Operation Crossbow
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Movie Reviews of Operation Crossbow
Movie Review: Outstanding WWII Espionage Adventure Film
Summary: 5 Stars
OPERATION CROSBOW is an Outstanding WWII espionage adventure film. They don't make films like this any more. Made at the height of his career George Peppard stars as Lt. John Curtis a volunteer sent on a perilous mission to uncover the production site of Nazi Germany's V2 rocket site. This film is very suspenseful and cold blooded in its depiction of the Allies' resolve to eliminate Germany's weapon of terror. It truly is spectacular and is very interesting in its approach and vision of sacrifice willing or not. The cast is impressive and includes Sophia Loren, Richard Johnson, Jeremy Kemp, Tom Courtenay, Anthony Quayle, Richard Todd, Trevor Howard, John Mills and Lilli Palmer. Great score by Ron Goodwin.
Movie Review: Nazi V1 threatens England
Summary: 5 Stars
Very good WW II movie. Fairly accurate. Not too much schmaltz. It is always harder for a movie to be believable with big name stars, but they do a good job.Movie Review: A particularly impressive epic WW2 spy thriller
Summary: 4 Stars
Boasting a fairly incredible all-star cast, Operation Crossbow is a particularly impressive WW2 epic that won't win too many awards for realism but is a highly effective combination of spy thriller and men on a mission movie. The mission is for undercover agents George Peppard, Jeremy Kemp and Tom Courtney to masquerade as skilled labor to infiltrate and help destroy the Nazi V-2 rocket factories, but the film is as much concerned with the development of Hitler's `wonder weapons' and the Allies' initial disagreements as to whether they could ever be practical as it is with their destruction. Indeed, it manages the rather neat trick of acknowledging the German test pilots' courage as it traces the development of the V-bombs without resorting to the `good German' clichés - they may be brave, but they're also Nazis committed to taking over the world - though that also means the film's heroes aren't introduced until half an hour into the film. Similarly, while there are some big bangs along the way, most of the action is relegated to the spectacular finale (which ended up as stock footage 12 years later in Peppard's dismal sci-fi road movie Damnation Alley!), yet the film is constantly engaging.
Superbly directed by Michael Anderson (a sentence you don't see very often) with an excellent use of the scope frame incorporated into Elliott Scott's production design, there's a fair amount of dramatic license in the strong script co-written by Emeric Pressburger (under his pseudonym Richard Imrie), particularly in one development with a German spy (the Nazis never had an effective intelligence presence in Britain during the war), but its rather well-judged balance of heroism and cynicism (the Allies can be just as ruthless here as the Nazis) makes it hold up remarkably well. True, at times it feels like its trying perhaps a little too hard to shoehorn in another familiar face to up the marquee value - the narrative almost comes to a halt when Sophia Loren's character appears, though her subplot has a memorably shocking payoff - but the cast more than earn their keep here, with good turns from Anthony Quayle, Richard Johnson, Lilli Palmer and John Mills, solid ones from John Fraser, Sylvia Sims, Trevor Howard, Paul Henreid (Casablanca's Victor Lazlo on the Nazi side!) and Richard Todd as well as bit parts for familiar faces like Ferdy Mayne, Maurice Denham, Richard Wattis, John Alderton and Philip Madoc, starting his career as he went on as a menacing German policeman not a million miles away from his snide U-boat commander in Dad's Army.
Warner Home Video's DVD is an improvement over MGM/UA's laser disc, offering a good 2.35:1 widescreen transfer with brief original making of featurette and trailer, though sadly the deleted scenes with Gordon Jackson, John Le Mesurier and Basil Dignam aren't included.
