To have a good movie you must have a mind behind it. The problem with the war film genre is that many of them are poorly or underwritten with an all-star cast, hardware and action attempting to save the day. Ernesto Gastaldi wrote DESERT BATTLE and that makes all the difference. A British mine-laying patrol encounters a Nazi armoured vehicle, Captain Bradbury (George Hilton) and the Nazi Captain (Robert Hossien) both try to surrender but it ends in an extended stand-off with the desert elements (heat and lack of water) and the past tense (the film has an intricate flashback structure) determing and undermining character. War isn't hell as much as an arena of madness, blunt force and sudden death. Gastaldi replaces the usual cliches with irony as dry as the desert climate. Hossien and Hilton are "cold" presences who unexpectedly warm up to each other, but it's all too late for friendship and human decency. The supporting cast includes Frank Woolf as a breakdown waiting to happen and Ivano Staccioli as Hossien's equally unsavory looking second in command. It all builds up to a nasty example of the grim reality of tank warfare. Mino Loy, probably better known as a producer, directs with dispatch and an eye for detail and atmosphere. The excellent Bruno Nicolai score was reused several years later in Jess Franco WIP, DEVIL'S ISLAND LOVERS (1972). It works equally well for both movies.

It should also be noted that the intelligently framed 2.35:1 compositions manage to fare unexpectedly well the horrors of 1.33:1 video cropping. That's always a sign that either the director of DP [Zanni], or both, really knew what they were doing.