Looking for a WW2 adventure in the spirit of "Where Eagles Dare" or "The Guns of Navarone"? You could do worse than 1965's OPERATION CROSSBOW.
This one was never on my radar, but a recent TCM showing grabbed my attention with its all-star cast led by Sophia Loren, George Peppard, Trevor Howard and the excellent Tom Courtenay.
In the closing days of WW2, The Nazis are preparing two weapons that would have won them the war had they been developed sooner.
One is the V1 or "doodlebug" a clumsy looking plane/bomb hybrid. The other is the mighty V2 rocket, the largest version of which in our film, (fictitiously) carries a massive payload with New York City's name on it.
The first half is a bit sleepy, alternating between stuffy Brits like General Boyd (Mills, from "Ryan's Daughter" and "Swiss Family Robinson") and Professor Lindemann (Howard, from "Von Ryan's Express"and "The Battle of Britain") laying out their plan to insert spies into the Nazi rocket program.
Meanwhile, we watch the German program slowly work through failed test after test.
It's only in the second half that things kick into fine form.
Peppard (The Carpetbaggers, The Blue Max) is US Air Force Lt. John Curtis, whose language skills and resemblance to a Dutch rocket engineer land him as a spy pulled into the Nazi ranks.
Courtenay (Doctor Zhivago) is the best thing in the film as Henshaw, side by side with Peppard until his cover is blown. He's flawless.
Director Michael Anderson (Logan's Run, Around the World in 80 Days) makes the film move once it gets past a rather boring subplot with Sophia Loren wondering in from another film. She plays Nora Van Ostamgen (try saying that three times quickly), the ex-wife of the engineer that Curtis is pretending to be. Loren is stunning, but her top billing in what is basically an extended cameo is due only to the fact that she was sleeping with the producer, her husband, Carlo Ponti.
Smart move on his part, she was a huge box office draw at the time, although this film was a major box office disappointment in the US. However, it was one of 1965's biggest box office hits in the UK.
Jeremy Kemp (The Blue Max, Top Secret!) is very good as Captain Bradley, the other spy placed with Curtis into the program.
The finale takes place in a deep, underground cave the Nazis have turned into a rocket launching complex. If I didn't know any better, I'd say that OO7 production designer Ken Adam saw this film and stole from it two years later when he designed the biggest Bond set ever, Blofeld's rocket launching volcano in "You Only Live Twice".
The finale is exciting, suspenseful and action packed.
During the first V-2 rocket attack, a building block is seen exploding without any warning sound of the rocket approaching. I thought this was a mistake in the sound mix. Actually, the V-2 rockets traveled at over twice the speed of sound, which means that the rocket actually arrived on the target before its sound did!!
Terrifying.
Watching the London blitz has always been jaw dropping as a point in history when Churchill led one the greatest human resistances against relentless attacks.
The film captures that well. Not on the same emotional level as films like "Blitz" or "The Darkest Hour", but effectively.
I'll give it a B- thanks to a great cast, some unexpected twists (and character deaths!) and its pure popcorn 1960's special effects.
Check out this original trailer. The narrator is CLASSIC and so 60's!
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