Rope of Sand (1949)

Rope of Sand is a 1949 adventure-suspense film noir directed by William Dieterle, produced by Hal Wallis, and starring Burt Lancaster and three stars from Wallis’s Casablanca – Paul Henreid, Claude Rains and Peter Lorre. The picture is set in South West Africa. Desert portions of the film were shot in Yuma, Arizona.

Director – William Dieterle

Writers – Walter Doniger (story and screenplay), John Paxton (additional dialogue)

Cast –
Burt Lancaster as Mike Davis
Paul Henreid as Vogel
Claude Rains as Martingale
Corinne Calvet as Suzanne
Peter Lorre as Toady
Sam Jaffe as Dr. Hunter
John Bromfield as Thompson, a guard
Mike Mazurki as Pierson, a guard
Kenny Washington as John
Edmund Breon as Chairman
Hayden Rorke as Ingram
David Thursby as Henry, the bartender
Josef Marais as Specialty Singer
Miranda Marais as Specialty Singer

Watch “Rope of Sand” (1949)

Plot

Hunting guide Mike Davis (Burt Lancaster) came across a cache of diamonds in a mining area, located in a remote region of South West Africa. He was caught by the mine’s police, but refused to reveal the diamonds’ location, even under torture at the hand of the diamond company’s security chief, Vogel (Paul Henreid). He left South Africa for some time.

Davis returns to get the diamonds, which he still expects will be at the spot where he found them. The mining company’s owner, Martingale (Claude Rains), tries to find out where the diamonds can be found by guile rather than force. He hires a beautiful prostitute, Suzanne Renaud (Corinne Calvet), to seduce Davis, and get him to reveal the secret location. Davis plans an illegal entry into the diamond mining area, to retrieve the diamonds, and plans to escape to Portuguese Angola. Meanwhile, Vogel is attracted to Suzanne, and offers to marry her; but Suzanne is attracted to Davis, who is more interested in his diamonds than Suzanne. Davis finds the diamonds; but Martingale threatens to kill Suzanne, unless Davis gives him the diamonds. Davis gives up the diamonds, and ends up leaving the country with Suzanne, discovering that he loves her more than the diamonds.