Murphy’s War *** (1971, Peter O’Toole, Siân Phillips, Philippe Noiret) – Classic Movie Review 6546

The 1971 British wartime adventure Murphy’s War finds a good role for Peter O’Toole as a sole British naval ship survivor obsessed with blowing up a U-boat.

Director Peter Yates’s 1971 British wartime adventure drama Murphy’s War finds a good role for Peter O’Toole as Irish crewman Murphy, the sole British naval ship survivor of a German torpedo attack in Venezuela, who is obsessed with blowing up a U-boat with a bomb dropped from his old seaplane.

O’Toole’s lusty performance and director Yates’s enthusiasm combine to put excitement into the adventure, set just as World War Two is ending, and the action is drivingly handled, with Douglas Slocombe’s cinematography extraordinary. The production, shooting under very difficult circumstances, is highly impressive.

It is a pity that Stirling Silliphant’s screenplay adapted from Max Catto’s 1969 novel does not inject enough passion into the dialogue and characters. It is a good, worthy film, but old fashioned and not very exciting, and it never quite comes to the boil. But it is still a worthwhile movie.

It helps that O’Toole has two excellent co-stars. Siân Phillips plays his love interest, the doctor lady Dr Hayden (‘She’s a Quaker. That’s like bein’ a bloody nun, isn’t it?’). Philippe Noiret plays friendly Frenchman Louis Brezon, the island’s Government Administrator who assists Murphy.

Siân Phillips was then married to O’Toole. They married in December 1959, had two children and divorced on 14 August 1979. They worked frequently together on stage and in the movies, including Becket (1964), Goodbye, Mr Chips (1969), Murphy’s War (1971) and Under Milk Wood (1972).

Also in the cast are Horst Janson as Commander Lauchs, John Hallam as Lieutenant Ellis, Ingo Mogendorf as Lieutenant Voght, Harry Fielder as German Sub Crewman, and George Roubicek as U-boat Crewman.

It was released on 13 January 1971.

Murphy’s War runs 107 minutes, is made by Hemdale and Michael Deeley-Peter Yates Films, is released by Paramount Pictures, is written by Stirling Silliphant, based on Max Catto’s novel, is shot in Eastmancolor by Douglas Slocombe, is produced by Peter Yates and Michael Deeley, and is scored by John Barry.

O’Toole and Yates inherited the project from Frank Sinatra and director Burt Kennedy, who did Dirty Dingus Magee instead.

Filming took place from 23 February 1970 to 5 July 1970 on location in Puerto Ordaz and Castillos de Guayana on the Orinoco River in Venezuela, and in Malta, as well as in the studio at Pinewood Studios and Twickenham Film Studios in London.

Producer Michael Deeley described filming as the toughest of his career, leading to the breakup of his partnership with Peter Yates.

O’Toole had to swim through water on fire with oil and with explosives going off round him for the scenes filmed in Malta of the burning of the merchant ship torpedoed by the U-boat. He recalled: ‘I used to do all my own stunts. I made it a principle. Everything in Lawrence of Arabia I did myself. But, after suffering a paralysed hand, a bad back, broken ankle and countless knocks, I decided never again. Then I thought, well, just one more time. So I talked myself into it. In Venezuela I even fly a seaplane. If you want to see a picture of sheer terror, have a look at the shots of me when I first fly that seaplane.’

As usual, there are many differences between the movie and the book, in particular the ending is radically different.

All the hard work came to little avail with the critics and public.

© Derek Winnert 2018 Classic Movie Review 6546

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