Based on the 1975 novel of the same name by Jack Higgins, this is an extremely enjoyable "Boy's Own"-type adventure thriller concerning a Nazi plot to kidnap Churchill in 1943. I first saw the film in 2006 and I did not particularly enjoy it. I think that the major problem that I had with it then was that I was expecting it to be on the same level as the director John Sturges' previous films "The Magnificent Seven" and "The Great Escape", my fourth and fifth favourite films respectively then and now, and it most certainly isn't. However, I was unfair to it on that occasion. On my second viewing of it today, I enjoyed it considerably more for what it was as opposed to disliking it for what it wasn't. There was a few rather silly moments but it has a cracking script by Tom Mankiewicz. I would praise Sturges' direction from what I saw on screen but, according to Mankiewicz and Michael Caine, most of the editing work was done by Anne V. Coates so it is a little hard to gauge it in the way that I normally would for such things. This was Sturges' final film, incidentally.
Michael Caine is characteristically excellent as the highly decorated but disgraced protagonist Oberst Kurt Steiner. He is introduced while trying to save a young Jewish woman from being rounded up by the SS in Poland, saying that he does not have any strong feelings about the Jews one way or the other but he has seen too many people die in the war already. Steiner is a comparatively honourable man who at times is even sympathetic in spite of the fact that he is leading the mission to kidnap the Prime Minister. In fact, most of his men are honourable as one of them gives his life to save a little English girl from being crushed by a waterwheel. He meets that unpleasant fate himself. His Free Polish uniform is torn and it is revealed that he is wearing a German one underneath and, consequently, that they are Germans. Steiner insisted that he and his men be allowed to wear their German uniforms, one of the aforementioned silly moments.
I said in my review of "Ordinary People" last week that Donald Sutherland is one of the best actors of his generation and I stand by that. However, he was badly miscast as the Germans' IRA accomplice Liam Devlin. He does the best that he can with the role but his Irish accent is not great and the character is a little clichéd, his second line being "Top o' the mornin' to ya." Bar one year in Edinburgh, I have lived all of my 28 years in Ireland and I have yet to hear anyone say that unless they were mocking Irish stereotypes! Richard Harris was strongly considered for the role and he would certainly have been more suited to it as, aside from his nationality, he often played rough and ready characters. However, perhaps he was too suited to it. The producers decided that it was a bad idea to cast him since he was known for making pro-IRA statements in real life. Considering that this was a British film made in the 1970s, I don't think that it was a great idea or a very tasteful one to make Devlin a lovable rogue, essentially. His love story with Molly, admittedly played very well by Jenny Agutter, is nice but it doesn't really add much to the film.
The film has a very strong supporting cast overall such as Robert Duvall as Oberst Radl, Anthony Quayle as the Cassandra-esque Admiral Wilhelm Canaris (who was executed for treason in 1945), a suitably creepy Donald Pleasence as Himmler, Jean Marsh as the sleeper agent Joanna Grey, Sven-Bertil Taube as Hans, John Standing as Father Verecker, a very young Treat Williams as Captain Clark, Michael Byrne as Karl, Siegfried Rauch (the most prominent German cast member) as Brandt and, last but not least, Larry Hagman as the blustering, buffoonish US Army Colonel Clarence E. Pitts. Interestingly, he played a somewhat similar character in his cameo in "Superman", likewise written by Mankiewicz. The film also features nice small appearances from Maurice Roëves, Judy Geeson, Jeff Conaway, Roy Marsden and Denis Lill.
Overall, this is not a heavy hitter when it comes to World War II films but it's great fun. Oh, and what a twist at the end!
Michael Caine is characteristically excellent as the highly decorated but disgraced protagonist Oberst Kurt Steiner. He is introduced while trying to save a young Jewish woman from being rounded up by the SS in Poland, saying that he does not have any strong feelings about the Jews one way or the other but he has seen too many people die in the war already. Steiner is a comparatively honourable man who at times is even sympathetic in spite of the fact that he is leading the mission to kidnap the Prime Minister. In fact, most of his men are honourable as one of them gives his life to save a little English girl from being crushed by a waterwheel. He meets that unpleasant fate himself. His Free Polish uniform is torn and it is revealed that he is wearing a German one underneath and, consequently, that they are Germans. Steiner insisted that he and his men be allowed to wear their German uniforms, one of the aforementioned silly moments.
I said in my review of "Ordinary People" last week that Donald Sutherland is one of the best actors of his generation and I stand by that. However, he was badly miscast as the Germans' IRA accomplice Liam Devlin. He does the best that he can with the role but his Irish accent is not great and the character is a little clichéd, his second line being "Top o' the mornin' to ya." Bar one year in Edinburgh, I have lived all of my 28 years in Ireland and I have yet to hear anyone say that unless they were mocking Irish stereotypes! Richard Harris was strongly considered for the role and he would certainly have been more suited to it as, aside from his nationality, he often played rough and ready characters. However, perhaps he was too suited to it. The producers decided that it was a bad idea to cast him since he was known for making pro-IRA statements in real life. Considering that this was a British film made in the 1970s, I don't think that it was a great idea or a very tasteful one to make Devlin a lovable rogue, essentially. His love story with Molly, admittedly played very well by Jenny Agutter, is nice but it doesn't really add much to the film.
The film has a very strong supporting cast overall such as Robert Duvall as Oberst Radl, Anthony Quayle as the Cassandra-esque Admiral Wilhelm Canaris (who was executed for treason in 1945), a suitably creepy Donald Pleasence as Himmler, Jean Marsh as the sleeper agent Joanna Grey, Sven-Bertil Taube as Hans, John Standing as Father Verecker, a very young Treat Williams as Captain Clark, Michael Byrne as Karl, Siegfried Rauch (the most prominent German cast member) as Brandt and, last but not least, Larry Hagman as the blustering, buffoonish US Army Colonel Clarence E. Pitts. Interestingly, he played a somewhat similar character in his cameo in "Superman", likewise written by Mankiewicz. The film also features nice small appearances from Maurice Roëves, Judy Geeson, Jeff Conaway, Roy Marsden and Denis Lill.
Overall, this is not a heavy hitter when it comes to World War II films but it's great fun. Oh, and what a twist at the end!