AniInterview Sorry, this movie sucks

Stevecorp Don't listen to the negative reviews

Matho The biggest problem with this movie is it’s a little better than you think it might be, which somehow makes it worse. As in, it takes itself a bit too seriously, which makes most of the movie feel kind of dull.

Philippa All of these films share one commonality, that being a kind of emotional center that humanizes a cast of monsters.

bkoganbing A whole lot of good British actors who've seen and done better in their careers were wasted in this potboiler of a World War II movie with an Arabian Nights interval. The Black Tent tells the story of Donald Sinden going into the desert to find what happened to his brother Anthony Steel who is missing in action. What a time Steel had as Sinden learns when he's given the diary that Steel kept. He was in a firefight with some of Rommel's troops and was the only survivor. Steel manages to make his way to Sheik Andre Morrell's camp at an oasis near a Roman ruin and their has a little romantic interlude with his daughter Anna-Maria Sandri. Some of Rommel's stragglers make their way to the sheik's camp, but they're dealt with.During all this time while Steel's having a little R&R the Axis take Tobruk, but then the Eighth Army beats them at El Alamein and puts them in full retreat. When that happens Steel pulls a Lawrence Of Arabia and leads the sheik's men in an ambush on some of Rommel's troops. Wouldn't want anyone to think he was on extended furlough would we? Sadly Steel is killed, but Sinden discovers that he's got himself a juvenile nephew now. He offers young Terence Sharkey a choice, come back to the United Kingdom for a life as a gentleman or stay in Grandpa's tent. What do you think he chooses?I guess my review is in the form of this jocular synopsis of this very bad movie. Even Donald Pleasance as Sinden's desert guide is wasted here. Pleasance and all the rest of the cast just look downright embarrassed. They summon up all the enthusiasm of someone awaiting a proctologist.

MartinHafer "The Black Tent" begins with a man in Britain being told that his brother, the heir to the family fortune, MIGHT still be alive in North Africa--over a decade after he was assumed to have died fighting in WWII. However, when he tracks down the Bedoins who sheltered and healed him during the war, they deny having any other knowledge of him. After he leaves, however, he finds his brother's diary--someone had stuck it in his belongings in order to let him know the truth. Most of what follows is a flashback--flashbacks where you learn that the brother was like a son to the Chief and that he even eventually married the man's daughter! But the story goes beyond that--he even organized the locals into a small guerrilla army which attacked Axis troops! What happened next? See the film.By far the best thing about this movie is the location shooting. The amazing ruins at Sabratha, Libya serve as a backdrop as is the nearby desert. However beautiful this is, however, the story itself isn't that captivating. Now it isn't because the idea is bad--it's not. But he execution seemed very plodding and flat. The writing could have been better and the actors a bit more charismatic. Still, a watchable adventure tale that is reasonably watchable.

CHRISTOPHER HEATH This film can be summed up as follows: sumptuous photography; turgid plot; wooden acting.The mystery is how they could string it out for two hours. The story is that there isn't a story - it's just a travelogue across the Libyan desert. Michael Craig, who was hot property in British cinema back then, is a blacked-up Arab sheik and has no lines that I can remember. Blink and you miss him. I just couldn't work out what Anthony Steele would see in the love interest. Donald Sinden looks as though he has the mood of someone who has got out of bed the wrong side every morning of the shoot.The only thing that must have stopped this from bombing at the box office was the novelty for the cinema-going public in grey, smog-ridden 1950s Britain of seeing 'real', 'desert' sand in colour, something they could have done on the sea front at Clacton or Bournemouth.

Robin Moss "The Black Tent" was made several years before "Lawrence Of Arabia." Had it been made ten years later, it would have been accused of plagiarism. Instead it can be said in some respects to anticipate "Lawrence of Arabia".After The Second World War, the heir to an extensive British country estate complete with enormous house and agricultural land travels to Libya to learn what happened to his brother. With one Arab to guide him, he journeys by camel across the vast deserts to talk with a tribal chief - as also happened in "Lawrence". After various delays, he is given his brother's diary and learns the truth. During the war, his brother had become detached from his regiment and had been the sole Briton amongst Arabs - as was the case in "Lawrence Of Arabia" He had led Arab fighters in ambushes on enemy patrols - as also happened in "Lawrence Of Arabia". The brother had married the daughter of the tribal chief, and eventually had been killed in action against German soldiers. Again like "Lawrence Of Arabia" the cinematography - here in VistaVision and Technicolor - shows the vastness of the desert and makes it strangely beautiful.Unlike "Lawrence Of Arabia" "The Black Tent" had a journeyman director, and was made with little attention to detail or realism. All the Arabs speak English fluently and with Received Pronunciation! Even more ludicrously, the younger brother travels across the desert by camel wearing a suit and tie and city shoes! He does not even break into a sweat! More seriously, there is no tension in the movie. The action sequences are unimaginatively staged, and scenes where suspense should be agonising - such as when Germans enter the Arab camp and discover the British soldier's gun or when German soldiers visit an ancient ruin and take photographs of themselves within a few yards of the fugitive British soldier - are entirely free of tension."The Black Tent" is mildly entertaining and is certainly visually splendid, but it could and should have been much better.