Play Dirty

“Forget the medals, throw away the rule book, if you want to survive… Play Dirty”

Captain Douglas (Michael Caine), a young officer new to the desert, is sent into North Africa with a squad of commandos dressed as Italian soldiers, their orders to cross enemy lines and blow up a Nazi oil depot. Under Captain Cyril Leech (Nigel Davenport), the men are hard cases drawn from the army's rougher corners, and André de Toth films their long drive across the sun-bleached sand. Nobody in this war fights clean, and the film treats that as plain fact.