MOVIEGOERS

"Hello, Frisco, Hello" has first billing, but the biggest attraction at the Met happens to be a war picture what am a war picture--"Desert Victory." Another one of those superlative British films, "Desert Victory" records the rout of Rommel by Montgomery's hardy Eighth Army over the 1300 miles of sandy hell that separates El Alamein from Tripoli. Unlike the typical Hollywood war film, "Desert Victory" shows battle to be neither ridiculously pretty nor ostentatiously heroic--but rather a bewildering melange of noise, confusion and quiet tragedy.

Out of the 26 cameramen who shot the picture, there were 17 casualties--four dead, seven wounded, six captured. The picture reflects their painstaking work, and a fine job of film editing makes it a work of art as well as cinematic journalism. And, unlike the average Hollywood epic, it manages to be damned convincing because it portrays battle as a matter of sweat as well as blood and tears.