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{{Infobox film
| name = The Black Tent
| image = "The_Black_Tent"_(1956).jpg
| caption = British theatrical poster
| director = [[Brian Desmond Hurst]]
| producer = [[William Macquitty]] '''executive''' [[Earl St. John]]
| writer = [[Bryan Forbes]] [[Robin Maugham]]
| based_on = story by Robin Maugham
| narrator =
| starring = [[Donald Sinden]] [[Anthony Steel (actor)|Anthony Steel]] [[Anna Maria Sandri]] [[André Morell]] [[Donald Pleasence]]
| music = [[William Alwyn]]
| editing = [[Alfred Roome]]
| studio = [[Rank Organisation]]
| distributor = Rank Film Distributors of America
| released = {{film date|df=y|1956|4|6|UK}}
| runtime = 93 minutes
| country = United Kingdom
| language = English
| budget =
| gross = 1,351,181 admissions (France)<ref>[http://translate.googleusercontent.com/translate_c?depth=1&hl=en&prev=search&rurl=translate.google.com.au&sl=fr&u=http://www.boxofficestory.com/france-1957-c22750201/2&usg=ALkJrhgi8cnfsgP6yDUBwHxKoOTn1OZQBA French box office for 1956] at Box Office Story</ref>
}}
'''''The Black Tent''''' is a 1956 British [[war film]] directed by [[Brian Desmond Hurst]] and starring [[Donald Sinden]], [[Anthony Steel (actor)|Anthony Steel]], [[Anna Maria Sandri]], [[André Morell]] and [[Donald Pleasence]].<ref>{{Cite web | url=https://www.imdb.com/title/tt0049014/ |title = The Black Tent| website=[[IMDb]] }}</ref> It is set in North Africa, during the Second World War and was filmed on location in [[Kingdom of Libya|Libya]].

During the British retreat through Libya, British officer Captain David Holland takes shelter with a [[Bedouin]] tribe and marries the sheik's daughter. After the war his younger brother, who had believed him to be dead, learns that he may be alive in Libya – prompting him to set out and search for him.

Along with ''Bengazi'' (1955), ''The Black Tent'' is one of the few feature films set in the last days of the British Military Administration of Libya from 1945 to 1951.<ref>The Black Tent (1956) and Bengazi (1955): The Image of Arabs in Two Post-Empire Journeys into the Deserts of Libya
Voeltz, Richard Andrew. CINEJ Cinema Journal; Pittsburgh Vol. 7, Iss. 1, (2018): 169-188. DOI:10.5195/cinej.2018.200</ref>

==Plot==
The film begins with Colonel Sir Charles Holland (Donald Sinden) receiving a note at his country estate and proceeding to London.
He contacts the Foreign Office and is informed that his missing-in-action brother may be still in Libya. A promissary note dating from the [[Second World War]] has turned up in the British Embassy in [[Tripoli, Libya|Tripoli]] signed by his presumed-dead brother who had given in to a nomadic bedouin tribe.

Sir Charles goes to Libya and is guided into the desert by Ali (Donald Pleasence) in search of his brother. They track down the tribe who had presented the note. The chief Sheik Salem ben Yussef (André Morrell) lives in a black tent. He admits to having sheltered his brother but is otherwise dismissive. However, Sir Charles spots that one of the women Mabrouka has a blonde son (Daoud) of an age appropriate for his brother to have been the father. He puts two and two together and confronts the chief only to find the girl in question is his daughter. Sir Charles is asked to leave the camp, but the girl passes a paper to Ali. It is the diary of the brother's time in Libya.

The film then goes back to a tank battle where blonde-haired Captain Holland (Anthony Steel) is sprawled unconscious beside his tank on the sand with a bad shoulder wound. When he comes to, he walks over the dunes until collapsing near a Bedouin encampment at an oasis. He is found by the sheik's daughter, Mabrouka (Anna Maria Sandri), who takes him to the camp which consists of several black tents.

Captain Holland, having been tended by Mabrouka, recovers. He learns that Mabrouka is the sheik's daughter and is betrothed to Sheik Faris ([[Michael Craig (actor)|Michael Craig]]) from another tribe. When a German reconnaissance vehicle arrives at the camp, Captain Holland hides in the Roman ruins at [[Leptis Magna]]. The senior German officer then finds Holland's service revolver in a tent. The chief persuades the Germans that he slit the Captain's throat and kept the revolver as a souvenir.

Mabrouka and Captain Holland become romantically involved to the obvious annoyance of Sheik Faris. He colludes with the Germans who return to the ruins where Holland and Sheik Yussef kill them and Faris. The romance between Captain Holland and Mabrouka deepens and they marry.

