Rating summary

Movie		4.5
Video		4.0
Audio		4.0
Extras		4.0
Overall		4.0

Ice Cold in Alex Blu-ray Movie Review

Reviewed by Dr. Svet Atanasov March 6, 2018

Winner of the International Critics Award at the Berlin International Film Festival, J. Lee Thompson's "Ice Cold in Alex" (1958) arrives on Blu-ray courtesy of StudioCanal. The supplemental features on the disc include vintage trailer for the film; archival interview with Sylvia Syms; New interview with Steve Chibnall; and more. In English, with optional English SDH subtitles for the main feature. Region-B "locked".

Captain Anson

WWII, Libya. The German army has launched a massive attack on the Allied forces and all military personnel in the town of Tobruck are ordered to leave. Captain Anson (John Mills, Great Expectations, Gandhi), a jaded man with a serious drinking problem, and his loyal Sergeant Major Tom Pugh (Harry Andrews, Battle of Britain, Sands of the Kalahari) decide to cross the desert with an old ambulance and join the British army in Alexandria (referred to as "Alex"). They take two nurses (Sylvia Syms, The Queen, and Diane Clare, The Plague of the Zombies) with them who have been left behind.

Along the way they encounter a South African officer, Captain Van der Poel (Anthony Quayle, The Guns of Navarone, Lawrence of Arabia), carrying a large bag and a couple of bottles of gin. After Anson tastes the gin, he is allowed to travel with the group to Alex.

Things get complicated when deep into the desert a German patrol fires at the ambulance and injures one of the nurses. Van der Poel convinces the Germans to let his friends go but shortly after that the truck gets stuck in the sands. While trying to figure a way out, the group also begins to suspect that one of them is an enemy agent.

Adapted by Christopher Landon from his own classic novel and directed by J. Lee Thompson, Ice Cold in Alex is a very entertaining old-fashioned adventure film with a number of effective twists. A few are rather easy to predict, but there are also more than a few that are indeed quite surprising.

The film is formally divided into two parts. In the first, the main characters are introduced and their strengths and weaknesses identified. By the time Van der Poel enters the quicksand, it is clear that the story will not be focused entirely on the dangerous journey but also on important relationships. Later on, two of them dramatically affect the tone of the film. In the second, there are important character transformations.

Shot on location in Libya, the film is gritty, intense and very realistic. One could literally feel the sun beating down in the segment where the men try to push the ambulance up the hill; the exhaustion their faces reveal is undoubtedly real. Elsewhere, there is a terrific long shot of Mills collapsing from the heat next to the truck.

As the story progresses, the "enemy" becomes a non-factor - everyone realizes that unless they help each other they will never be able to get out of the desert alive. This realization, however, does not move the film into soapy melodrama territory; rather, it enhances even more the film’s gritty and realistic atmosphere. The famous finale has one of the most enjoyable bar scenes ever shot.

The acting is excellent. Mills is fantastic as the aging alcoholic who isn’t ready to give up just yet. Quayle is also convincing as the big and strong South African officer. Occasionally, Andrews looks a bit stiff, and his lines are the weakest ones in the film, but he is nevertheless enjoyable to watch. Syms looks absolutely beautiful.

* In the United States, Ice Cold in Alex was cut by its distributor to 79 minutes and released as Desert Attack. The Blu-ray disc herein reviewed, courtesy of Optimum Home Entertainment, contains the film’s original British theatrical version, running at approximately 130 minutes.

Ice Cold in Alex Blu-ray Movie, Video Quality 

Presented in an aspect ratio of 1.67:1, encoded with MPEG-4 AVC and granted a 1080p transfer, J. Lee Thompson's Ice Cold in Alex arrives on Blu-ray courtesy of StudioCanal.

I was very pleased with the original release of this excellent war film that Optimum Home Entertainment produced in 2011. I still have it in my library, and even today I think that it looks terrific. This brand new release from StudioCanal, which celebrates the film's 60th anniversary, is apparently sourced from a new digital restoration, but I don't have any technical credits to share in our review. However, I have just viewed it, and to be honest, I have some mixed feelings about it. Here's why:

There are segments of the film where it appears that density is slightly better. However, there is also footage that actually looks softer, and from what I could tell the manner in which the disc is encoded most definitely contributes to the unevenness. During some of the daylight footage from the Libyan desert there are obvious compression artifacts that pop up in the sky, and the larger your screen is, the easier it will be for you to see them. So, this makes it extremely difficult to specify precisely what native advantages the new transfer has because there is plenty that looks superior on the older release strictly because it is encoded better. I have to speculate that if the encoding on the new release was optimized as best as possible there would have been an overall meaningful improvement in terms of density and fluidity, but at the moment I would pick the older release as having the superior technical presentation of the film. (Note: This is a Region-B "locked" Blu-ray release. Therefore, you must have a native Region-B or Region-Free player in order to access its content).

Ice Cold in Alex Blu-ray Movie, Audio Quality 

The back cover of the release indicates that the disc should have an English DTS-HD Master Audio 2.0 (Dual Mono), but my disc has an English LPCM 2.0 track. Optional English SDH subtitles are provided for the main feature.

The audio is clean, stable, and free of conventional age-related anomalies. So overall it has a strong organic quality. However, from time to time it is a bit thin for my taste, though it is very possible that his might be a limitation of the original sound design.

Ice Cold in Alex Blu-ray Movie, Special Features and Extras 

• Old Trailer - vintage trailer for Ice Cold in Alex. In English, not subtitled. (4 min).

• John Mills' Home Movie Footage - John Mills often shot home movies on 16mm color film on the sets of the films he worked on. The short film presented here was shot on the set of Ice Cold in Alex in Libya in 1958. The film features Mills' co-stars Sylvia Syms, Anthony Quayle, Harry Andrews, and his director J. Lee Thompson. Without sound. Color. (15 min).

• Behind the Scenes Gallery - a collection of vintage behind-the-scenes stills.

• A Very British War Movie - presented here is an extended clip from the documentary A Very British War Movie, which features archival interviews with John Mills, Sylvia Syms, director and cinematographer Ronald Neame, producer Anthony Havelock-Allan, and former desert nurse Molly Jennings, amongst others. The bulk of the comments address the shooting of Ice Cold in Alex in Libya and the events that are chronicled in it. In English, not subtitled. (13 min).

• Steve Chibnall on J. Lee Thompson - in this new video interview, Steve Chibnall, professor of British Cinema at De Montfort University, discusses the life and cinematic legacy of J. Lee Thompson, as well as his involvement with Ice Cold in Alex. In English, not subtitled. (13 min).

• Interview with Melanie Williams - in this new video interview, Melanie Williams, reader in Film and Television Studies at University of East Anglia, discusses the production history and style of Ice Cold in Alex. In English, not subtitled. (16 min).

• Interview with Sylvia Syms - in this video interview, Sylvia Syms recalls her work on Ace Cold in Alex, her relationship with J. Lee Thompson, the film's reception, etc. The actress also discusses the famous blouse scene, which the British distributors were unhappy with. In English, not subtitled. (22 min).

Ice Cold in Alex Blu-ray Movie, Overall Score and Recommendation 

If you choose to pick up this new release of Ice Cold in Alex the additional bonus features on it will have to be a major part of your decision. It is apparently sourced from a new digital restoration, but my opinion is that the old release offers an overall better technical presentation of the film. This really is a fantastic war film, folks, so if you don't have it in your collections yet read our reviews of the two releases and pick the one that you prefer.