I usually enjoy movies like this -- a commando raid against two German and Italian airfields on Rhodes, shot in color in a bold and picturesque setting -- but, man, this is one sluggish story. The Brits have produced some of the best war movies committed to celluloid but this isn't one of them.
It's a nice team too -- Dirk Bogarde, Denhold Elliott, directed by Lewis Milestone. And you aren't likely to see period Italian warplanes like this very often.
If it begins with a torpid scene in a Cairo nightclub, well, that's alright. One expects it to pick up its pace as the story unfolds. The problem is that it never does.
Half a dozen men -- a British unit with two Greek guides -- are landed by submarine on the coast of Rhodes. We get to know the sub's Greek captain. And it's not just a perfunctory acquaintance, although he has practically nothing more to do with the mission. (Compare the submarine scenes in "The Man Who Never Was.") Lots of pointless joshing and cartoon drawing.
On Rhodes there are moments of tension, recalling some incidents in the later "The Guns of Navarone," but for the most part we see the men stumbling along rocky trails, avoiding Italian patrols, sneaking away to visit relatives in nearby villages, carefully treading through mine fields, sitting about in caves and discussing the situation. There is some tension but very little action.
Few of the scenes are artful or suspenseful. The airfields are blown up but they never seem like critical targets. A few fewer Italian bombers to attack the British in North Africa; a couple of airfields that are easy repaired. This isn't the Guns of Navarone which threaten the evacuation of troops from the Greek islands. It's not a factory in Norway manufacturing heavy water for an atomic bomb. There are two of Milestone's signature shots (panning across the faces of men about to attack) but the effort hardly seems worth it.
Overall, a surprising and colorless disappointment from sources that had done better, and would do better in the future.
It's a nice team too -- Dirk Bogarde, Denhold Elliott, directed by Lewis Milestone. And you aren't likely to see period Italian warplanes like this very often.
If it begins with a torpid scene in a Cairo nightclub, well, that's alright. One expects it to pick up its pace as the story unfolds. The problem is that it never does.
Half a dozen men -- a British unit with two Greek guides -- are landed by submarine on the coast of Rhodes. We get to know the sub's Greek captain. And it's not just a perfunctory acquaintance, although he has practically nothing more to do with the mission. (Compare the submarine scenes in "The Man Who Never Was.") Lots of pointless joshing and cartoon drawing.
On Rhodes there are moments of tension, recalling some incidents in the later "The Guns of Navarone," but for the most part we see the men stumbling along rocky trails, avoiding Italian patrols, sneaking away to visit relatives in nearby villages, carefully treading through mine fields, sitting about in caves and discussing the situation. There is some tension but very little action.
Few of the scenes are artful or suspenseful. The airfields are blown up but they never seem like critical targets. A few fewer Italian bombers to attack the British in North Africa; a couple of airfields that are easy repaired. This isn't the Guns of Navarone which threaten the evacuation of troops from the Greek islands. It's not a factory in Norway manufacturing heavy water for an atomic bomb. There are two of Milestone's signature shots (panning across the faces of men about to attack) but the effort hardly seems worth it.
Overall, a surprising and colorless disappointment from sources that had done better, and would do better in the future.