''The Steel Lady'' (also known as ''Treasure of Kalifa'') is a 1953 American

action film Action film is a film genre in which the protagonist is thrust into a series of events that typically involve violence and physical feats. The genre tends to feature a mostly resourceful hero struggling against incredible odds, which include l ...

directed by

Ewald André Dupont Ewald André Dupont (25 December 1891 – 12 December 1956) was a German film director, one of the pioneers of the German film industry. He was often credited as E. A. Dupont. Early career A newspaper columnist in 1916, Dupont became a screenwri ...

starring Rod Cameron and

Tab Hunter Tab Hunter (born Arthur Andrew Kelm; July 11, 1931 – July 8, 2018) was an American actor, singer, film producer, and author. Known for his blond, clean-cut good looks, Hunter starred in more than forty films. He was a Hollywood heartthrob of t ...

. In the film, four Americans are stranded in the deserts of

North Africa North Africa, or Northern Africa is a region encompassing the northern portion of the African continent. There is no singularly accepted scope for the region, and it is sometimes defined as stretching from the Atlantic shores of Mauritania in ...

. They discover a buried German tank dating to

World War II World War II or the Second World War, often abbreviated as WWII or WW2, was a world war that lasted from 1939 to 1945. It involved the vast majority of the world's countries—including all of the great powers—forming two opposing ...

, and they attempt to cross the desert with it. But they are attacked by

Bedouins The Bedouin, Beduin, or Bedu (; , singular ) are nomadic Arab tribes who have historically inhabited the desert regions in the Arabian Peninsula, North Africa, the Levant, and Mesopotamia. The Bedouin originated in the Syrian Desert and Ar ...

, who want to retrieve stolen jewels from the tank.

Plot

Four American oil company employees crash-land in the desert of

. They have limited food and water, no radio, no way to repair the plane, and with no hope of rescue, face a slow death. Then one of the crew spots the antenna of a German tank from World War II sprouting from the sands. Digging down, they discover the "Steel Lady" of the title, complete with mummified crew, lost in the dunes ten years before, out of water, fuel, and supplies, rather like themselves. After burying the German crew, they attempt to repair their radio with parts from the tank's radio; only marginally successful, they manage to tell the outside world that they are alive, but the transmitting tube burns out just as they are about to relate their

latitude In geography, latitude is a coordinate that specifies the north– south position of a point on the surface of the Earth or another celestial body. Latitude is given as an angle that ranges from –90° at the south pole to 90° at the north pol ...

. They come up with a wild idea: If they can dig out and clean up the tank, they can use the gasoline left in the plane to drive out of the desert. They need to sacrifice some of their precious water for the tank's radiator, but they eventually get it running and choose to drive to a

French Foreign Legion The French Foreign Legion (french: Légion étrangère) is a corps of the French Army which comprises several specialties: infantry, Armoured Cavalry Arm, cavalry, Military engineering, engineers, Airborne forces, airborne troops. It was created ...

