Adapted from the excellent novel 'The General' by Alan Silitto this is set in wartime but is concerned with war of the psychological sort, waged between the two massive egos of orchestral conductor Lionel Evans and Wehrmacht General Schiller. Evans and his seventy piece orchestra are being held prisoner. Evans knows that if he bows to Schiller's demand that the orchestra play a concert for him their fate is sealed.
Even as they rehearse a mass grave is being dug by the loathsome Colonel Arndt. I have no doubt that as soon as the critics learned that Heston was to play the part they started sharpening their knives. He is actually excellent in the role. Off the podium he has the single-mindedness required of a man whose job it is to bend seventy professional musicians to his will. On the podium he looks every inch a maestro and courtesy of conducting coach Leo Damiani both his baton technique and hand gestures are immaculate. What can say one of Maximilian Schell? There are some who would say that he could play this kind of role in his sleep but his splendid performance as Schiller is a joy to watch. Anton Diffring made a very good living by playing horrible Huns and here his Colonel Arndt is surely the most horrible. There has to be a 'love interest' of course and this is supplied by Kathryn Hays as a cellist who once had an affair with the conductor, is now married to the orchestral leader and is fancied by the general! The sublime music of Beethoven, Schubert, Tchaikovsky, Brahms and Wagner is played by the Los Angeles Philharmonic. The use of the last movement of Brahms' fourth symphony is used effectively to accompany the escape sequence. Director Ralph Nelson keeps things ticking over very nicely and maintains a steady 'andante'. Russell Metty again contributes superb cinematography. The film deals with 'opposing moralities' but not enough to send the audience to sleep. It opens and closes with the Fifth symphony of Beethoven, a man whose music represents a moral force that will endure whilst tyrannies and dictatorships rise and fall.