Learning of the British victory at [[Second Battle of El Alamein|El Alamein]], Captain Holland seeks to return to the British lines but finds that his wife is pregnant. A group led by the Sheik and Captain Holland travel toward the British lines but come across a column of retreating Italian vehicles. Captain Holland sustains a fatal injury rescuing the Sheik.

The film returns to the present day with the Sheik discussing the story with Sir Charles and his daughter. Sir Charles asks for a missing page from the diary and this is given. It confirms that Captain Holland is the father to the Arab boy. This means the boy should have inherited the estate in England rather than Sir Charles. Sir Charles sits in the desert and discusses this with his nephew but the boy decides to remain with the tribe and he burns the incriminating page.

==Cast==
{{div col}}
* [[Donald Sinden]] as Colonel Sir Charles Holland
* [[Anthony Steel (actor)|Anthony Steel]] as Captain David Holland
* [[Anna Maria Sandri]] as Mabrouka ben Yussef
* [[André Morell]] as Sheik Salem ben Yussef
* Terence Sharkey as Daoud Holland
* [[Donald Pleasence]] as Ali
* [[Ralph Truman]] as Major Croft
* [[Anthony Bushell]] as Ambassador Baring
* [[Michael Craig (actor)|Michael Craig]] as Sheik Faris
* Paul Homer as Khalil ben Yussef
* [[Anton Diffring]] as Senior German Officer
* [[Frederick Jaeger]] as Koch
* Derek Sydney as Interpreter
{{div col end}}

==Original story==
The film was based on an original story by [[Robin Maugham]], who had served in the North African Desert during World War II.<ref>[http://www.lib.utexas.edu/taro/uthrc/00088/hrc-00088.html Robin Maugham biography] at Robin Maugham Papers, University of Texas</ref> It first appeared as a short story ''Pay Bearer £20'' in ''Cheque Au Porteur''. He later published a version of the story under the title "Desert Bond" in ''Chambers Journal''. Maugham later included the story under the title "The Black Tent" in a later anthology of his writings published in 1973 called ''The Black Tent - and Other Stories''.<ref>''British Cultural Memory and the Second World War'' Ed Lucy Noakes, Juliette Pattinson, 2013 p 115</ref>

In the early 1950s Robert Clarke of Associated British considered buying the screen rights to the story. He decided not to but eventually hired Maugham to be his assistant.<ref>{{cite book|first=Robin|last=Maugham|title=Escape from the shadows|year=1973 |publisher=McGraw-Hill|page=190}}</ref>

==Production==
Producer Walter MacQuitty was an enthusiast of location filming - his most recent pictures included ''The Beachcomber''.The film was shot at Pinewood Studios and on location in Libya. The film unit was mostly based in Tripoli. The lead actress was Italian appearing in her first English language film.<ref>{{Cite news|title=OBSERVATIONS ON THE BRITISH SCREEN SCENE: Graham Greene Returns to Production -- New Star Is Born -- Other Matters|author=STEPHEN WATTS LONDON.|date=Sep 25, 1955|work=New York Times|page=X5}}</ref><ref>Round the British Studios
Nepean, Edith. Picture Show; London Vol. 66, Iss. 1710, (Jan 7, 1956): 11.</ref>

Star Donald Sinden had previously made ''Above Us the Waves'' with producer MacQuitty and ''Simba'' with director Brian Michael Hurst. It was an early film role for Michael Craig, who had recently signed to the Rank Organisation; it was the first time he made a movie on location.<ref>{{cite book|first=Michael|last=Craig|page=70|title=The Smallest Giant: An Actor's Life|publisher=Allen and Unwin|year=2022}}</ref>

[[File:Archaeological Site of Sabratha-108976.jpg|thumb|Several scenes were shot in the Roman theatre of Sabratha.]]
The film used the site of the Roman ruins at [[Sabratha]] in Libya, which is by the sea,<ref>{{cite news |url=http://nla.gov.au/nla.news-article44803823 |title=NEW DEAL FOR STAR |newspaper=[[The Australian Women's Weekly]] |volume=23 |issue=45 |date=4 April 1956 |accessdate=15 May 2016 |page=52 |via=National Library of Australia}}</ref> although the plot suggests that the camp is deep in the Libyan desert. This is a plot device to provide a bit of eye candy to the viewer and a reason for the Germans to visit in small numbers, like regular tourists.<ref>{{cite book|pages=269–272|title=A touch of the memoirs|last=Sinden|first= Donald|year=1983 |publisher=Futura}}</ref>

