THE NIGHT OF THE GENERALS

U.K. - France | 1967 Directed by Anatole Litvak Starring Peter O'Toole Omar Sharif Tom Courtenay Color | 148 Minutes | Not Rated Format: DVD (R1 - NTSC) Sony Pictures Home Entertainment

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More "Plot to Kill Hitler" Cinema

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		Review by Brian Lindsey Film:7 DVD:5

It's ridiculous that Sony has released this as part of its Combat Classics line of DVDs, because it is most definitely not a war movie — there's perhaps two minutes of 'battle action' (if you can call it that) in the entire film. Did their home video people even watch the thing? Anybody making a blind purchase of this disc expecting a lot of gunfire and explosions is going to be massively disappointed. On the other hand, someone looking for a smartly-scripted murder mystery/suspense thriller set during World War II — one stuffed to overflowing with terrific actors — will be amply rewarded. Night of the Generals is an unusual motion picture to be sure, a fascinating mélange of fact and fiction. Its flashback-based structure and certain key elements of the plot make it difficult to review without divulging major spoilers, so I'll try to tread carefully here.

December 1942: In Nazi-occupied Warsaw, a prostitute is savagely butchered by a psychosexual maniac. The unfortunate woman has literally been "cut to pieces", stabbed over 100 times in the groin. Because she was an informant for the Germans, Wehrmacht intelligence officer Major Grau (Omar Sharif) is summoned to the crime scene by Polish policemen. A solitary witness saw the killer leaving the victim's apartment immediately after the slaying but did not get a look at his face. He only glimpsed the man’s uniform — the uniform of a German general.

Grau determines that only three officers of such rank present in Warsaw do not have alibis for their whereabouts at the time of the murder. All three are perched at the top of the military food chain: Gen. Gabler (Charles Gray), blustery commander of 7th Corps, the German force garrisoning the Polish capital; Gen. Kahlenberge (Donald Pleasence), his owlish chief of staff; and Gen. Tanz (Peter O'Toole), highly decorated commander of the "Nibelungen" Panzer Division, which is temporarily attached to 7th Corps for anti-partisan operations. Yet Grau is determined to unmask the killer regardless of the consequences. His aide (Gordon Jackson) thinks he's gone mad, tilting at potentially very dangerous windmills. Undeterred, Grau fervently believes that justice must be served, even for a lowly prostitute in the midst of a world war. (He also seems to take delight at the thought of being the instrument of a general’s downfall.) He doggedly persists in the investigation, drawing the ire of his powerful suspects. Of the three, he rates Tanz the least likely to be the murderer after observing him supervise the razing of an entire city block merely because he feels like it. "He revels in death," Grau later surmises, "which is why, in a curious way, I don't think he's the man I'm looking for. Anyone with the power to destroy a city whenever he chooses does not need such minor sport as killing a girl."

As Grau negotiates various roadblocks to his inquiries, other important characters are introduced. 11 minutes into the film we're somewhat jarringly thrust forward over 20 years in the future, to 1965. French Interpol inspector Morand (Phillipe Noiret) is shown following up on information uncovered by Grau during the war, interviewing people who knew him and the three generals. Flashback to Warsaw '42: We meet Ulrike (Joanna Pettet), the headstrong daughter of Gabler and his Prussian harpy of a wife (Coral Browne). She quickly tumbles into bed with Corporal Hartmann (Tom Courtenay), a university-educated draftee and disillusioned survivor of the Russian Front. Newly assigned to Gabler's HQ staff, he's happy to be far away from the fighting and even happier to have the beautiful Ulrike in his arms. To avoid scandal — a corporal isn't supposed to be shagging the general's daughter — the young lovers must keep their relationship a secret from her parents at all costs. Meanwhile, Gen. Kahlenberge has had enough of Grau's meddling. He arranges for Grau to receive a promotion in rank and a transfer to Paris, effectively ending his investigation. Grau must leave Poland without getting his man, without learning the identity of the murderer. The war grinds on.

