Winston Churchill has called 1942 "Their Finest Hour." The film opens at Rommel's HQ in April of 1942. The Afrika Corps is near the peak of its conquests. Rommel has conquered Tobruk only to lose it. He wants it back. An espionage team is formed to flank British lines to the south through the deep desert, cutting east toward the Nile and then north to Cairo & British HQ. An espionage team of five vehicles is formed. Erratum: It contains a 1949/50 Ford Station Wagon. Oh well. A team of two spies makes it into Cairo, and begins making coded radio transmissions of intelligence to Afrika Corps HQ. Implicitly, this intelligence aided Rommel in retaking Tobruk in late June 1942. Then the plot thickens, of course. There is a "Mata Hari" in this film (certainly not Lt. Morrison). There is a special role for the ever-charming Elisabeth Müller as a British staff officer (Lt. Kay Morrison) in Cairo. The chief spy is a dashing Capt. Eppler (played by Adrian Hoven). Both women are attracted, one attached and one moderately interested. The moderately interested Lt. Morrison could be accused of fraternizing with the enemy, but is cleared. I found the golf scene (at a Cairo country club) vaguely humorous. This film is generally well done, entertaining, and not a combat film. The end is historically predictable, of course. The title could be translated "Rommel Telegraphs Cairo." The German word "ruft" refers, in this case, to the transmission of Morse Code messages back and fourth.
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White Cloud29 March 2019
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Now, this movie is another typical example of german moviemaker´s perspective on ww2 in the fifties - though they almost were over. The story: a commando unit with a mission has to take the long road through the desert to reach cairo. The message: german wehrmacht in africa and the german spies were nice guys and should not be mistaken as nazis.This seems to be a cheap flick, in some rare moments reminding of "Lohn der Angst" - a real classic on men in the wilderness with a survival problem... Exploitation specialists and admirers of the africa korps might have fun with it - even though the tension never gets anywhere close to the real classics...
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marcusfernandes24 June 2009In my opinion,it's really interesting to watch this sort of films and see to the other side of the hill,i mean the war by the perspective of the Germans.There is another title that i strongly recommend to those who intend to experience something different from all the American and British war movies easy to consume in which the "GOOD GUYS" beats the "BAD Nazis",the film i am referring to is DER STERN VON AFRIKA. I could cite other recent examples where one can have some knowledge of the war stories and adventures from the "enemies" point of view, but i think the great deal here is that we are talking about works made at a time close to historical events what shows some sort of authenticity and that is the case of ROMMEL RUFT KAIRO including the fact of being filmed in real locations at Cairo and Sahara desert.