Desert Nights

Jewel thieves who rob a diamond mine in Africa take the mine foreman hostage as they flee and head into the Kalahari desert. But they lose their way there and the water begins to run out. From that point the man they took becomes the only one who knows anything, and he is the one who will get them out. The film makes the desert landscape the real source of its tension and turns the relation of power around. It belongs to the last years of silent cinema. The account also shows how the solidarity among the thieves comes apart as the thirst sets in. John Gilbert plays the lead in William Nigh’s sixty two minute film, completed in 1929.