Robert Llewellyn and Jonathan Hare see if it's actually possible to get a truck up a sand dune by putting it in gear and turning the starting handle. From 1st March 2002
My father was an anti-tank gunner in WWII, and drove the portee (towing light truck) which hauled the gun around the North African desert. He had a number of tricks which he had learned both as a truck driver before the war and during the war. This way of getting a vehicle out of a soft bit of ground was one I saw him use with our car, off a beach and on the flat. I did not see the film until several years after he died. I noted other things he had told me in the film such as boiling water by lighting a fire inside a water jacket and taking a spade off for a poop to hide traces being at a place. Ironically when he took my Mum to see the film on its release hoping to give her some idea of his desert war experience he was dismayed at the idea of nurses being carted around a war zone in an ambulance.
Interesting analysis. Thanks for the filmtip. But there is one impossible scene: You can see a Land Rover in Alexandria at the end of the movie taking place in the year 1942. The car was launched 1948. The movie filmed in 1953.
If I remember correctly they had to do it twice. They were nearly at the top and they had to take a rest. They ask the girl to hold onto the starting handle while they get their breath back. She never really understood the mechanics of it and lets go in a moment of distraction and the truck rolls all the way back down again.
It's a movie... But Mills drowned about 14 beers until the bar scene was finally shot. He admitted on a talk show many years later that he was completely hammered at take 14... :-)
And Anthony Quayle almost puked downing his in the scene as he never usually drank. It's why Simms has a little smile on her face as she is watching him down his lager.
I used to have to do this with my Citreon 2CV in North Wales in 1994 ,if I made the mistake of parking it uphill on a slope. To wined it up uphill so I could jumpstart it down again. It was a bit lighter than an Austin K2 ambulance though and I always though of this film at the time.
Although it is possible to do this for real,what you dont see in the film is the winch cable buried in the sand attatched to the winch of an aec matador gun tractor on the other side of the sand hill which is winching the ambulance as the actors are.......acting.
They have a competition in Canada every winter about getting a car free once it's stuck in snow. They did the same thing but "cranked" it on the starter motor. Mind you nearly all cars in Canada come fitted with a heavy duty battery to compensate for power loss in the cold.
My father was an anti-tank gunner in WWII, and drove the portee (towing light truck) which hauled the gun around the North African desert. He had a number of tricks which he had learned both as a truck driver before the war and during the war. This way of getting a vehicle out of a soft bit of ground was one I saw him use with our car, off a beach and on the flat. I did not see the film until several years after he died. I noted other things he had told me in the film such as boiling water by lighting a fire inside a water jacket and taking a spade off for a poop to hide traces being at a place. Ironically when he took my Mum to see the film on its release hoping to give her some idea of his desert war experience he was dismayed at the idea of nurses being carted around a war zone in an ambulance.
Interesting analysis. Thanks for the filmtip. But there is one impossible scene: You can see a Land Rover in Alexandria at the end of the movie taking place in the year 1942. The car was launched 1948. The movie filmed in 1953.
I always look out for the Series 1 Land Rover at the end. Look further along and there’s a Morris Minor too!
Splendid observation old chap.
Always enjoy a cool probably when i watch this old classic. Cheers.
Thanks for the upload. Pity these are so hard to find.
If I remember correctly they had to do it twice. They were nearly at the top and they had to take a rest. They ask the girl to hold onto the starting handle while they get their breath back. She never really understood the mechanics of it and lets go in a moment of distraction and the truck rolls all the way back down again.
This is not an example of Hollywood science, but rather Classic British Film, science. Nothing about this film is from Hollywood.
The ambulance used in the film was a 'special' with 4 wheel drive fitted.
I'd havw tried it in reverse first with the engine .....
It's a movie...
But Mills drowned about 14 beers until the bar scene was finally shot.
He admitted on a talk show many years later that he was completely hammered at take 14... :-)
And Anthony Quayle almost puked downing his in the scene as he never usually drank. It's why Simms has a little smile on her face as she is watching him down his lager.
@@notanumber1311 What a pretty little smile.
@@martinmcdonald4207 Gnädiges Frãuline
I used to have to do this with my Citreon 2CV in North Wales in 1994 ,if I made the mistake of parking it uphill on a slope. To wined it up uphill so I could jumpstart it down again. It was a bit lighter than an Austin K2 ambulance though and I always though of this film at the time.
Although it is possible to do this for real,what you dont see in the film is the winch cable buried in the sand attatched to the winch of an aec matador gun tractor on the other side of the sand hill which is winching the ambulance as the actors are.......acting.
That truck must have had a 9,000 to 1 reverse gear :-)
They have a competition in Canada every winter about getting a car free once it's stuck in snow. They did the same thing but "cranked" it on the starter motor.
Mind you nearly all cars in Canada come fitted with a heavy duty battery to compensate for power loss in the cold.
More like Elstree science.
Ice Cold in Alex wasnt Hollywood, it was made in Britain.
mythbusters stole this
Nothing to do with Hollywood!
It's a British film made by a British film company f all to do with Hollywood you planks!