Ice Cold in Alex

The Libyan desert, 1942. As Tobruk falls, a British ambulance tries to reach Alexandria carrying two nurses. Captain Anson is fighting his drinking, and who exactly the Afrikaner officer who joins them is remains unclear. Anson has one idea: an ice cold beer when they arrive. J. Lee Thompson directed. John Mills plays Anson, Anthony Quayle the Afrikaner, Sylvia Syms the nurse. The centre of the film is endurance rather than war: sand, a minefield, thirst and a failing vehicle. The best-known passage is the dune, with the ambulance pushed up backwards. The beer in the final scene became one of the most recognisable images in British cinema and was used decades later in a brewer's advertising campaign. The espionage thread carries the moral weight; the difference between being the enemy and surviving together blurs by the end. It was shot in Libya. Who it is for: viewers who like wartime survival films and classic British cinema. Who it is not for: anyone expecting combat; this is almost entirely road and breakdown.