Ice Cold In Alex

WHAT’S THE GREATEST drinking scene in movie history? Rick’s gin joint session as Sam plays ‘As Time Goes By’ in Casablanca? Withnail sampling the “finest wines available to humanity” in Withnail And I? Or how about Annie (Kristen Wiig), high on sedatives and alcohol, invading first class in Bridesmaids? All good contenders, but you’d have to go a long way to beat the final scene of J. Lee Thompson’s taut World War II drama Ice Cold In Alex, a constant fixture not only in any self-respecting Best Big-screen Booze-up List, but also one of the greatest British war films ever made.

After a treacherous journey escorting an ambulance across the hot desert from the Libyan port city of Tobruk to Alexandria, Captain Anson (John Mills), joined by Mechanist Sergeantmajor Tom Pugh (Harry Andrews), Captain van der Poel (Anthony Quayle), a South African officer who has been unmasked as a German, and nurse Sister Diana Murdoch (Sylvia Syms), enters a bar and orders four lagers— the eponymous ‘ice cold in Alex’. Staring at it intently, running his finger up and down the pint glass, Anson downs the beer in one and utters, “Worth waiting for.” It’s not only cinema’s ultimate expression of thirst-quenching, but also a progressive portrait of solidarity, a moment where differences of nation, class and gender are all put aside.

The iconic pint-sinking was present and correct in Christopher Landon’s bestselling 1957 novel. On the page, the beer referred to was Rheingold, an American beer because the characters would never be seen drinking a German brand during the war. In the movie, the brand was switched to Danish beer Carlsberg, probably the best product placement in the world. After eight weeks’ location work in Tripoli, the crew shot the final scene at Elstree Studios first thing in the morning. As per film industry conventions, the props team experimented with

Mechanist Sergeant Tom Pugh (Harry Andrews), Captain van der Poel (Anthony Quayle), Sister Diana Murdoch (Sylvia Syms) and Captain Anson (John Mills) share the joy of a cold beer.

different soft drinks to replicate lager — ginger ale, sherbet, Andrews liver salts — but couldn’t find anything that looked realistic, so it was decided Mills would quaff genuine beer. Thompson was a hard task-master — he had run-ins with Mills, Quayle and Andrews over his penchant for putting the cast in danger — and the take numbers quickly racked up. “By take 14 I was totally plastered and was taken back to my dressing room to sleep it off,” recalled Mills. “It’s the best morning’s work I ever had in a studio.”

In the ’80s, advertising agency Gold Greenlees Trott purloined the scene for a Holsten Pils lager commercial, splicing Griff Rhys Jones into the film footage for comedic effect. Rival booze producers Carlsberg, the beer used in the film, hit back by simply using the clip with Mills admiringly looking at the Carlsberg branded glass, with a play on their usual tagline — “Still probably the best lager in the world.” Whatever version, you can almost taste Anson’s relief.