The Rats of Tobruk (1944 film)
| The Fighting Rats of Tobruk | |
|---|---|
 |
|
| Directed by | Charles Chauvel |
| Produced by |
Charles Chauvel Charles Munro |
| Written by |
Charles Chauvel Elsa Chauvel Maxwell Dunn (commentary) |
| Starring |
Grant Taylor Peter Finch Chips Rafferty George Wallace |
| Music by |
Lindley Evans (Musical Direction) Charles Mackerras (Associate) Willie Redstone (Associate) |
| Cinematography | George Heath |
| Edited by | Gus Lowry |
|
Production
company |
Chamun Productions
|
| Distributed by | RKO (Australia) |
|
Release date
|
7 December 1944 (Australia) 1949 (UK) 1951 (USA) |
|
Running time
|
95 mins (Aust) 68 minutes |
| Country | Australia |
| Language | English |
The Fighting Rats of Tobruk is a 1944 Australian film directed by Charles Chauvel. The film follows three drover friends who enlist in the Australian Army together during World War II. Their story is based on the siege of the Libyan city of Tobruk in North Africa by Rommel's Afrika Korps. The largely Australian defenders held the city for 250 days before being relieved by British forces.
Three friends are droving cattle in Australia in 1939: the restless Bluey Donkin, easy-going Milo Trent and English Peter Linton, who is in the country on a working holiday. Squatter's daughter Kate Carmody is in love with Bluey but he refuses to be tied down to any one woman. War breaks out and the three men enlist in the Australian army and are assigned to the 9th Division. They ship out to Africa.
After early successes against the Italian army, the army is besieged in Tobruk. In between attacks, the men have comic encounters with a barber and Peter falls for a nurse, Sister Mary, after being wounded. There are several subsequent attacks in which all three soldiers are wounded. Peter Linton is killed but the others manage to repel the Germans.
Bluey and Milo are then transferred to New Guinea, where Bluey is injured and Milo killed by a sniper. Bluey manages to kill the sniper and returns to Australia, where he is reunited with Kate.
Chauvel made the film as a follow up to his enormously popular Forty Thousand Horsemen (1940). Like that movie, it follows three friends overseas to war, and starred Grant Taylor and Chips Rafferty.
Chauvel announced plans to make the film in late 1942. He spent a year researching and writing, and securing government cooperation. Financing was obtained from Hoyts, RKO-Radio, and Commonwealth Film Laboratories. Production of the movie was even announced in The New York Times.
Mary Gay was working as a clerk in a department store when discovered in a talent quest and cast in the role of the nurse who romances Peter Finch.
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