Today’s film is a war movie with scenes that happen on September 13. Watch it tonight and enjoy.
TOBRUK
Capt. Kurt Bergman and his band of expatriate German Jews who are in the British Army rescue American Major Donald Craig from internment by the Vichy French and take him to a desert base. Colonel Harker’s plan is for a British force to act as POWs, guarded by Bergman’s men and guided by Craig to attack Tobruk in conjunction with a naval raid to destroy Rommel’s supply base. They set out. When an Italian force camps near them, they start a fight between the Italians and an approaching German column and slip away. Craig and Bergman drive a half-track that clears the way through a minefield. They are strafed by a British Tomahawk fighter and are forced to shoot it down. . Arabs (who think they are Germans) hand over to them two British traitors, the Portmans, father and daughter who are to deliver a message from Field Marshall Kesselring to pro-Nazis in the Egyptian Army assuring them of Nazi support for an anti-British revolt. One of Bergman’s men turn out to actually be a Nazi and he send the Portmans to tap into a phone cable and call Tobruk for help from the Germans. However the Portmans are shot by an Italian patrol that kills the father and wounds the daughter. The traitor kills the daughter, but is apparently killed himself. The entire force now puts on German uniforms. They reach Tobruk on September 13,1942. [1:10:16 to 1:47:46] They learn there are strong tank forces there and that the naval raid should be called off. The RAF bombs the town and the squad sent to take over the radio station and warn off the raid is killed. From above they attack the coastal battery and destroy it. They signal the raiders with a flasher and warn them off. The German task tanks counterattack. Bergman and a squad attack the tanks from the rear until they are wiped out. Craig and three men hijack a tank and destroy the fuel depot. The rest of the British force (back in British uniform) holds off the Germans until they are forced to.surrender. Col. Harker destroys the Kesselring document and kills the traitor before being killed himself. Craig and his three men make it to the alternate pickup site.
A somewhat clichéd war film. It’s definitely not Saving Private Ryan or Band of Brothers, but it is watchable. It’s entertaining enough as long as you just expect a war movie and not a great movie.
The Path to Victory by Douglas Porch (Farrar, Straus & Giroux, New York, 2004) pps. 309-310
Awards - The film was nominated for the Best Visual Effects Oscar at the 40th Academy Awards
Director - Arthur Hiller
Screenplay - Leo V. Gordon
Running Time - 107 minutes
Released - February 7, 1967
Starring - Rock Hudson as Major Donald Craig, George Peppard as Captain Kurt Bergman, Nigel Green as Colonel John Harker, Guy Stockwell as Lieutenant Max Mohnfeld, Jack Watson as Sergeant Major Jack Tyne, Heidy Hunt as Cheryl Portman, Leo Gordon as Sergeant Krug, Robert Wolders as Corporal Bruckner
Copyright by Ivan Walters in 2015.
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