Enough Rope to Hang Yourself

By Fearless Young Orphan

Rope of Sand (1949)

Directed by

Diamonds are trouble. Isn’t the lure of wealth always trouble? What wealth means from one person to the next may change, but most of us seem to want it regardless. Film noir enjoys telling stories of people who do foolish things for money. What better temptation for the greedy than a land made of diamonds?

In South Africa lies a field of diamond-bearing capacity so rich that its controlling company hires heartless men with whips and guns to keep people from setting foot inside (and on fun nights, to discourage them from making the same mistake twice). Once inside this forbidden zone, one must cross the “rope of sand,” miles of brutal desert, just to get to a scrubby outcropping that holds the wealth of kings.

Two years before, hunter/tracker Mike Davies () was on safari with a man who decided his quarry should also be diamonds. The man promptly disappears into the forbidden zone of the desert and Mike must pursue him. Mike finds his client nearly dead but having struck a motherload of diamonds. Mike almost dies himself, trying to pull his client back to civilization, but once there, finds no thanks for his efforts. He is tortured by evil company Commandant Paul Vogel, who is determined to find out where Mike’s discovery was. Mike won’t talk, and he is driven out of the veldt, shamed and beaten almost to death.

Two years later, a recovered, vengeance-obsessed Mike returns to Diamondstadt (the sleazy mining town out of which the company operates) and word gets around. It is assumed he is back to retrieve the diamonds he found. That is an accurate assumption.

Martingale (), a company shareholder, is a man rich and vain enough to be bored with his life. He likes a bit of entertainment. He wants not to stop Mike exactly, but neither does he wish to let Mike get away with a fortune in diamonds. He detests the rotten Commandant Vogel (who has much of the Nazi war criminal air about him), yet also knows that Vogel is a valuable resource in the control of the area. More for his own amusement than anything else, he hires a clever call girl/con artist named Suzanne Renaud (Corrine Calvet) to pose as a stockholder’s niece to get information from both men.

A woman such as Suzanne cannot be introduced into such a plot without becoming just as important, maybe more important, than diamonds. Nor can she try to play an evil man, Vogel, against a basically decent one, Davies, without some of her own moral code coming forward. She wants money too, and Martingale has promised her plenty, but she does have standards, and Martingale forgot to mention that Vogel might be dangerous to more than just diamond poachers. Soon Suzanne is trapped between Vogel’s desire and by Davies’ decency, and she must choose a side.

This all comes to a head when Mike Davies makes his move for the desert, readying a small discreet expedition into that wasteland in the middle of the night. He is betrayed, though not for the wrong reasons, and taken into Vogel’s custody. That’s not a good place to be. Suzanne trades herself for his freedom, an action misunderstood by almost everybody.

Now the movie is in its final third and it does go a little off the rails, introducing some rather crazy and unbelievable plot devices to give us a suitable wrap-up. The worst construct is when Vogel frames Suzanne for the murder of the town’s harmless alcoholic doctor – that in itself is a perplexing enough problem that when Mike arrives to valiantly disentangle Suzanne from a death sentence, the method of undoing the problem is downright ridiculous. Only a short while earlier, we were watching a rather intense scene of Vogel and Davies wrestling in a violent sandstorm, trying for all the world to kill each other, and now . . . we’re in a parlor, trading empty threats. It’s a bit of a let-down. So the noir doesn’t hold out well all the way to the end.

The elements are in place for a lot of fun otherwise. All the stars are great. Even has what is almost a cameo role as Toady, a strange little opportunist who arrives at convenient times to explain the plot for us in insinuating conversation with Burt Lancaster. It’s crazy but effectively atmospheric. With a tighter resolution this film could have been great; as it is, it’s another potential great with sort of a dead-end problem. At least it all didn’t turn out to be somebody’s dream, am I right?

Let’s go to the Scorecard:

Our Hero: Michael Davies, a man obsessed, driven to revenge against those who almost killed him two years before. He is after diamonds in a forbidden zone, ready to throw away life and freedom in order to exact his plan. His Achilles Heel is his blind stubborn rage. 9/10.

As Played by: Burt Lancaster. I’m a little biased about Burt, but like that he was willing to play his characters as less than smart, less than perfect. His Mike Davies is a flawed man who can be both hurt and frightened, with deep reserves of integrity that he has almost forgotten how to tap. 9/10

Femme Fatale: Suzanne Renaud, a Cape Town tramp who poses as a rich stockholder’s niece. She allows herself to be used as a pawn in exchange for money, before fully realizing how dangerous is the game. 9/10

As Played by: French actress Corrine Calvet, dripping of knowing sexuality. She’s quite a beauty, too, yet I think it’s the “knowing” part that is more attractive than her flawless face. The accent is thick but that adds to her charm. 9/10. The masterminds: There are two of them, both tremendous. First we have the manipulative Arthur Martingale, pushing his players around the board for his own selfish amusement. Then we have evil Commandant Paul Vogel, a nasty piece of work who enjoys inflicting pain and has his goals set firmly in Martingale’s wealth and privilege. 10/10

As Played by: Claude Rains is Martingale, is Vogel, and they chew up these roles as if born to them. 10/10

The location: The “forbidden zone” of the diamond world, a sleazy mining town next to the vicious desert in Africa, and the desert itself. Not a traditional “noir” setting but effective nonetheless. 8/10.

The crime/frame: Davies is viciously tortured to divulge the location of a diamond horde; two years later he seeks revenge on his attackers and to steal the horde for himself. Egomaniacal Martingale maneuvers people ruthlessly. Later, Ms. Renaud is framed for murder (not very well). 7/10

The mood: Davies’ mission has “doomed” written all over it, especially after the introduction of the Suzanne Renaud catalyst. Such a hopeless endeavor is classic noir, but this fine atmosphere is spoiled a little when matters overcomplicate in the final third. 6/10.

The sex factor: We can thank Corrine Calvet for her performance as a disillusioned, saucy, sexy “woman of the night” (well come on, you know she is) who has a deep reserve of integrity too. In different ways, she seduces three very different men, and of course she falls for the correct one. 9/10.

Overall Noir Scoire: 86%