The Heroes of Telemark (1965)

User Rating:

6.3/10   

Director:

Anthony Mann

Writers:

Ben Barzman (screenplay)
Ivan Moffat (screenplay)

Release Date:

November 1965 (UK)

Genre:

Action | Drama | History | War

Tagline:

COME FROZEN HELL OR HIGH ADVENTURE...Their Mission: Stop the Nazis from developing the atom bomb!

Plot:

Norwegian resistance tries to stop German troops to produce an atomic bomb component during WW2. Based on a true story.

Plot Keywords:

Heavy Water | Norwegian Resistance | Commando | Norway | Traitor

Cast

Kirk Douglas	...	Dr. Rolf Pedersen
Richard Harris	...	Knut Straud
Ulla Jacobsson	...	Anna Pedersen
Michael Redgrave	...	Uncle
David Weston	...	Arne
Sebastian Breaks	...	Gunnar
John Golightly	...	Freddy
Alan Howard	...	Oli
Patrick Jordan	...	Henrik
William Marlowe	...	Claus
Brook Williams	...	Einar
Roy Dotrice	...	Jensen
Anton Diffring	...	Maj. Frick
Ralph Michael	...	Nilssen
Eric Porter	...	Terboven

Also Known As:

Anthony Mann's The Heroes of Telemark (UK) (complete title)

Runtime:

131 min | Germany:108 min | West Germany:123 min

Country:

UK

Language:

English | German | Norwegian

Color:

Black and White (archive footage) | Color (Technicolor)

Aspect Ratio:

2.20 : 1

Sound Mix:

Mono

Certification:

Australia:G | Finland:K-16 | Norway:16 | Sweden:11 | UK:U | West Germany:12

Filming Locations:

Gausta, Telemark, Norway

Company:

Benton Film Productions

Trivia:

In the ski-ing chase where the black-clad Jensen (Roy Dotrice) is pursuing Pedersen (Kirk Douglas), Dotrice's stand-in double was one of the original saboteur heroes of the WWII Telemark operation.

Goofs:

Continuity: When the saboteurs approach the factory they lower themselves off steep cliffs into the gorge by rope, after the sabotage they hike back the same way.

Quotes:

Nilssen: That is... I must say that is fantastic efficiency!
Sturmfuhrer: Don't you ever make the mistake by underrating the Germans. By any means.
Sturmfuhrer: By Easter we will not have merely 10000 pounds of heavy water, but 12000 pounds of heavy water.

Movie Connections:

Featured in War Stories (2006) (TV)

Worthy, but somehow lacking.

In German occupied Norway during 1942, a group of Norwegian Resistance fighters joined by an initially reluctant Professor of Physics from Oslo University, attempt to destroy a German Heavy Water plant in Telemark, which is vital to the Third Reich's development of Atomic weapons.

What should be a tense and thrilling tale based on a true story is merely watchable. While it maintains your interest, it never grips. This must be down to the Director, Anthony Mann. Perhaps he had become too used to working on three hour epics (El Cid, Fall Of The Roman Empire), and he simply couldn't inject the necessary pace or urgency into a two hour adventure story. The cast are all fine, headed by Kirk Douglas and Richard Harris, more troubling is the overall look of the film. Despite extensive and commendable use of the actual locations, its rather unattractively photographed. This is quite surprising considering that Robert Krasker had done such sterling work on Mann's earlier epics. Also, the use of some black and white stock footage of planes is jarring and cheap looking.

This is a good story, worth telling. But as a wartime adventure film it pales in comparison to 'The Guns Of Navarone' or 'Where Eagles Dare', even though both of those stories were entirely fictional.