outpost over a hundred miles away. Along the way, Barlow—one of the foursome—discovers a hidden storage bay in the floor of the tank which contains a cache of jewels. He does not tell the others, but replaces it for retrieval at the end of their trip. Before reaching the Foreign Legion outpost, the Americans come across a Bedouin oasis. The Bedouin leaders recognize the tank; it is the very one whose German occupants had stolen valuable jewels during the war. They pretend to be gracious hosts, but plot a way to gain possession of the tank in order to recover the treasure: They offer the group horses and a cargo camel, along with ample food and water, in exchange for the tank, explaining that the animals will be better suited for the journey and that the animals will bring money once the group is rescued. The four men agree to the exchange. Before leaving the oasis, Barlow returns to the tank to retrieve the jewels for himself, telling his colleagues that he is jamming the tank's machine gun so that the French will not think that they left such a weapon for the Bedouins. However, he drops a loose jewel onto the floor of the tank. During the night, the Bedouin leaders search the tank and find the loose jewel, thus telling them that the Americans know about the treasure. They go to their visitors and demand the jewels. Monahan, the leader, denies any knowledge since he does not know about Barlow's greedy find. The Bedouins demand to search their visitors, but Barlow begins to fight and the Americans flee to the tank and drive away. Larsen is wounded but he gets aboard the tank. The Americans, now desperately low on water, come across a wounded native in the desert; he claims to have been hurt when his camel fell upon him. He tells of a well only away and directs them to it. But he is one of the Bedouins, who has merely faked an injury, and now leads the tank into a trap: When he and the three healthy Americans leave the tank, his comrades move toward the tank to secure it. But Larsen, wounded but still aboard the tank, fights them off with the machine gun. Monahan and the others hear the gunfire and return to the tank. Barlow is wounded by gunfire and Monahan carries him back to the tank. As they drive off, their radiator is punctured and water leaks out; they cannot escape. It now becomes a stand-off with the Americans holed up in the tank, fighting off periodic attacks from the Bedouins in the surrounding hills. Larsen comes up with an idea to cannibalize the tank's radio-receiving tubes to craft a transmitting tube. They manage to get the radio to transmit and send out a mayday, though they are out of range from all receiving stations except for a possible search plane which might still be looking for them. The call is heard and a company plane lands amid gunfire from the Bedouins to rescue the Americans. While Larsen and Evans run to the plane, Monahan tries to pull Barlow out of the tank. However, Barlow—realizing that he is too wounded to make it—pushes Monahan off and locks himself in the tank. He then uses the machine gun to cover for Monahan running to the plane. Barlow presumably dies in the tank as the Bedouins rush onto the vehicle to capture it. The other three—who retain the jewels—are flown to safety. During the flight they recall how Barlow, though greedy and a drunkard, ended up as a worthy fighter who helped save the others.

Cast

* Rod Cameron as Mike Monahan *

as Billy Larsen *

John Dehner John Dehner (DAY-ner) (born John Dehner Forkum, also credited Dehner Forkum; November 23, 1915February 4, 1992) was an American stage, radio, film, and television actor. From the late 1930s to the late 1980s, he amassed a long list of performan ...

as Syd Barlow *

Richard Erdman Richard Erdman ( John Richard Erdmann; June 1, 1925 – March 16, 2019) was an American character actor and occasional film and television director. He appeared in more than 160 films and television productions between 1944 and 2017, mostly i ...

as Jim Evans *

John Abbott Sir John Joseph Caldwell Abbott (March 12, 1821 – October 30, 1893) was a Canadian lawyer and politician who served as the third prime minister of Canada from 1891 to 1892. He held office as the leader of the Conservative Party. Abbo ...

as Mustapha El Melek *

Frank Puglia Francesco Giuseppe "Frank" Puglia (9 March 1892 – 25 October 1975) was an Italian-American film actor. He had small, but memorable roles in films including ''Casablanca'' (a Moroccan rug merchant), ''Now, Voyager'' and ''The Jungle Book''. ...

as Sheik Taras * Anthony Caruso as Zagora *

Christopher Dark Christopher Dark (born Alfred Francis DeLeo, April 21, 1920 – October 10, 1971) was an American actor. He graduated from Cornell University and did post graduate work at Columbia University. He served as an army medic in the Philippine ...

as Ibrahim *Dick Rich as Sanderson * Charles Victor as Sanderson's Radio Man * Carmen D'Antonio as Dancing Girl * Suzanne Ridgway as Bedouin Servant Girl

Production

Filming started in December 1952.

Release

The film was released on a double bill with ''

Captain John Smith and Pocahontas ''Captain John Smith and Pocahontas '' is a 1953 American historical film directed by Lew Landers. The distributor was United Artists. It stars Anthony Dexter, Jody Lawrance and Alan Hale. While most scenes were filmed in Virginia's Blue Ridge Mo ...

''.

References

External links