BajaNomad

"Raid of Rommel"

Don Pisto - 1-25-2022 at 10:56 AM


For the new generations of low-californians who did not know that in the port of San Felipe, a war film was filmed, where tanks and commandos were circulating the streets of San Felipe and starring an actor of the first l inea of international cinema.
The film ``Raid of Rommel`` filmed in San Felipe, B.C.
Ernesto Sosa Rock
Photograph of the great actress, Elizabeth Taylor visiting Hollywood actor, Richard Burton, in San Felipe, during the set of the film ``Commando in the Desert``` or also translated as ``The Commandos of Rommel`` (Raid on Rommel) in 1971.
In the photo, actor Richard Burton with his head covered with a journalist and a beer ``White Card``` on the side; the one in the film as Captain Alex Foster. The local company that I supported the making of this film was ``Baja Films``, this was a Baja California company promoting movies and television programs to be performed in Baja California at a low cost and with a technical team acquired in E. U., where one of the partners of ``Baja Films``` was the Lic. Milton Castellanos Gout (former Municipal President of Mexicali) and narrates the following:
``We started providing food and transportation services with a small truck-cafeteria for the locations of ``Raid of Rommel`` in San Felipe in 1971. And then we move on to take care of accommodation and public relations in general, tramoya, cranes, elevators and horses``.
Testimony of don Luis Escamilla, old resident of San Felipe who tells us the following: ``Well if we live that time and Miguel my brother worked at the Arnolds del Mar Restaurant and was lucky enough to meet the great actors Richard B Urton and Elizabeth Taylor I was an actress of the movie but wife of Richard Burton I worked with the Ascolani family and there he hosted part of the logistics and I met Hans German cook very good person finally it was a great experience for both hopefully and my brother ampl it's a little more this is experience``.
Manvel Barra says the following: ``I have lived in San Felipe from 1967 to 1972..... So we're about that era... War tanks and motorcycles passed through the main street to the El Cortez Hotel, where the actors were staying... It was known as "Rommel, the Desert Fox"...
Synopsis:
Try the movie about World War II. In 1942, a British command was entrusted with the mission to attack Tobruk, a neuralgic point in North Africa, which was occupied by General Rommel's German troops. (FILMAFFINIT

[Edited on 1-25-2022 by Don Pisto]

mtgoat666 - 1-25-2022 at 11:23 AM

I am amused by Burton's descriptions...

https://www.volunteerswithoutlimits.org/interesting-san-feli...


Quote:

In 1969 Richard Burton made an unspectacular movie called Raid on Rommel. This was filmed in the foothills just outside of San Felipe. On June 28, a few days before shooting began, Burton commented in his journal, “Two more days before I go to Mexico. Tales I hear of the place -San Felipe- are not too encouraging. Mean temp 113. Only two restaurants. Population 800. Shark-infested waters. Hurricane season. Only 33 beds in the whole town for visitors, most people living in caravan trailers and tents. No telephone. Only expert pilots can land there. Otherwise OK.”

Burton had just remarried Elizabeth Taylor a few days before. And he had also stopped drinking. He seemed to view the San Felipe Desert as a reason to take refuge in his renewed relationship with Elizabeth Taylor. On July 8th he wrote in his journal, “A horrible day. The heat in the desert was insufferable and I spent half the day laying in the sand with my mouth agape pretending to be unconscious while the sand, stirred up by the wind which was blowing in exactly the wrong direction, blew up my nose and into my mouth. However I was excited at seeing E. so I was stoically good-natured.”

Taylor’s plane finally arrived and Burton rushed back to his hotel to meet her. His journal remarks, “Immediately everybody started making cracks about San Felipe and what a terrible place it was and one would have thought they had attacked Pontrhydyfen [Burton’s birthplace] -I was so defensive. Never has a man been so chauvinistic about a chithouse. I feebly pointed out the beauty of its beach, and lamely said the sea was wonderful. Kate said it was too warm and was like taking a hot bath. I lamely and bravely said that there were horses for hire. I said it was much more cosmopolitan than Bucerias [a town near Puerto Vallarta] which is like saying that Hell is better than Purgatory. We went in a sullen silence to dinner at Reuben’s and it was as stickily uncomfortable as I’d ever known it or perhaps it was just the same as usual but I imagined it to be the worst night of the year and that the weather gods were conspiring against me.”




[Edited on 1-25-2022 by mtgoat666]

Don Pisto - 1-25-2022 at 11:28 AM

Quote: Originally posted by mtgoat666  
I am amused by Burton's descriptions...

https://www.volunteerswithoutlimits.org/interesting-san-feli...


Quote:

In 1969 Richard Burton made an unspectacular movie called Raid on Rommel. This was filmed in the foothills just outside of San Felipe. On June 28, a few days before shooting began, Burton commented in his journal, “Two more days before I go to Mexico. Tales I hear of the place -San Felipe- are not too encouraging. Mean temp 113. Only two restaurants. Population 800. Shark-infested waters. Hurricane season. Only 33 beds in the whole town for visitors, most people living in caravan trailers and tents. No telephone. Only expert pilots can land there. Otherwise OK.”

Burton had just remarried Elizabeth Taylor a few days before. And he had also stopped drinking. He seemed to view the San Felipe Desert as a reason to take refuge in his renewed relationship with Elizabeth Taylor. On July 8th he wrote in his journal, “A horrible day. The heat in the desert was insufferable and I spent half the day laying in the sand with my mouth agape pretending to be unconscious while the sand, stirred up by the wind which was blowing in exactly the wrong direction, blew up my nose and into my mouth. However I was excited at seeing E. so I was stoically good-natured.”

Taylor’s plane finally arrived and Burton rushed back to his hotel to meet her. His journal remarks, “Immediately everybody started making cracks about San Felipe and what a terrible place it was and one would have thought they had attacked Pontrhydyfen [Burton’s birthplace] -I was so defensive. Never has a man been so chauvinistic about a chithouse. I feebly pointed out the beauty of its beach, and lamely said the sea was wonderful. Kate said it was too warm and was like taking a hot bath. I lamely and bravely said that there were horses for hire. I said it was much more cosmopolitan than Bucerias [a town near Puerto Vallarta] which is like saying that Hell is better than Purgatory. We went in a sullen silence to dinner at Reuben’s and it was as stickily uncomfortable as I’d ever known it or perhaps it was just the same as usual but I imagined it to be the worst night of the year and that the weather gods were conspiring against me.”




[Edited on 1-25-2022 by mtgoat666]


talk about a bad time to quit drinking!

chippy - 1-25-2022 at 01:04 PM

I guess beer wasn´t considered "drinking":lol:.