How sad is this?

A different way of telling a story

I think this is a new genre that they're all sort of working their way through it and haven't got all the kinks worked out yet but it's a genre that works for me.

It's simply great fun, a winsome film and an occasionally over-the-top luxury fantasy that never flags.

With Peter O'toole in the cast, you cant go wrong, so it had to be worth a second look over 30 years later. Sorry to other reviewers, this was a dated and tired looking film. A poorly told story for the silver screen, and an ordinary script, with a dull ending. My wife fell asleep, and she was dead right . O'toole was a fantastic performer to watch, but this one was not one of his best efforts. With many remakes being churned out, this story could certainly be re told today, and with the right casting and direction be a cracking film.

It's 1942 Warsaw. A Polish prostitute is sadistically murdered. She was a German agent and German Intelligence Major Grau (Omar Sharif) investigates. A witness saw a General's uniform. He zeroes in on General von Seydlitz-Gabler (Charles Gray), his chief of staff General Kahlenberg (Donald Pleasence) and General Tanz (Peter O'Toole). Grau is promoted away to Paris by General Kahlenberg. All four are reunited in 1944 Paris as an assassination attempt takes place against Hitler. In 1965, Interpol Inspector Morand reopens the case trying to piece together the clues. The movie switches back and forth between the two periods.It's an old fashion crime mystery in the times of war. It's a little hard to get involved. Normally the story would just follow Grau and the audience can solve the case alongside him. This one follows everybody because of its structure. It meanders. I keep waiting for the story to get back to the murder mystery as the movie follows the generals in their war. I wish the movie keeps it more like a police investigation and maintain a higher level of tension. It should be constantly reminding the audience of the brutal murder. If they want to make a movie about Valkyrie, they could do the real story.

Blofelds, Donald Pleasance and Charles Gray, feature as two of a trio of Nazi generals suspected by Wehrmacht major Omar Sharif of the murder of a prostitute in occupied Warsaw. The third suspect, and clearly the most batshyt homicidal, is genocidal Peter O'Toole as a twitchy obsessive compulsive madman. Guess who did it?Yup, genocidal Pete's the boy. Jack the Rippering his way through Europe on his days off from shelling, flame-throwering and shooting hoardes of moderately resistive locals.Sounds exciting, but it isn't. Moves at a snail's pace, is very long and suffers from a leaden script. Pleasance, Gray, Sharif and others acquit themselves well, but O'Toole overacts so virulently that it gives one pause to wonder if he was not really taking it seriously and was just in it for beer money.I had seen bits of it over the years, but never the entire movie. Picked the DVD up for pennies and thought I'd sit through the whole thing.It's a big budget affair, visually glowing and opulent with superb cinematography by Henri (LES ENFANTS TERRIBLES) Decaë. It generates a great sense of time and place, but simply fails to excite or thrill and gets sidetracked with other plot threads, meandering carelessly from one thing to the next. If it had been leaner and more focused it would have been a real winner.

The truth is different nationalities conduct themselves differently. A Mexican might act differently than someone from China. An Eskimo might have a different dialogue than Frenchman. And of course, Germans are quite different than the English. What made this movie ridiculous (in addition to the supposed Nazi era Germans concerned with the murder of a prostitute in occupied Poland) is the very British dialogues, sensibilities that make this movie too unrealistic to be taken seriously. Omar Shariff as a nazi General? What's next Will Smith as Hitler? Of all the recognizable actors in this flick, Donald Pleasance did the best job in acting the part. This movie reminded me of the casting of the 1970s movie about the Hindenburg in which more than a few Jewish actors portrayed the nazi era German passengers at a time when its unlikely that they would have a premier seat on the luxury airship or be employed in the crew.