Movie Review: Exciting WWII spy/adventure movie with great cast
Summary: 4 Stars
After only being available on a brutal DVD release, Operation Crossbow has finally been released in a format that will please movie fans everywhere...WIDESCREEN! Set in 1943 and 1944 (D-Day is mentioned here and there as the Allies prepare for the '44 invasion and the conclusion is after the landing), Operation Crossbow shows the efforts of the Germans to build pilotless bombs to attack London, but maybe more importantly the development of V2 rockets. Allied Intelligence catches wind of the German efforts and sends agents disguised as scientists and engineers in to see what they can find out. Really, this is two different movies. The first thirty minutes gives backgrounds from German and Allied perspectives about the bombs and rockets, the Germans building them and the Allies trying to destroy them. The last 90 minutes covers the efforts of Allied agents infiltrating German factories to sabotage the rocket development. While the two parts have different tones, they combine for a very exciting movie. The background info is very interesting, and the excitement level really takes off with the introduction of the Allied agents.
In a cast of big names, Sophia Loren gets top billing for a cameo! She plays the wife of a German engineer who she isn't aware is dead yet. Loren seems to be there for eye candy and to draw more of an audience in, but only sticks around for about 20 minutes midway through the movie. George Peppard is the rightful star of the movie as Lt. John Curtis, a recruited American agent posing as Loren's dead husband to infiltrate a German rocket factory. Peppard brings just the right amount of humor and seriousness to the role. Richard Johnson, John Mills, and Trevor Howard are excellent in smaller parts as members of Allied Intelligence who must figure out how to slow down the German efforts to build rockets. Tom Courtenay and Jeremy Kemp support Peppard as Robert Henshaw and Phil Bradley, two agents who might have bit off more than they could chew. The movie also features Paul Heinreid, Anthony Quayle in an excellent, creepy part, Lilli Palmer, and Helmut Dantine. Some are making brief cameos, but part of the fun is picking them out throughout the movie.
The recently released DVD is very well put together and long overdue, especially considering how bad the previous release was. The DVD offers a smooth-looking widescreen presentation, a trailer for the movie, and the vintage featurette, "Looking Back at Crossbow," which covers the early history of rockets while also tying into the movie's actual history. So for an above-average WWII spy/secret agent adventure movie with an excellent ensemble cast, look for the new DVD of Operation Crossbow!
Movie Review: "Old Fashioned War Film"
Summary: 4 Stars
Having framed my opening, I saw that I had been anticipated by the Amazon editorial reviewer. Yes, this does qualify for consideration as an "OLDIE" (although, from my perspective, 1965 is 15 years too young to earn the designation). That means one is allowed to factor in the nostalgia factor (how nice again to see wonderful Lili Palmer) and the fact that it exemplifies the traditional war film.
With that in mind, one can say that it is far from the best of films about WW2, and far from the best of 1960's WW2 films. Nonetheless, it is a decent film that keeps one's attention by offering some of our cherished scenes of heroic espionage agents, sturdy patriotic underground workers, and chance-taking organizational leaders winning out over fat-headed doubters. The cast is filled with many British and American players of the day who handle the varied roles they play with aplomb. All in all, a film that will not stir the core of your being but will entertain for a couple of hours.
I will add a note of personal interest. There are scenes of a German woman in uniform flying an early prototype of the so-called "flying bomb" and seemingly being treated with respect by high ranking German officers (one played by Paul Henreid). It was my understanding that no such situation could have existed in the very traditional German army. My error, as indicated in this paragraph lifted from an internet article on women in uniform during WW 2.
"Fascist ideology dictated that a women's role in society was as a mother and frowned upon women working in any capacity. A few German women did find ways to work, some in jobs such as ferrying and test pilots. Melitta Schiller was awarded the Iron Cross for conducting 1,500 test dives of new dive bombers. And Hitler favorite Hanna Reitsch, a record-breaking glider and test pilot before the war, flew every Luftwaffe plane and helicopter. Denied permission to organize a women's flight squadron, she organized a suicide squadron that would use V-1 rockets modified with seats to hold pilots to attack British industrial centers. The program was eventually dropped. In the final days of the war, she flew a Luftwaffe general through Soviet artillery fire and fighters to land on a road in central Berlin and meet with Hitler just days before he killed himself."
It was this Hanna Reisch, who it would seem, was the prototype for the woman in the film.