitably nasty and sadistic and you can almost smell the sweat and feel the heat- so there is much to recommend in Rope of Sand.

Mel11 I'm glad that I am not the only one who intensely dislikes Corrine Calvet in this movie. ;-) Unfortunately I have never seen the original English version. I only know the German dubbed one. But I doubt that Mrs. Calvet's voice could be any worse then her German voice which is absolutely terrible.I really like this movie but as Anne Sharp already wrote Mrs. Calvet makes it difficult to enjoy.Also I noticed two few mistakes:1. In the beginning sequence you see a large "warning" sign in three languages, Dutch, English and German. The German translation should have obviously been "Warnung, Sperrgebiet!" but on the sign it says "Sperroit".2. When Davis wakes up and finds that Ingrim has gone the horse you see is clearly a different one then the one he rides on in the next scene.