ROPE OF SAND (A Handful of Diamonds) ENG SUB, Full: ΒURT LANCASTER, PAUL HENREID, CLAUDE RAINS, Peter Lorre, Corinne Calvet -1949

An incredible film-noir which constitutes a great pollitical commentary on the theme of corruption, usurpation and the abuses of authority and brute force. Based on a story written and adapted for the wide screen by the the American screenwriter, director and producer Walter J. Doniger, in collaboration with the American journalist and ghost writer John Paxton. The screenplay was purchased by the American producer -of Jewish & Polish descent- Hal B. Wallis, specifically for Burt Lancaster. in 1947. The script can be found, here: (https://www.scripts.com/script/rope_of_sand_17160). THE GREAT STAR OF THE FILM IS PAUL HENREID (the double or ''doppelganger'' of the philosopher Albert Camus) in a terrific performance that renders splendidly the whole background lying behind the abnormal relationship of political power and sadism. Directed by the German actor and director Wilhelm (William) Dieterle who immigrated and lived to the U.S. after the crisis of 1929. Music by the German-Jewish composer and conductor Franz Wachsmann (Waxman), who was born in the Prussian or Polish territory of East Germany but left in 1934 for the U.S., because of the Nazi expansion in Europe. The movie was filmed at the Sonoran Desert, Colorado River & Yuma International Airport (YUMA, ARIZONA), at the Sonoran and Yuma Deserts & the Imperial County (CALIFORNIA) and at the Paramount Studios & the Port of Los Angeles, San Pedro (L.A., CALIFORNIA). The various alternate titles of the movie were intended to conceal the connection of the ROPE OF SAND with the impossible case of Sadism and the ''philosophy'' Marquis de Sade: PROHIBITED ZONE, A HEAD FULL OF DIAMONDS, A FISTFUL OF DIAMONDS, DIAMONDS AND SAND, DIAMONDS IN THE SAND, CHAINS OF SAND, GALLOWS OF SAND, HUNG UPON THE SAND etc... when actually the film's title is a play of words to make a straight hint to a SCENE OF SADISM or THE LASH OF DE SADE.