==Reception==
''[[The Observer]]'' had trouble with the reality of the story but thought "the scenery is impressive and the tents... are interesting."<ref>{{Cite news|title=Cause Celebre|author=Lejeune, C A.|date=Mar 18, 1956|work=The Observer|page=15}}</ref> "Too bright, too clean, too polished", wrote ''The Times''.<ref>{{Cite news|title=Mr. Otto Preminger's Latest Film|work=The Times|location=London|date=19 March 1956|page=3|issue=53483}}</ref>

The ''Monthly Film Bulletin'' thought the "intelligently constructed" script was undermined by "disappointingly slack" direction.<ref>BLACK TENT, The
Monthly Film Bulletin; London Vol. 23, Iss. 264, (Jan 1, 1956): 60.</ref> ''Filmink'' called it "entertaining".<ref name="vagg">{{cite magazine|magazine=Filmink|first=Stephen|last=Vagg|url=https://www.filmink.com.au/the-emasculation-of-anthony-steel-a-cold-streak-saga/|title=The Emasculation of Anthony Steel: A Cold Streak Saga
|date=September 23, 2022}}</ref>

The film was released in the US in 1957 on a double bill with ''[[Checkpoint (1956 film)|Checkpoint]]'', also starring Anthony Steel.<ref>{{Cite news|title=Steel Plays Hero in Two Melodramas|author=C S.|date=June 13, 1957|work=Los Angeles Times|page=C13}}</ref><ref>{{Cite news|title=British to Stampede American Screen; Fred Astaire Will Compose|author=Schallert, Edwin|date=Apr 19, 1957|work=Los Angeles Times|page=25}}</ref>

[[Turner Classic Movies]] calls the film "an odd duck... that has never received much fan love in its day or since, and in fact is barely remembered today. But it is, for one thing, the first English-language film shot largely in Libya" and which "plays like something of a prophecy – six years before the epochal on-location imagery and direct exploration of British colonialism we're all familiar with in David Lean's ''[[Lawrence of Arabia (film)|Lawrence of Arabia]]'' (1962), here are vast desert-dune landscapes punctuated by Englishmen and testy Bedouin on camels, with all of the culture-collision freight that implies."<ref>[http://www.tcm.com/this-month/article/411149|387676/The-Black-Tent.html ''The Black Tent''] at [[TCMDB]]</ref>

==Books==
''Theirs is the Glory: Arnhem, Hurst and Conflict on Film'' takes Hurst's Battle of Arnhem epic as its centrepiece and then chronicles Hurst's life and experiences during the First World War and profiles each of his other nine films on conflict, including ''The Black Tent''.<ref>{{ISBN|978-1-911096-63-4}}. Publisher Helion and Company and co-authored by David Truesdale and Allan Esler Smith and a foreword by Sir Roger Moore. Available here: http://www.helion.co.uk/new-and-forthcoming-titles/theirs-is-the-glory-arnhem-hurst-and-conflict-on-film.html{{Dead link|date=October 2022 |bot=InternetArchiveBot |fix-attempted=yes }}</ref>

==References==
<references/>

{{Use British English|date=September 2022}}

== External links ==
*{{IMDb title|id=0049014|title=The Black Tent}}
*[http://www.tcm.com/this-month/article/411149|387676/The-Black-Tent.html ''The Black Tent''] at [[TCMDB]]
*[https://letterboxd.com/film/the-black-tent/ The Black Tent] at Letterbox DVD
*[http://www.bfi.org.uk/films-tv-people/4ce2b6a55d60a ''The Black Tent''] at BFI
*[http://www.briandesmondhurst.org/blacktent.html ''The Black Tent''] at Brian Desmond Hurst website
*[https://archive.org/details/variety207-1957-06/page/n69/mode/1up?q=%22black+tent%22 Review of film] at Variety
*[https://archive.org/details/variety202-1956-03/page/n209/mode/1up?q=%22black+tent%22 March 1956 review] at Variety
{{Brian Desmond Hurst}}

{{DEFAULTSORT:Black Tent, The}}
[[Category:1956 films]]
[[Category:1956 war films]]
[[Category:British war drama films]]
[[Category:North African campaign films]]
[[Category:Films directed by Brian Desmond Hurst]]
[[Category:Films shot at Pinewood Studios]]
[[Category:Films shot in Libya]]
[[Category:Films scored by William Alwyn]]
[[Category:1956 drama films]]
[[Category:British World War II films]]
[[Category:Films set in Libya]]
[[Category:1950s English-language films]]
[[Category:1950s British films]]

The Black Tent - Revision history

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