just watch it!

The story, direction, characters, and writing/dialogue is akin to taking a tranquilizer shot to the neck, but everything else was so well done.

It's simply great fun, a winsome film and an occasionally over-the-top luxury fantasy that never flags.

Just intense enough to provide a much-needed diversion, just lightweight enough to make you forget about it soon after it’s over. It’s not exactly “good,” per se, but it does what it sets out to do in terms of putting us on edge, which makes it … successful?

I too watched this movie several times on WBKB (now WLS) in the Chicago area back in the late 50's and early 60's. Yea, there was the "thrill" of these guys finding a "German" (actually a fairly current American tank, painted-up to look like, well, just like a painted-up American tank!) at the bottom of a sound stage sand dune. Entertaining stuff for the ten to twelve year old screen watchers, none-the-less.However, they got the name WRONG. As I recall, the ugly woman painted on the tank's turret had the name beside it that read "Die Eiserne Jungfrau". The translation they gave in the movie, and the title of the film, was "The Steel Lady". Not so! "Die Eiserne Jungfrau" translates as "The Iron Maiden". I think that if the script writers had bothered to translate the name correctly, then the concept of an ancient torture device (the "Iron Maiden", where the victim is ENCLOSED inside a metal human like form, with spikes aiming in towards him as the cage is closed tight), well, that would better explain the "battlefield humor" the "German tank crew" had when they named the tank in this story.Eisen Hund

I found this movie for sale on ebay in DVD format. What I received seemed to be a very good VHS to DVD copy, with no title page or chapters. The movie itself was just like I remembered it from the early sixties. A plane owned by an oil company bellies in during a sandstorm in the North African desert and the pilot and passengers must find a way to survive.I found it interesting to note how many similarities there were with the James Stewart movie, "Flight of the Phoenix." It made me wonder if the writer of "Phoenix" might have done a variation on a theme. Similarities included an oil company, a North African desert, an airplane bellying in because of a sandstorm, broken radio transmitter, a man with a drinking problem, rationed water, fixing a broken derelict for transportation and evil Bedouins.All in all it was a pretty good yarn, but there were some hard to believe improbabilities. The idea that a sandstorm could bring down an airplane within a few hundred feet of a buried German tank in an area as vast as the Sahara was a little hard to believe. It was also hard to believe that anyone would be able to disassemble and reassemble a tank engine without a fairly complete set of tools, surely it would take more than would be carried in a fairly small twin engine aircraft. It was also a bit difficult to accept that four men would fail to hear the sound of a DC-3 flying over at about 1000 feet in the middle of the night even if they were sleeping. It was also hard to swallow the British accent of one of the Bedouins.The main plot is that of survival. Some of the subplots, such as John Dehner's drinking problem, get in the way of an otherwise good story. The tank they found was well away from the battles of North Africa because it had joined with a clan of bad guy Bedouins in a raid on another clan. During that raid a bag of jewels was stolen. The tank escaped into the desert and was buried by a sirocco. John Dehner finds the jewels while looking for a place to hide his booze but keeps it a secret. Our heroes drive the tank straight to raiding bad guys camp at an oasis (another improbability). Our heroes escape the Bedouin camp and head for a French fort battling the bad guys all the way. Sort of a variation on the 'stagecoach in the desert' western movie theme.I found the movie to be overall entertaining despite its flaws. Maybe because I remember the movie so fondly from my youth, or maybe because it is pretty good B movie.

I watched it on black and white TV in the late 50s or early 60s in Minnesota. My dad, brother, and I sat glued to our seats munching homemade popcorn during the whole thing.The closest thing I've seen to it lately is: "Flight of the Phoenix". Steel lady was far more believable. The old plane, old tank, and action were great. It was a real rush for a collector of old military stuff and old car nut. There is a shot of an ART-13 radio transmitter in the back of the cockpit before the crash.As to the possibility of getting a tank running after being burried for decades, the Confederate Air Force, and others have flown B-29s and a B-47 out of china lake NWC that had been sitting in the desert just as long. Usually an oil change, gassing up, a fresh battery, and repairing vandalism was all it took to get them back in the air. Most tanks used 28 volt (nominally 24 VDC) batteries, as did the planes. Oil and avgas from the plane would work for the tank. It would not take a rocket scientist to get a tank going in a day or so. Much more credible than the redesign and remanufacture shown in "Flight of the Phoenix". I like both movies, but give the Steel Lady a higher mark for technical correctness.I would surely like to get a copy on tape or DVD to relive a pleasant sunday afternoon of my salad years.Larry Backer

I saw this movie on television at least twice, and I still remember it as enjoyable. I guess it is the treasure-hunter in me that enjoys the idea of a lost german tank being rediscovered in the desert with a fortune of stolen jewels in it. As far as the possibility of being able to resurrect the tank, I have seen mechanics who could take a pile of junk parts and turn them into whatever they wanted to. after all, didn't the A-Team do this on every episode? The movie had enough action to keep it going, and character actors such as John Dehner didn't hurt either. All in all, it's a simple escapist movie. I would even consider buying it if it were released.