On its journey, the tank encounters a British field hospital, led by Irishman Captain Halliday (Richard Nugent). He commands four Commonwealth soldiers Lloyd Bridges, Guy Kingsford, Carl Harbord, and Patrick O'Moore. Also there is Free French soldier Louis Mercier. They catch a ride in Bogie's tank. Although Halliday outranks Bogie, he decides not to pull rank.
The gang gets bigger when pro-British Sudanese soldier Rex Ingram is picked up, along with his obliging Italian prisoner J. Carrol Naish.
The tank becomes the target of a lone Nazi fighter pilot, Kurt Kreuger. He is shot down, becomes a hostile prisoner, and plots murder and escape.
Still in need of water, the tank detours to a known well. It is nearly dry, and its water soon runs out. Bogie learns that a nearby Nazi regiment is also in need of water, and is headed toward the same well. Bogie and his international collection of Allies decide to make a last stand to defend the well, to delay the progress of the Nazi unit.
This propaganda war movie is loosely based on the 1936 Soviet film The Thirteen. In turn, Sahara has been remade, including a 1995 version starring James Belushi filling Bogie's shoes.
How others will see it. The big war movie of 1943 was For Whom the Bell Tolls, also a message film against fascism. Sahara was much less commercially successful, but it did collect three Oscar nominations, including J. Carrol Naish as Best Supporting Actor.
Today, the film is overshadowed by yet another anti-Nazi movie also starring Humphrey Bogart: Casablanca. But Sahara remains highly regarded. At imdb.com, it has a 7.7 (out of 10) user rating, generally consistent across all demographics. Even women over 45 grade it 7.8, despite an absence of any female characters.
How I felt about it. While a stirring wartime drama, Sahara has its share of faults, minor and major. In the minor category are the many bloodless deaths, and the inevitable incorrect military uniforms, insignia, armaments, dog tags, etc.
More problematic is the notion that a handful of soldiers could hold an unfortified low ground (a well) against a hundred-plus better armed German soldiers. It is also difficult to believe that the Germans would surrender at the very moment that Bogart and the only other Allied soldier have run out of ammunition.
Another problem is Kreuger's character. After he had shot at the tank, and mortally wounded one of the Allied soldiers, and acted like a jerk upon capture, it seems improbable that Bogie or another Allied soldier wouldn't have shot him rather than take him prisoner. Regardless of his rank.
These story holes, in every case, fall into the propaganda category. Nazis are evil, Allied soldiers are heroes, Italians are now are friends (Italy surrendered to the Allies prior to the film's release), and bravery is generally rewarded.
It is interesting, though, that Bogart is negotiating in bad faith with the German regiment, headed by Major von Falken (John Wengraf). Bogart's stance is "water for guns," but he has no water to give. If von Falken had called his bluff, and traded a few rifles for a few pints of water, it would have been obvious that Bogart had no water. Notwithstanding the miracle of the well filling to the top with water at the end of the battle.