Operation Crossbow **** (1965, Sophia Loren, George Peppard, Trevor Howard, John Mills, Richard Johnson, Tom Courtenay, Lilli Palmer, Anthony Quayle, Sylvia Syms, Richard Todd) – Classic Movie Review 6449

The star-studded, slap-up 1965 World War Two wartime adventure movie Operation Crossbow stars Sophia Loren, George Peppard, Trevor Howard, John Mills, Richard Johnson, and Tom Courtenay. 

Director Michael Anderson’s star-studded, slap-up 1965 World War Two wartime adventure movie and British spy thriller for boys of all ages stars George Peppard as USAAF Lieutenant John Curtis and Tom Courtenay as Robert Henshaw, who lead a little group of Allied agents against a German rocket munitions HQ. Their secret mission is to destroy the German V-1 (doodlebug) and V-2 (rocket) revenge weapons threatening England towards the end of World War Two.

Operation Crossbow also stars John Mills, Trevor Howard, Lilli Palmer, Anthony Quayle, Sylvia Syms, Richard Todd, Jeremy Kemp, Paul Henreid, Helmut Dantine and Richard Johnson. Lilli Palmer, who plays Frieda, won the Best Actress award at the San Sebastián International Film Festival in 1965.

The virtually non-stop action keeps it exciting all the way, with the odd twist and lots of fine stunts, all capped by a great climax. It is exceptionally well handled and performed. The only disappointment is that top-billed Sophia Loren is wasted in the relatively tiny part of a Dutch war widow, Nora Van Ostamgen, the Italian wife of engineer Erik van Ostamgen, the dead man whose identity has been appropriated by USAAF Lieutenant John Curtis (Peppard). Loren appears thanks to her husband and producer of the film Carlo Ponti.

Emeric Pressburger scripted under the pseudonym Robert Imrie, along with Derry Quinn and Ray Rigby, basing their screenplay on an original story by Duilio Coletti and Vittoriano Petrilli. It fictionalises the real-life Operation Crossbow and its tactics to thwart the German long-range weapons programme in the last years World War Two. The plot alternates between the German development of the V-1 flying bomb and V-2 rocket, and the counter-efforts of British Intelligence and agents. The characters speak in their own languages, with English subtitles for those speaking German or Dutch.

Also in the cast are Patrick Wymark, Barbara Rütting [Ruetting], John Fraser, Wolf Frees, Moray Watson, Richard Wattis, Allan Cuthbertson, Karel Stepanek, William Mervyn, Milo Sperber, George Mikell, Ferdy Mayne, Robert Brown, Maurice Denham, John Alderton, Guy Deghy, Philip Madoc, Charles Lloyd Pack, Jeremy Spenser (as SS Officer at Rocket Plant), Anton Diffring, Carl Jaffe and John Abineri.

Operation Crossbow runs 116 minutes, is produced by Metro-Goldwyn-Mayer British Studios, is released by MGM, is shot in Metrocolor and Panavision by Erwin Hillier, produced by Carlo Ponti, scored by Ron Goodwin and designed by Elliot Scott.

Barbara Rütting plays Hannah Reitsch, a real-life German test pilot and at one time Adolf Hitler’s pilot. During the Battle of Berlin, she tried to help him to escape from the city in a small plane.

British actor Jeremy Spenser (born Jeremy John Dornhurst de Saram 16 July 1937) disappeared mysteriously around 1966, and is last known as being a drama teacher in 1969, but is confirmed to be alive and well. He made his screen debut aged 11 in Anna Karenina (1948), played in the 1949 black comedy Kind Hearts and Coronets, played the young King Nicolas in the 1957 The Prince and the Showgirl with Laurence Olivier and Marilyn Monroe, and was in Ferry to Hong Kong with Orson Welles. His last film role was in 1966’s Fahrenheit 451 directed by François Truffaut, after which he retired from acting.

The cast are Sophia Loren as Nora, George Peppard as 1st Lieutenant John Curtis, Trevor Howard as Professor Lindemann, John Mills as General Boyd, Richard Johnson as Duncan Sandys, Tom Courtenay as Robert Henshaw, Jeremy Kemp as Phil Bradley, Anthony Quayle as Bamford, Lilli Palmer as Frieda, Paul Henreid as Major General Ziemann, Helmut Dantine as Gruppenführer Linz, Barbara Rütting as Hannah Reitsch, Richard Todd as Wing Commander Kendall, Sylvia Syms as Constance Babington Smith, John Fraser as Flight Lieutenant Kenny, Maurice Denham as RAF officer, John Alderton as RAF officer, Patrick Wymark as Prime Minister Winston Churchill, Wolf Frees as German Police Inspector, Moray Watson as Colonel Kenneth Post, Richard Wattis as Sir Charles Sims, Allan Cuthbertson as German technical examiner, Karel Štěpánek as Professor Hoffer, George Mikell as German officer, Ferdy Mayne as German officer, Anton Diffring as SS Sturmbannfuhrer, and Philip Madoc as German Police Officer.

© Derek Winnert 2017 Classic Movie Review 6449

Check out more reviews on http://derekwinnert.com