Rope of Sand

Diamond mining noir! William Dieterle’s Rope of Sand works hard to thrill viewers through intrigue and adventure and suspense, and while some may find that the parts don’t add up to a compelling whole, the film still entertains largely because of its stellar cast. Set in a South African desert controlled by the Colonial Diamond Co., the film stars Burt Lancaster as Mike Davis, an American game hunter who returns to South Africa to reclaim a stash of diamonds he left behind two years earlier. His arrival appears to bring out the worst in people: Paul Vogel (Paul Henreid), the sadistic, whip-wielding head of security for Colonial, will stop at nothing, including and especially torture, to prevent a single diamond’s removal from the premises, while Arthur Martingale (Claude Rains), the wealthy head of Colonial, is much subtler in his approach, instead hiring Suzanne Renaud (Corinne Calvet), a visiting French prostitute, to seduce Davis into revealing the location of his stash. Noir stalwart Peter Lorre plays the opportunistic Toady, who offers Davis information and assistance but whose motivations are somewhat unclear. The script stretches believability at times and might have benefitted from a trim, but the cynicism on display (“I am bargaining with you, pig to pig”) will be thoroughly satisfying for noir fans. Visually, the film is beautifully shot, beginning with the opening sequence in which a thief is chased through the flowing desert hills by police tanks; light through Venetian blinds appears to be nearly omnipresent, while the use of deep focus adds greater dimension to key action scenes. Watch (and listen) for the fun and flamboyant nightclub performance of “Warrior Zulu” by Josef and Miranda Marais.