The tense story of a manhunt for a psychopathic sex killer during the Nazi occupation of Warsaw and Paris in World War II. An Intelligence major is assigned to the task of finding the killer, who is believed to be a top-ranking German officer... Read more
| Starring | Peter O'Toole, Omar Sharif, Tom Courtenay, Christopher Plummer |
|---|---|
| Director | Anatole Litvak |
| Genres | Drama |
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The tense story of a manhunt for a psychopathic sex killer during the Nazi occupation of Warsaw and Paris in World War II. An Intelligence major is assigned to the task of finding the killer, who is believed to be a top-ranking German officer...
| Starring | Peter O'Toole, Omar Sharif, Tom Courtenay, Christopher Plummer, Donald Pleasence, Joanna Pettet, Coral Browne, Harry Andrews, John Gregson, Nigel Stock, Juliette Greco |
|---|---|
| Director | Anatole Litvak |
| Studio | UCA |
| Run time | DVD: 2 hrs 18 mins |
| Certificate | |
| Genres | Drama |
| Language | DVD: English |
| Dubbed | French, German, Italian, Spanish |
| Hearing-impaired | English |
| Subtitles | DVD: Arabic, Danish, Dutch, Finnish, French, German, Greek, Italian, Norwegian, Spanish, Swedish, Turkish |
| Released | DVD: 11 Oct 2004 Production year: 1966 |
| Format | DVD |
Three Nazi generals are the prime suspects following a series of Jack the Ripper-style murders in this lurid Second World War drama. Omar Sharif heads the inquiry while Peter O'Toole is top-billed as one of the officers under investigation. Director Anatole Litvak gives up on the whodunnit element early on and the plot just about muddles through, with Tom Courtenay representing the powerless ordinary soldier wondering why one mass murderer should stand out among so many.
A curiously bumpy narrative which is neither mystery nor character study but does provide a few effective sequences and impressive performances. The big budget seems well spent.
As a devotee of many of the cast of this movie, I was excited to rent it. Peter 0'Toole reunited with Omar Sharif (Lawrence of Arabia), and Omar Sharif reunited with Tom Courtenay (Dr Zhivago). Actors and films I adore. Seemed like a great idea for a plot to, a serial killer movie with a backdrop of WW2. The movie starts well and is notable for, what still seems brave to me, portraying Nazi characters in a sympathetic light. Do not misunderstand me, this isn't a Nazi sympathizing movie, but it is rare to that the characters are dealt with pretty normally in that it's almost secondary that they happen to be Nazis. Unfortunately the film dwells too long on a subplot that adds little depth to the film about power struggles within the Nazi party which somehow overbalances the original story, this then means the ending feels rushed. Also the film lacks the twists of a Murder Mystery and the factual detail of a war movie.
Having said that it's worth seeing if only as a curio. Crying out to be remade.......I think the confused state of this review is symptomatic of the films identity crisis....
This being the 1st in the series of Freddy films, I would have expected this to be the better of them, although this is a good film for horror buffs. It does however lack the suspense and jumpiness which you would normally be in a good horror film. The 3rd of this series "Dream Warriors" I feel is the best from a bad bunch.