“If you were going to catch a man what would you use as bait?”
Hal Wallis’ production Rope Of Sand (1949) finds Burt Lancaster out for vengeance and diamonds in South Africa. Lancaster must contend with a sadistic commandant (Paul Henreid), a fat cat diamond broker (Claude Rains) and a lusty femme fatale (Corinne Calvet). Rope Of Sand is film noir transposed to the South African desert where dunes take the place of moody high rises but greed and moral corruption still lurk around every corner.
Immediately Lancaster is introduced as the hero by showing compassion for a Black South African man when no other white man would. This is about as political as Rope Of Sand becomes. For the most part the film is content to peddle in the robust, masculine pulp of the film noir genre. Racial politics have been reduced to character cues of good and bad.
The villains (Rains and Henreid) are capitalists out to preserve their small monopoly on diamonds outside Cape Town. These men aren’t gangsters, they are bureaucrats. Unlike most noirs the bad guys are the ones with the law on their side. A law that has been corrupted and manipulated by self-interest. Despite Lancaster’s physical prowess and charisma it is Henreid that steals the show.
Lancaster may be willing to exchange “the diamonds for the girl”, but the erotic tension of the piece is very clearly between him and Henreid. In the torture scene a shirtless and sweaty Lancaster is suspended upside down above Henreid. The two men, their faces inches from one another, exchange heated barbs. The erotic tension is palpable as Henreid looks up at the hunky Lancaster who is helpless in Henreid’s grasp.
Dieterle is at home in the film noir genre and the film is basically awash in deep black shadows. It’s a beautiful looking film but no image stands out quite like the homoerotic picture of Lancaster and Henreid. Of the other images Dieterle composes the most stark and interesting are the exteriors out in the dunes. Here Dieterle finds foreboding shadows among rocks, dunes, and dead trees.
Yet, for all of Dieterle’s ingenuity as a stylist Rope Of Sand never amounts to more than a boiler plate film noir. The script by Walter Doniger never develops the characters enough and lacks an ear for pulpy dialogue. Rope Of Sand is a good movie, just not a great film. However a second viewing did allow me to appreciate some of the visuals more.
