Raid on Rommel (1971)

User Rating:

5.5/10   

Director:

Henry Hathaway

Writer:

Richard M. Bluel (writer)

Release Date:

12 February 1971 (USA)

Genre:

Drama | War | Action

Plot:

Captain Foster plans on raiding German-occupied Tobruk with hand- picked commandos, but a mixup leaves...

Plot Keywords:

Dust | Sergeant | WWII | Explosion | North Africa

Cast

Richard Burton	...	Capt. Alex Foster
John Colicos	...	Sgt. Maj. Allan MacKenzie
Clinton Greyn	...	Maj. Hugh Tarkington
Wolfgang Preiss	...	Gen. Erwin Rommel
Danielle De Metz	...	Vivianne Gagliardo
Karl-Otto Alberty	...	Capt. Heinz Schroeder
Christopher Cary	...	Cpl. Peter Merrihew
John Orchard	...	Dan Garth
Brook Williams	...	Sgt. Joe Reilly
Greg Mullavy	...	Pvt. Ed Brown
Ben Wright	...	Admiral
Michael Sevareid	...	Cpl. Bill Wembley
Chris Anders	...	Tank Sergeant
rest of cast listed alphabetically:
Ron Berkeley

Runtime:

99 min

Country:

USA

Language:

German | Italian | English

Color:

Color (Technicolor)

Aspect Ratio:

2.35 : 1

Sound Mix:

Stereo

Certification:

Iceland:16 | West Germany:12 (f) | Australia:PG | Finland:K-16 | Norway:16 (1971) | Sweden:15 | UK:15 | USA:GP (original rating) | USA:PG

Filming Locations:

Mexico

Company:

Universal Pictures

Trivia:

Nearly all the action scenes was footage taken from Tobruk (1967).

Goofs:

Factual errors: In the battle on the hill over the guns at Tobruk, Captain Foster (Burton) drops a mortar shell down a tube, pauses to give an order, then drops another shell into the tube. If you watch and listen there is neither the sound of a tube firing between the 2 shells being dropped into the tube, nor the visual puff from the end of the barrel which is fully visible during the entire sequence. Needless to say dropping a second round on top of a previously unfired one would ruin the gunners whole day.

Quotes:

Maj. Hugh Tarkington: What about the girl?
Capt. Alex Foster: She stays with us. She has to stay with us. She's an integral part of the convoy, on the official bill of lading. She's yours, doctor, all yours.
Maj. Hugh Tarkington: Mine?
Capt. Alex Foster: I don't care whether you pay her off in lollipops or cut out her tongue with a dull knife. She's your responsibility.

Movie Connections:

Referenced in "Mystery Science Theater 3000: Gamera vs. Guiron (#4.12)" (1991)

Tedious rubbish

This afternoon the BBC aired once again this abominable film about a British commando unit set out to destroy a German petrol dump in order to prevent the Germans from using their tanks. As far as I am concerned everything that could be wrong about this movie is wrong: the Germans are portrayed as silly cartoon-like figures who are only interested in war and who believe everything Hitler says. The British protagonists are all civilized people who took on the battle reluctantly and are heroes simply because they're British. This film is also rather comical: at one point one of the British special service man is seen in an encounter with the German general Rommel. Every now and again this British soldier tries to show that he speaks German fluently. Well, he doesn't. You don't have to be German (and I am not) to see that these so called highly trained commandos wouldn't last an hour if they were dropped as secret agents in Nazi-Germany. If this film was shot in the years between 1940-1945, I could have understand. But in 1971?