Cliff Robertson portrays a combat-weary pilot whose R.A.F. squadron is ordered to destroy a Nazi rocket fuel plant tucked deep into a Norwegian fjord. Based on a true story. Read more
| Starring | George Chakiris, Maria Perschy, Cliff Robertson, Harry Andrews |
|---|---|
| Director | Walter Grauman |
| Genres | Action/Adventure, Drama |
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Cliff Robertson portrays a combat-weary pilot whose R.A.F. squadron is ordered to destroy a Nazi rocket fuel plant tucked deep into a Norwegian fjord. Based on a true story.
| Starring | George Chakiris, Maria Perschy, Cliff Robertson, Harry Andrews, Michael Goodliffe, Donald Houston |
|---|---|
| Director | Walter Grauman |
| Studio | MGM ENTERTAINMENT |
| Run time | DVD: 1 hr 32 mins |
| Certificate | |
| Genres | Action/Adventure, Drama |
| Language | DVD: English |
| Released | DVD: 05 May 2003 Production year: 1964 |
| Format | DVD |
A film that inevitably suffers in comparison with that other tribute to the Royal Air Force, The Dam Busters. The mission is less audacious, the casting is less precise (Cliff Robertson as an American in the RAF and George Chakiris as a Norwegian Resistance fighter) and the theme tune is far harder to sing along to. The flying sequences are, undeniably, more thrilling (particularly the Scottish Highlands training exercises), but they cannot compensate for the dullness of the Norwegian-set scenes, which smack of Hollywood's wartime vision of occupied Europe in which the Nazis resemble the Keystone Kops and romance matters more than heroism.
Standard war heroics with enough noise and disorder to keep most audiences hypnotized.
The theme music in this film is one of the best tracks in a war film, I think this one was the better of the two films based on the Mosquito plane the other being Mosquito squadron.
But if you select scene 13 and fast forward it to the point where the bombs are being brought in, look at the top of the screen you will see a white car drive past and I sure it was not a 1940?s one.
This is one of my favorite war films and when I was a young girl, I fell in love with the dark haired, handsome guy being tortured by the Germans and cried when he was blown up by his friends in the RAF. I learned to play the music, which is memorable and haunting and award it 10 out of 10 for action.