The Night of the Generals (1967)

Sorry, this movie sucks

Really Surprised!

This film is so real. It treats its characters with so much care and sensitivity.

One of the worst ways to make a cult movie is to set out to make a cult movie.

With Peter O'toole in the cast, you cant go wrong, so it had to be worth a second look over 30 years later. Sorry to other reviewers, this was a dated and tired looking film. A poorly told story for the silver screen, and an ordinary script, with a dull ending. My wife fell asleep, and she was dead right . O'toole was a fantastic performer to watch, but this one was not one of his best efforts. With many remakes being churned out, this story could certainly be re told today, and with the right casting and direction be a cracking film.

The Night of the Generals is a 1960s favorite of mine, even if it is just for the talent and the cinematography. Alas, today, because of a few production errors, as it stands, this one is the answer to the trivia question: "What film reunited 'Lawrence of Arabia' co-stars Peter O'Toole and Omar Sharif?" This film has about every Sixties icon that could be shoved in a Wehrmacht uniform - Peter O'Toole, Tom Courtenay Omar Sharif, Charles Grey, Christopher Plummer, Donald Pleasance, Nigel Stock, etc. It only lacks Derren Nesbitt, Jeremy Kemp and James Mason (along with real German Karl Michael Vogler) to have rounded up the majority of European male stock of actors who could fill out a German uniform. The setting of Warsaw showed these guys were bad Germans, and few movies are set in World War II Warsaw, even though it is as easy as taking a back lot and making it look further run down. Involving some of the Generals in the actual July 1944 plot to kill Hitler - hence the name "The Night of the Generals" - gives the film depth (but pads it for about half an hour). The "who done it" in wartime was a great plot touch. The color, the psychology used with O'Toole's character of General Tanz gives the movie a touch of learned discourse. And murdering prostitutes gave it as close to SEX, boobs and legs as could be done in 1966, when the film was lensed. *** SPOILER *** And here's where it makes the viewer hate it: O'Toole literally kills the movie, the audience and Sharif's Major Grau when he guns down Omar in a climatic confrontation and with about 20 minutes left for dates and viewers to squirm their seats. It was as if Holmes were torn apart by the Baskerville hounds on the moors. Sharif as Grau was everyman. He is even likable as a German pressed into wartime service because he was a policeman in civilian life and was needed for the war effort. Everybody loves the detective cop. But O'Toole simply, dispassionately guns him down. It is a cheap shock for the audience, but the act destroys the one person the viewer identified with. I mean there may have been a few fellows in 1967 Rio or Caracas who were pulling for the Generals, but those guys were not the money paying target audience. Spend two hours building a character and then gun him down, and the audience will hate the movie. They did, and they still do. Well, a guy who was an enlisted man in 1967 Vietnam said they showed this movie to the soldiers and it was sort of popular for the girls,the sex killing and the fact a few generals sort of get it. This could be remade today. Throw out the bit about killing Hitler, make it a straight psycho general with common hang ups and keep Grau ALIVE until after the war when he brings justice to Tanz, and it would work. It could even work with some sort of anti moral twist ending, such as Grau killing Tanz and keeping the cycle of violence open. But it CANNOT work with the hero figure murdered before the closing act. So, great film if you like 1960s talent and faux psychology. If you like straight murder mysteries or simple crime plots - SKIP IT.

This film is certainly a bit of an oddity which somehow managed to stay under my radar for years despite my being a fan of half the cast and a devotee of axis-focused WW2 films. It's strange that in the 1960's a film would pop up with the courage to tell a story set in Nazi Germany which stays politically neutral throughout, focusing more on a whodunit style plot where an investigating sympathetic German officer (Omar Sharif in an odd bit of casting) tries to find out which German General is murdering prostitutes.The bright spot in this picture (as with most bigger budget English WW2 films) is the acting, particularly the tour-de-force performance from Peter O'Toole as the unemotional yet power-crazed high ranking and universally reviled General Tanz. He gracefully glides through the film, and even though the years of alcohol abuse had certainly begun to take their toll on his boyish looks, it fits his character perfectly. I cannot imagine anyone else pulling it off like he did, save for perhaps Helmut Berger who essentially made a career out of aping O'Toole's performance in this film.Also look out for Harry Andrews and Christopher Plummer in cameo roles. Donald Pleasence also shines as a twitchy staff officer who is among the suspects along with O'Toole and that guy who played Blofeld in DIAMONDS ARE FOREVER. It's funny to see the two Blofelds working together. The film has rather impressive production values for the time including a few action scenes involving partisan suppression in the streets of Warsaw (complete with some shockingly convincing Tiger Tank mock-ups) and recreation of historical events like the 20 July Plot to kill Hitler and surrounding conspiracy.What makes this film so unique is its (and Omar Sharif's) focus on a small-seeming stakes of solving a murder against the large-seeming backdrops of World War 2, the destruction of Warsaw, and the plot to kill Hitler. By and large, this disconnect actually works very well and leads to some delightfully awkward situations which Sharif handles with a smile, undeterred from his quest for justice. A truly delightful film if one can overlook the rather sloppy wrap-up.

Was pleasantly surprised by this film when catching it on TV. Here was one I hadn't heard about, with actors I appreciate - together. Omar Sharif has presence in general, but particularly enjoyed his character here, very different from his romantic leads. I have the film now, and find myself skipping through to his scenes. Peter O'Toole is effective in his portrayal, but I don't skip to his scenes. Enjoyed the Charles Gray character, there being an attractiveness about Gray in general.Found this an absorbing movie, which, like many, have the multiple story lines going. That can annoy you as you grow interested in a development only to have it switched to another. But this movie contains such interest that one can enjoy it in many reviewings, becoming more familiar with the various developments and less annoyed by the switches.Probably a lot of things could have been done better. What else is new? But find so many elements that make it a "find," like many lesser known films you happen onto.