Ice Cold in Alex is a 1958 British war film set during the Western Desert campaign of World War II based on the novel of the same name by Christopher Landon. Directed by J. Lee Thompson and starring John Mills, the film was a prizewinner at the 8th Berlin International Film Festival. Under the title Desert Attack, a shortened 79-minute version of the film was released in the United States in 1961. Film critic Craig Butler later referred to the shortened version as nonsensical.

Plot

Captain Anson, the officer commanding a British RASC Motor Ambulance Company in Tobruk, is suffering from battle fatigue and alcoholism. Ahead of the Axis capture of Tobruk by the Afrika Korps, Anson's unit is ordered to evacuate to Alexandria. Anson, MSM Tom Pugh and two nurses, Sister Diana Murdoch and Sister Denise Norton, become separated from the others in an Austin K2/Y ambulance nicknamed Katy. Attempting to reach British lines they encounter an Afrikaner South African officer, Captain van der Poel. Van der Poel tells Anson he has three bottles of gin in his pack, thus persuading Anson to allow him to accompany them to safety in Alexandria.