Destination Gobi

Destination Gobi is a 1953 American Technicolor World War II film from 20th Century Fox, produced by Stanley Rubin, directed by Robert Wise (his first color feature film), that stars Richard Widmark and Don Taylor. US Navy chief Sam McHale (Widmark) takes command of a unit of weather observers stranded behind Japanese lines deep in Inner Mongolia. McHale must lead his men across the treacherous Gobi Desert to the sea coast. Mongols that the sailors had befriended, led by chief Tengu (Murvyn Vye), help them elude the Japanese and steal a Chinese junk in order to reach Okinawa. After the picture's opening credits, a written foreword reads: In the Navy records in Washington, there is an obscure entry reading "Saddles for Gobi." This film is based on the story behind that entry--one of the strangest stories of World War II. The unit involved was part of the Sino-American Cooperative Organization (SACO), referred to as Sino-American Combined Operations in the film.