Destination Gobi

Destination Gobi is a 1953 Technicolor war film in which Sam McHale Richard Widmark heads a group of US Navy men, sent to Mongolia for weather observation. McHale must lead his men across the treacherous Gobi desert to the freedom of the seacoast. Rescued from the Japanese by a Mongolian chief Murvyn Vye, the men are compelled to repay their rescuer by securing enough saddles for his sixty horses. A flummoxed Pentagon okays the requisition, and the chieftain leads Widmarks band to Okinawa.

In November 1944, Chief Boatswains Mate Sam McHale Richard Widmark is aghast to learn that he is being transferred from the USSEnterprise, his beloved aircraft carrier, to Argos 6, a Navyoperated weather station in Inner Mongolias Gobi Desert. Capt. Gates Willis Bouchey explains to McHale that accurate weather forecasts are crucial to the Allies success in the Pacific theater, and that his practical experience is required by meteorologist Commander Hobart Wyatt Russell Collins and his crew of technicians Jenkins Don Taylor, Walter Landers Max Showalter, Wilbur Coney Cohen Darryl Hickman, Elwood Halsey Martin Milner, Frank Swenson Earl Holliman and Paul Sabatello Ross Bagdasarian. Despite his longing for the ocean, McHale adjusts to life in the desert during the following six months, although Wyatt is bemused by McHales dependence on the militarys strict chain of command.In July 1945, three weeks before they are to be relieved, the crew learns that Japanese cavalry is scouring the desert for the weather stations, and McHale starts work constructing defenses for the outpost. The group is also baffled by the arrival of a tribe of nomadic Mongols, who camp at the stations oasis. After determining that the Navy men are not interested in the oasis grass, the Mongols leader, Kengtu Murvyn Vye, expresses no further interest in them until Elwood attempts to take photographs of the tribe. The Mongols react with hostility, but McHale gains Kengtus respect when he shows him how the camera works. Observing the Mongols horsemanship, former cowboy Jenkins muses that they would make an excellent cavalry. The next day, Kengtu orders his people to return the many things they have stolen from the station, although McHale allows them to keep his own cap and Wyatts dress uniform. Later that day, the Navy men learn that due to increasing pressure from the enemy, they will not be relieved. Hoping to persuade the Mongols to help them defend the station, McHale requisitions sixty saddles,

Source: Wikipedia