“The Night of the Generals” is the rare
mystery set in war. It was a Franco-British
production helmed by Sam Spiegel who was attempting to replicate the success of
his “Lawrence of Arabia”. To maximize
his chances, he reunited Peter O’Toole and Omar Sharif for the first time since
that epic five years earlier. This might
have worked except for the fact that neither star was happy to be involved in
the movie. The two actors were forced to
make the movie for laughably low salaries for new mega-stars because they were
still under an earlier contract. In
fact, Donald Pleasance was paid a lot more than the other two. Sharif was uncomfortable with playing a Nazi
and had a very awkward moment in a Warsaw café when he forgot he was in
uniform. Spiegel hired Anatole Litvak as
director instead of a new up and coming director. He then proceeded to micro-manage and
undercut Litvak throughout the shoot. It
took four screenwriters to put together the script. In spite of all this dysfunctionality the
movie was a big hit – not!
The
movie opens with the murder of a prostitute in Warsaw in 1942. A Major Grau (Sharif) from the Abwehr (Nazi
intelligence) is brought in because the girl was a German agent. The three suspects are three German generals. It is no spoiler to admit that it is obvious
from his first appearance that Gen. Tanz (O’Toole) is the murderer. End of mystery, but unfortunately not end of
movie. Stick around for a truly bizarre
performance by O’Toole. He plays Tanz as
a looney and a sadist. He is insane and
evil even for a Nazi. He has a soft spot
for kids while he is wiping out their neighborhood with tanks and
flamethrowers. Grau is snooping around
when he gets transferred to Paris. Guess
what three suspects end up in Paris two years later at the time of a similar prostitute
murder? It’s a small war after all. The film throws in a subplot about the
conspiracy to kill Hitler and does a satisfactory job reenacting the
assassination attempt. Tanz kills
another prostitute and frames his driver, but then lets him flee so he can
later implicate him when we flash forward to Hamburg in 1965.
This
movie is a misfire of epic proportions.
Nothing works. It is a mess. It has no flow, partly due to the nonlinear
structure. It drags along like a
crippled otter. There is a romance
involving Tanz’s driver that is lame and has no logical reason for being in the
movie. Except to give the great Tom
Courtney something to do to please his multitude of fans. The weaving of the mystery with the
assassination conspiracy does not work.
More importantly, the mystery is undermined by O’Toole’s truly weird
performance. It is painfully clear that
he sabotaged the movie out of spite for his paltry salary. At one point he makes a trip to a museum and
freaks out over a self-portrait of Van Gogh.
The next day he returns to the museum and stares at the painting and
then leaves. WTF? Of course, you have to put some of the blame
for that on the four screenwriters, but he did not have to play Tanz as the
Hitler Youth voted Most Likely to Kill Prostitutes. He also does not bother to even attempt a
German accent. Then again, neither does any other member of the cast.
Bleh!
GRADE = D
In the Warsaw scenes, Tanz and his division are wearing German army uniforms. Two years later in Paris they are members of the Waffen SS.
ReplyDeleteTrue. And the movie sucks.
DeleteI've always liked this one despite its messy plot and oddball casting. The main knock against it is the sloppy attempts to tie the murder story in with the 20 July plot.
ReplyDeleteOkay. I respect your opinion, but strongly disagree.
DeleteI agree with Groggy, enjoy this film, and even if it has flaws, to say it sucks is just silly.
ReplyDelete