February 20 - The Heroes of Telemark

Today’s movie is a war film with a scene happening on February 20. I hope you will enjoy this film and watch it tonight.

THE HEROES OF TELEMARK          

Nilssen, director of the Norsk Hydro plant in German occupied Norway is ordered to increase the facilities production of heavy water by 400%. Nilssen sends a photo through the Norwegian Resistance to Dr Rolf Pedersen, a physicist at the University of Oslo. As a result the Resistance hijacks a coastal steamer to take Pedersen to England through the mine-infested North Sea. The data that Pedersen brings convinces the Allies that Germany is trying to make an atomic bomb. Pedersen and Knut Straud, his Resistance minder parachute back into Norway to see if a commando raid on the factory is possible, as Allied HQ says the factory must be destroyed. The pair ends up coincidentally at the home of Pedersen’s ex-wife. Pedersen concludes a commando raid is out of the question, but Straud opposes bombing, as it would cause too many civilian casualties. London decides on a commando raid. When a hunter, Jensen stumbles across the advance team they keep him a prisoner.  The plane bringing in the 50 British commandoes crashes. Straud decides to proceed with the raid using the ten-man advance team.  They tie up Jensen and leave him behind. The team rappels down a cliff and enters the factory. They blow up the equipment for making heavy water and escape from the factory. Jensen, who turns out to be a traitor helps the Germans try to track down the escaping team. Pedersen ends up having to pose as a pro-German Norwegian to avoid arrest, but is accidentally exposed. He makes a death defying escape off of a bus. Pedersen learns the Nazis have restored full production, but a bomber raid to destroy the factory fails. The Nazis plan to ship the heavy water they have extracted to Germany. Pedersen and Straud plant a bomb on the ferry that will transport the water for part of its journey. On February 20, 1944 after Pedersen sees a woman he knows and her child get on the ferry he gets on board also. He gets all the children onboard into a lifeboat on a pretext, so when the bomb goes off they are saved. The ferry and its cargo of heavy water sink to the bottom of a very deep lake.  [1:59:25 to 2:09:21]

An exciting film. However it introduces unnecessary elements of melodrama. Would have been better as purely an action film.

2194 Days of War ed. by Cesare Salmaggi and Alfredo Pallavisini (Gallery Books, New

York, 1977) at page 492 gives the date the ferry was sunk.

Producer - Benjamin Fisz

Director - Anthony Mann

Screenplay - Ben Barzman and Ivan Moffat

Runtime – 2 hours 11 minutes

Released – November 23, 1965

Starring -

Kirk Douglas as Dr Rolf Pedersen

Richard Harris as Knut Straud

Ulla Jacobsson as Anna Pedersen

Michael Redgrave as Uncle

David Weston as Arne

Sebastian Breaks as Gunnar

John Golightly as Freddy

Alan Howard as Oli

Patrick Jordan as Henrik

William Marlowe as Claus

Brook Williams as Einar

Roy Dotrice as Jensen

Anton Diffring as Major Frick

Ralph Michael as Nilssen

Eric Porter as Terboven

Wolf Frees as Knippelberg

Karel Stepanek as Hartmuller

Gerard Heinz as Erhardt

Victor Beaumont as German Sergeant

George Murcell as Sturmfuhrer

Mervyn Johns as Colonel Wilkinson

Barry Jones as Professor Roderick Logan

Geoffrey Keen as General Bolt

Robert Ayres as General Courts

Jennifer Hilary as Sigrid

Maurice Denham as Doctor

Copyright by Ivan Walters 2014.