July 1944: As the Germans struggle to contain the Allied invasion of Normandy, fate brings together all the major players in the Warsaw drama. Grau is a colonel in the intelligence section of Gabler's 7th Corps, now headquartered in Paris; Kahlenberge, still serving as chief of staff, is a prominent member of the "Valkyrie" conspiracy to assassinate Hitler. With the coup d'etat scheduled to begin in 48 hours, Kahlenberge is a bundle of nerves — exacerbated by the arrival of Gen. Tanz and his panzer division from Russia. A fanatical Nazi, Tanz has transferred from the army to the Waffen-SS. Advance units of his division are already encamping around Paris prior to moving up to the front. Kahlenberge knows they'll have to be neutralized if the coup is to succeed. Keeping Tanz occupied and out of the way is imperative, so he gets Gabler to order Tanz to take two days' leave for R&R, assigning Corporal Hartmann to be his chauffeur and guide for a whirlwind tour of Paris. This dashes Hartmann's plans for a romantic rendezvous with Ulrike but he has no choice but to click his heels and obey. In the course of these new duties Hartmann quickly learns that the mercurial panzer commander is a very odd individual during his off hours... Tanz's bizarre behavior — to include a near-fainting spell during a private viewing of Van Gogh's famous self-portrait, "Vincent in Flames" — puts Hartmann on tenterhooks.

While these events unfold, the indefatigable Grau seizes the chance to reopen the case of the murdered whore. He makes a deal with French police inspector Morand (Noiret again, 20 years younger sans aging makeup) in a quest for information about the suspects' activities in the city. Then history repeats itself when Morand calls Grau to the scene of a terrible crime — a Parisian prostitute, savagely butchered using the same M.O. as the Warsaw murder nearly two years earlier...

Jumping back and forth in time, lacking a central protagonist, Night of the Generals is a decidedly offbeat thriller, and not just for its World War II setting. The nature of the killings and the killer's psychosis, as well as the stylized montage of images used for the opening titles sequence, positively scream 'giallo'. What begins as a murder mystery, with Sharif as our sleuth, then incorporates a romantic drama (Courtenay and Pettet's storyline) with elements of a political thriller (the July '44 plot to kill Hitler). If the film has a significant flaw — apart from a few notable historical blunders — it is the tendency to meander off into the Valkyrie stuff, going into unnecessary detail about the conspiracy and assassination attempt. This needlessly extends the running time to almost 2½ hours. Otherwise the script, by Paul Dehn and Joseph Kessel (with an uncredited polish by Gore Vidal), is very tightly structured, featuring sharp, literate dialog.

A handsome production in all respects, the film's look is elevated substantially by excellent design, its sense of verité boosted by location shooting in Warsaw and Paris. The score by composer Maurice Jarre (Doctor Zhivago) is evocative of both Nazi militarism and a distinctly European crime/noir milieu. Director Anatole Litvak (The Snake Pit) makes fine use of the widescreen canvas; these compositions were utterly destroyed by pan & scan TV broadcasts of the past. As mentioned, the cast is populated by a host of marvelous actors — in big roles and small, all at the top of their game — and their presence alone would make the movie worth seeing. In addition to a suave Sharif and compellingly twitchy O'Toole (reuniting the stars of Lawrence of Arabia), you've got two of the Blofelds (Pleasence and Gray, in fine form essaying meatier-than-usual roles), Harry Andrews (The Hill), Christopher Plummer (who cameos as Rommel), Patrick Allen (Night Creatures), Sacha Pitoëff (Dario Argento's Inferno)... Even Euro-Cult favorite Howard Vernon (The Awful Dr. Orlof himself) puts in a memorable appearance near the end. Egyptian-born Sharif might at first sound like an unusual choice to play a German officer, but he often seems to be channeling Louis Jordan in the style of his performance; this works very well for the character.

This budget-priced catalog release (less than $13) looks and sounds very good indeed.

The anamorphic 2.35:1 transfer appears to have been taken from the original film elements; for its age it is exceptionally clean, with not a speck of dirt or debris in evidence. (As mentioned above, seeing this movie in its proper AR makes a tremendous difference.) A clear, robust digital mono audio track complements the topnotch visuals. English and French subtitles are offered but there are no extras whatsoever, not even the theatrical trailer. 4/09/11

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