Tobruk (1967)

Director:

Arthur Hiller

Writer:

Leo Gordon (written by)

Release Date:

7 February 1967 (USA)

Genre:

War | Drama

Tagline:

83 men started the mission! Only 4 survived!

Plot:

September 1942 - With Erwin Rommel's Afrika Korps on the march through Egypt, a British special forces unit...

Plot Keywords:

Jew | Commando | Rommel | Desert | Tobruk

Awards:

Nominated for Oscar.

Cast

Rock Hudson	...	Maj. Donald Craig
George Peppard	...	Capt. Kurt Bergman
Nigel Green	...	Col. John Harker
Guy Stockwell	...	Lt. Max Mohnfeld
Jack Watson	...	Sgt. Maj. Jack Tyne
Norman Rossington	...	Alfie
Percy Herbert	...	Dolan
Liam Redmond	...	Henry Portman
Heidy Hunt	...	Cheryl Portman
Leo Gordon	...	Sgt. Krug
Robert Wolders	...	Corporal Bruckner
Anthony Ashdown	...	Lt. Boyden
Curt Lowens	...	German Colonel
Rico Cattani	...	Cpl. Stuhler (as Henry Rico Cattani)
Peter Coe	...	Tuareg Chieftain

Runtime:

107 min

Country:

USA

Language:

English | German | Italian | Arabic

Color:

Color (Technicolor)

Aspect Ratio:

2.35 : 1

Sound Mix:

Mono (Westrex Recording System)

Certification:

Australia:PG | Finland:K-16 | Norway:15 | Norway:16 (1967) | Sweden:15 | UK:A (original rating) | UK:PG (video rating) (1988)

Filming Locations:

Almería, Andalucía, Spain

Company:

Gibraltar Productions

Trivia:

Technical advice and assistance for the film were provided by the 40th Armored Division ("Grizzly") of the California Army National Guard.

Goofs:

Revealing mistakes: When Capt. Bergman attacks and kills the sentry, blood is visible on his right (knife) hand before he stabs the sentry.

Quotes:

Major Craig: It's suicide.
Colonel Harker: It's orders.

Movie Connections:

Edited into Raid on Rommel (1971)

Well-crafted men on a mission movie

Tobruk is a superior men-on-a-mission movie with lavish production values and a good set-up even if it has little resemblance to history (there was a Second World War and the Nazis were the bad guys, but that's probably about the only thing you won't need to take with a pinch of salt), with Canuck Rock Hudson sprung from a Vichy French prison ship in Algiers by George Peppard's German Jews fighting for the Allies. Seems he's the only one who can guide them on a raid on the German fuel dumps at Tobruk along with a raiding party disguised as Afrika Corps troops transporting British prisoners of war led by Nigel Green's casually anti-Semitic British colonel. Neither the British nor the Jews particularly trust each other because of that nasty business in Palestine, with Hudson pretty much taking the William Holden role from Bridge on the River Kwai here as a reluctant buffer between them while at a remove from their obsessions. Naturally, there's a traitor in their midst and enemy patrols, minefields and their own airplanes to be avoided, with a Nazi-sympathising Irish spy and his daughter thrown in to complicate matters further and add a bit of half-hearted female interest amid all the testosterone. Obligatory war movie regulars Norman Rossington, Percy Herbert and Jack Watson are present and correct in the ranks (Sam Kydd and Gordon Jackson were presumably busy that month on another war movie) and there's a memorable score by Bronislau Kaper. It's impressively directed by Arthur Hiller with a well-crafted script by Leo V. Gordon that keeps things moving and throws in the odd good spin on some of the clichés en route to a finale that should please all lovers of very big explosions, while Russell Harlan's Techniscope cinematography looks good in the widescreen German DVD.