Play Dirty
by Andr? De Toth
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DVD Cover Information
Actor: Harry Andrews, Michael Caine, Nigel Davenport, Nigel Green, Patrick JordanDirector: Andr? De Toth
Brand: TWENTIETH CENTURY FOX HOME ENT
DVD: Region Code 1
Audio: Arabic (Original Language); English (Original Language), Dolby Digital 2.0 Mono; German (Original Language); English (Subtitled); Spanish (Subtitled)
Format: Color, DVD-Video, NTSC
Picture Format: 2.35:1
Running Time: 118 minutes
DVD Release Date: 2007-04-24
Audience Rating: PG (Parental Guidance Suggested)
Studio: MGM (Video & DVD)
Movie Reviews of Play Dirty
Movie Review: Caine and Davenport take on the German Afrika Korps
Summary: 3 Stars
This is a good movie, though it does not have the magic it held when I first saw it as a kid.
PLAY DIRTY was another film I missed seeing on the wide screen in a cinema. It was not until years later that I saw the "edited for television" version on a TV network's movie of the week. Remember back then there were only three networks: CBS, NBC and ABC. At the time I was just getting interested in military history with my primary inspiration coming from war movies. PLAY DIRTY was essentially a grittier version of television's RAT PATROL. Back in the early 1970s I would have ranked this movie as one of the best war films ever made. It might also be that my parents bought their first color television about that time and PLAY DIRTY was one of the first televised movies I was able to watch in color.
The story: A small group of ad hoc commandoes is dispatched behind enemy lines to destroy a remote German fuel dump. The group is led by two officers Captain Douglas (Michael Caine) and Captain Leech (Nigel Davenport). Unbeknownst to our heroes they are considered expendable rejects by their superiors and have been sent out on their mission as decoys. The actual raiding force subsequently sets off into the Qattara Depression with a considerably beefed up force. Unfortunately the main force blunders into a deadly German ambush while the "decoys" watch undiscovered from the safety of a nearby escarpment.
The desert force penetrates fuel depot only to find that it is a dummy installation. In pursuit of the real depot they make their way into a Libyan coastal town where they are betrayed to the Germans by their own superiors. As the British Eighth Army is now pursuing the Germans into Libya, and thus in desperate need of captured fuel, the original mission is scrubbed. Failing to contact the commandoes the British leak their mission to the Germans.
Michael Caine plays the part of Captain Douglas, a British officer on loan from British Petroleum, whose primary mission was to oversee the unloading fuel in Egypt. As his position is deemed superfluous he is assigned to the decoy team to satisfy the requirement to have a British officer along. Nigel Davenport is Captain Leech, a hardened and battle wise veteran who spends most of his time behind enemy lines attired in various enemy uniforms. Unfortunately his most recent failed raids, as well as his stint in jail, likewise deem him as expendable.
A majority of the film focuses on the conflict and competition between the two officers with Douglas being the more academic problem solving officer and Leech as the experienced desert raider. As you might expect they eventually develop professional respect for one another.
PLAY DIRTY has not held up well over the years. The movie is punched full of musical cues beginning with the theme music, Lili Marlene, in German. Later scenes are accompanied by Italian and other German music blasting from the team's portable radio. Out of place music worked in BUTCH CASSIDY AND THE SUNDANCE KID and KELLY'S HEROES, but is a distraction in PLAY DIRTY. There are also an excess of zoom in and zoom out shots. Again, this technique was very common in films of the late 1960s and early 1970s.
There is also a very lengthy sequence of vehicles being winched up the steep escarpment. It is one of those scenes where you have already gotten the point when the first vehicle reaches the top and it is not necessary to spend as much time with the remaining jeep and truck. The combat scenes are limited to two major engagements. The first is the ambush of the main British raiding force and the second are the pyrotechnics during the destruction of the fuel depot.
On the other hand there is a good segment involving the team crossing rocky terrain. So rocky that they find themselves short of spare tires to replace those damaged by the rough ground. This sequence is worthy of some of the stories written about the Long Range Desert Group.
In many respects PLAY DIRTY looks like it could have been a television movie. The plot is one typical of 1960s and early 1970s commando-type fare where a select group sneaks behind enemy lines, plan goes awry, yet the target is successfully destroyed anyway. The story gets a bit confusing with the team switching back and forth between Italian and German uniforms. At one point we see the team armed with Spanish Z-45 submachine guns, a postwar Spanish copy of the German MP-40, and later carrying German MP-40 Schmeissers.
PLAY DIRTY was one of several films devoted to special operations teams aimed at destroying the Afrika Korps' fuel supplies. The original, of course, was the 1943 Billy Wilder film FIVE GRAVES TO CAIRO. A year prior to PLAY DIRTY there was a similar storyline in TOBRUK where a long range patrol sets out to destroy Rommel's heavily guarded fuel. In 1971 there would be a remake, of sorts, of TOBRUK with borrowed footage to create RAID ON ROMMEL. If you take time to think about it the portrayal of war in North Africa is almost always tied to fuel or water.
PLAY DIRTY was primarily lensed in Almeria, Spain. Almeria was a common location for movie making involving desert venues. LAWRENCE OF ARABIA, PATTON, and numerous other films have used southeastern Spain to portray various desert locations. Without looking too hard you will recognize some familiar first season RAT PATROL film locations.
The widescreen DVD copy of the movie is very good quality. Indeed the DVD was the first time I ever saw the complete film. I was somewhat disappointed in that there were no special features - not even an original movie trailer. So be it. I encountered the same malady when I finally got around to buying a DVD version of LAWRENCE OF ARABIA. The price was right and the DVD finally replaces my tired old 1980s heavily edited VHS copy.
Summary of Play Dirty
Studio: Tcfhe/mgm Release Date: 05/13/2008 Run time: 117 minutes Rating: PgThere's no mistaking the 1968 mood of Play Dirty: this cynical war movie could only have been made during the disillusioned Vietnam era, despite its WWII subject. Michael Caine plays a British captain in North Africa, tapped to lead a suicidal mission across the desert to destroy a German fuel depot. He's got a scurvy band of mercenaries to help him (this was a year after The Dirty Dozen, so keep that in mind), although most of the time they seem indifferent to both the job and Caine's survival. Nigel Davenport plays Caine's black-hearted yet lethally competent assistant, possibly the most nihilistic character on the side of the good guys in any war movie. Large patches of the film play without dialogue, including a grueling sequence in which vehicles are winched up the side of a hill, but somehow this adds to the grim, fatalistic atmosphere. The hard edge suits the style of director Andre De Toth, veteran maker of many a B-picture (this was his next-to-last effort). Caine plays it repressed and close to the vest, the better to contrast with Davenport's Mephistophelian soldier of fortune. Oh, and the ending--well, you'll want to stick around for the ending. It was 1968, after all. --Robert Horton
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