"The Desert Fox" (1951) I judge to be a dignified, highly-intelligent and thoroughly absorbing account of the last days of Erwin Rommell . He was of the officer class of Germany who with extreme care divorced themselves from "politics". Their job, as Rommell, in the person of James Mason in the film states, they considered to be to fight for their country. The film is in fact as much about his battle with his own perception of the Hitler gang and their interferences in his conscience, his command and his freedom to do his assigned tasks as it is about his soldiership. Producer Nunnally Johnson's brilliant dramatic script, based upon Desmond Young's investigation of Rommel's death performed only a few years after WWII, is narrated by Michael Rennie, as Young. For a recent critic to quibble at celebrating Rommel's humanity after the recent attempts by politicians to sell the idea of "executive infallibility" would have to rank as a treasonable opinion or worse. As this mostly-accurate film proceeds, we become aware that Rommel should have done more and done it sooner to try to save the wartime situation for his soldiers and for all Germans; but that is hindsight. What we are given is the rare opportunity to live this bright man's gradual disillusionment with the old maxims of warfare and political leadership, as we learn the truth along with a man who eventually dies for his errors both of omission and of brave commission. Solid veteran director Henry Hathaway keeps events moving with vigor and extreme clarity from the riveting opening raid scene on Rommel's headquarters (it should have happened that way) to the unforgettable final scene as the General is taken away by Hitler's emissaries. The brilliant music for the film by Daniele Amfitheatrof and the cinematography by Norbert Brodine in B/W are both far-above-average. Set decorations supplied by Thomas Little and Stuart Reiss add a great deal to the story's atmosphere as well. Art directors Lyle Wheeler and Maurice Ransford and editor James B. Clark are to be commended for matching WWII footage with original shots with uncommon skill. But this is an actors' movie, I claim; and it is the cast who brings this sobering and powerful tale to life. The center of the film is James Mason as Rommel; here this sensitive actor delivers one of his best early performances, certainly Oscar caliber. As Von Runstedt, his enemy and later his friend, Leo G. Carroll is unquestionable and riveting, as always. Richard Boone as Mason's subaltern, Jessica Tandy as his wife, and stalwarts such as George Macready, Paul Cavanagh, John Hoyt, Everett Sloane, Luther Adler (playing Hitler), Eduard Franz, Cedric Hardwicke and Michael Rennie are all more-than-adequate or better by my exacting standards. Several scenes may be true standouts--Hardwicke and Mason's second scene arguing the case for removing the Fuhrer, Carroll's two scenes with Mason enlarging on the enormous cost of the mistakes being made by Berlin's amateurs that has already lost the Reich two armies, and the early scene in the Desert when Rommel refuses to lose his entire army to a "victory or death--no retreat" order are among the best by my lights. The movie humanizes Rommel, but also gives evidence of his hesitation, his overly- loyal service to a monstrous regime and the web of danger he finally sees being spun about him. This is a moving, and I find, an extraordinarily-memorable film; the action scenes under director Hathaway and assistant director Gerd Oswald are brilliantly done. In any era, a literate and compelling script that shows the cost to a great man of adherence to the cult of the infallible leader--explicitly religious or clandestinely so as here--carries forward a message of eternal importance in the unending struggle between the advocates of the individual and the advocates of the collective. This is by my lights as writer, actor and philosopher, a great film. It stands head and shoulders in my estimation above almost every other film of its fictionalized biography genre relating to war.