SYNOPSIS
In John Ford's adaptation of Philip MacDonald's World War I novel PATROL, a British cavalry patrol is carrying out a mission in the deserts of Mesopotamia when their commanding officer is shot by an Arab sniper, leaving the small unit without knowledge of their mission or their location, which the dead man had committed to memory. After the sergeant (Victor McLaglen) takes charge, the patrol grinds out a lengthy trek across the burning sands, which is broken only by Morelli's (Wallace Ford) discovery of an oasis. Although the men exult in the water, the next morning they find the guard dead, another man wounded, and all of their horses stolen. Hale (Billy Bevan) climbs a palm tree in an attempt to locate the Arabs and is picked off by a sniper. As the days drag on, the soldiers struggle to survive, with the ranting of religious maniac Sanders (Boris Karloff) crackling in their ears like news of an apocalypse leaking from a fractured radio. As in many of the director's films about men in war, Ford's THE LOST PATROL suggests that the defining quality of the soldier is not the performance of heroics but the ability to endure the worst. A surprisingly grim drama for its time, this rock-solid, suspenseful war thriller features a moving Oscar-nominated score by Max Steiner.
<http://www.rottentomatoes.com/m/TheLostPatrol-1012772/about.php> *****
***** Eventually, one soldier (Karloff) goes mad and is picked off by his buddy (Ford) when he tries to run away; and the troop's sergeant (McLaglen) is the only survivor at the end of John Ford's marvelous study of men under the pressure of an unseen enemy.
<http://onfilm.chicagoreader.com/movies/capsules/5614_LOST_PATROL.html> ***** -- Yoshie
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