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Poster for the film “Sword in the Desert” (1949)

Object | Accession Number: 2018.590.173

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    Poster for the film “Sword in the Desert” (1949)
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    Overview

    Brief Narrative
    U.S. one sheet poster for the film, “Sword in the Desert,” released in the United States in August 1949. The film follows an American cargo ship captain who finds himself stranded in a Jewish settlement after smuggling a group of illegal Jewish immigrants to British-controlled Palestine. Initially self-interested and unsympathetic to the refugees, the captain has a change in heart after he is captured, imprisoned, and later escapes with them. “Sword in the Desert” was the first film made in Hollywood that depicted the Jewish struggle to establish the state of Israel in May 1948. Britain was given control of Palestine following World War I, and severely restricted the immigration of Jewish refugees who wanted to establish a new Jewish State. This led many refugees to enter the country via “illegal” or “clandestine” immigration on ships. The mass immigration of refugees also led to bitter clashes between the Arab locals and the Jewish paramilitary organization, the Haganah. The film received some criticism for portraying the British as villains, and not showing any of the conflict with the Arab population. In England, the film was perceived as anti-British and sparked outrage and several violent incidents. “Sword in the Desert” also established a new archetype of a rough-and-tumble female character that can hold her own with the Haganah fighters. This object is one of more than 1,200 objects in the Cinema Judaica Collection of materials related to films about World War II and the Holocaust as well as Jewish, Israeli, and biblical themes.
    Date
    Cinematic Release:  1949 August 24
    Geography
    creation: United States
    distribution: United States
    Credit Line
    United States Holocaust Memorial Museum Collection, Gift of Ken Sutak and Sherri Venokur
    Markings
    front, center left, printed, black ink : UNIVERSAL-INTERNATIONAL presents / Dana ANDREWS / Marta TOREN / Stephen McNALLY
    front, bottom, printed, white, red, and black ink : Sword in / the Desert / with JEFF CHANDLER • PHILIP FRIEND • HUGH FRENCH • LIAM REDMOND / Directed by GEORGE SHERMAN • Written and Produced by ROBERT BUCKNER
    front, bottom right corner, printed logo, yellow and black ink : Universal / International
    front, bottom left margin, printed, black ink : Copyright 1949 by Universal Pictures Co., Inc. Country of Origin U.S.A. PRINTED IN U.S.A.
    front, bottom center margin, printed, black ink: PROPERTY OF NATIONAL SCREEN SERVICE CORP. LICENSED FOR DIS- / PLAY ONLY IN CONNECTION WITH THE EXHIBITION OF THIS PICTURE / AT YOUR THEATER MUST BE RETURNED IMMEDIATELY THEREAFTER
    front, bottom right margin, printed, black ink : 4 38226 49/423
    front, bottom right margin, embossed : PROPERTY OF N.S.S. CORP. / MAY BE DISTRIBUTED ONLY BY / POSTER COMPANIES / DULY LICENSED BY N.S.S. CORP.
    Contributor
    Compiler: Ken Sutak
    Production Company: Universal-International
    Distributor: Universal-International
    Biography
    The Cinema Judaica Collection consists of more than 1,200 objects relating to films about World War II and the Holocaust as well as Jewish, Israeli, and biblical subjects, from 1923 to 2000, from the United States, Europe, Israel, Canada, Mexico, and Argentina. The collection was amassed by film memorabilia collector Ken Sutak, to document Holocaust-and Jewish-themed movies of the World War II era and the postwar years. The collection includes posters, lobby and photo cards, scene stills, pressbooks, trade ads, programs, magazines, books, VHS tapes, DVDS, and 78 rpm records.

    Sutak organized these materials into two groups, “Cinema Judaica: The War Years, 1939–1949” and “Cinema Judaica: The Epic Cycle, 1950–1972” and, in conjunction with the Hebrew Union College-Jewish Institute of Religion Museum (now the Dr. Bernard Heller Museum in New York), organized exhibitions on these two themes in 2007 and 2008. Sutak subsequently authored companion books with the same titles.

    Physical Details

    Language
    English
    Classification
    Posters
    Genre/Form
    Posters.
    Physical Description
    Poster printed on rectangular off-white paper depicting a large, desert scene in color, several smaller grayscale images, and a narrow, white border on all four sides. The poster depicts a shaded orange desert landscape against a yellow sky. Inset in a white, L-shaped background across the top and down the right side of the poster is a set of five small, square illustrations, each inside a narrow, black border. The illustrations are drawn in black, and each features a different character overlaid on a gray scene. The characters include: a man wearing a captain’s hat, a woman with a rifle slung over her shoulder, a man holding up a submachine gun, a younger man looking up, and a man in a hat pulling the pin out of a grenade with his teeth. In the center-left of the poster are the names of the three leading actors, printed in large, black text. In the bottom third of the poster, the film title is in large white text edged with red and black, creating shadows on the orange sand dune in the background. Perched on top of the dune are four figures: a kneeling man and woman with rifles, a standing man, and a man lying face-down with a gun in his hand. The film credits are printed in black along the bottom edge of the poster. The bottom margin contains copyright and printing information in black ink and an embossed stamp with the copyright information. The poster is creased where it was previously folded and there are small tears and holes along them. There is a small tear at the center of the bottom edge.

    Depicted:
    Dana Andrews as Captain Mike Dillon, Märta Torén as Sabra, Stephen McNally as David Vogel, Jeff Chandler as Asvan Kurta, Liam Redmond as Jerry McCarthy
    Dimensions
    Overall: Height: 41.000 inches (104.14 cm) | Width: 27.000 inches (68.58 cm)
    Materials
    overall : paper, ink

    Rights & Restrictions

    Conditions on Access
    No restrictions on access
    Conditions on Use
    Restrictions on use. Copyright status is unknown.

    Keywords & Subjects

    Geographic Name
    Palestine. United States.

    Administrative Notes

    Provenance
    The poster was donated to the United States Holocaust Memorial Museum in 2018 by Ken Sutak and Sherri Venokur.
    Record last modified:
    2023-05-24 16:22:41
    This page:
    https:​/​/collections.ushmm.org​/search​/catalog​/irn692995

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