Raid on Rommel (1971)

In 1942 Libya, a German-speaking British Intelligence officer uses former British POWs, some dressed in German uniforms, to fulfill a secret sabotage mission inside German-captured Tobruk.

Director:

Henry Hathaway

Writer:

Richard M. Bluel (as Richard Bluel)

Stars:

Richard Burton, John Colicos, Clinton Greyn

Cast

Complete credited cast:
Richard Burton	...	Foster
John Colicos	...	MacKenzie
Clinton Greyn	...	Major Tarkington
Wolfgang Preiss	...	Rommel
Danielle De Metz	...	Vivi (as Danielle de Metz)
Karl-Otto Alberty	...	Schroeder (as Karl Otto Alberty)
Christopher Cary	...	Conscientious Objector
John Orchard	...	Garth
Brook Williams	...	Reilly
Greg Mullavey	...	Brown
Ben Wright	...	Admiral
Michael Sevareid	...	Wembley
Chris Anders	...	Tank Sergeant

Storyline

Captain Foster plans on raiding German-occupied Tobruk with hand-picked commandos, but a mix-up leaves him with a medical unit containing a Quaker conscientious objector. Despite all odds they succeed with their mission. On the way they pick up and drug the mistress of an Italian general, blow up the entire fuel supply for the Afrika Korps, and swap philatelic gossip with Field Marshal Erwin Rommel.

---

Plot Keywords:

woman in jeopardy | field marshal erwin rommel character | tobruk | mission | airplane shot down | 

---

Taglines:

He took on Rommel... the Sahara... and a unit of untrained men to blow the Desert Fox to hell...

---

Genres:

Drama | War

---

Certificate:

GP

Did You Know?

Trivia

Nearly all the action scenes was footage taken from Tobruk (1967).

---

Goofs

Burton and his group arrive on the clifftop above the big guns. As they're preparing for their assault a German force arrives and a fight takes place. At least a couple of shots of the Germans shows oil drums amongst their vehicles as if they were camped there.

---

Quotes

Maj. Hugh Tarkington: You know Rommel?
Capt. Heinz Schroeder: Yes. He loves the Sahara. We all do. By "we", I mean the professional military.
Maj. Hugh Tarkington: I'm not a military man, captain. War holds no romance for me. The side effects are repulsive.
Capt. Heinz Schroeder: Here there are no side effects. No women, no children, no towns to get in the way, just men, my doctor.

---

Connections

Edited from Away All Boats (1956)

User Reviews

Reasonable desert war movie

There are a lot of bizarre chains of circumstance which set up the plot of this. People just happen to have talents and interests which assist the plot, others have very improbable reasons for being where they are, and so on.

But if you can forget about the artificially convenient, this is a pretty good tale, pretty well told. A medical corps unit, and some of its patients, who start out as captives, end up, under the leadership of Richard Burton, being a commando team who play a vital part in the assault on Tobruk. Oh, and there's a girl in there somewhere.

There are plenty of tense moments, adventures, incidents, and so on. People get shot, things get blown up, the Germans are uniformly stupid except for Rommel, the military genius.

It's got all the ingredients (even if it did borrow some of the more spectacular explosions and so on from another movie), and the actors are as convincing as they can be given their improbable backgrounds.

A perfectly enjoyable, inconsequential, undemanding movie which makes two hours or so pass pleasantly enough.

Details

Country:

USA

Language:

English German Italian

Release Date:

12 February 1971 (USA)

Also Known As:

Raid on Rommel

Filming Locations:

Sonoran Desert, Arizona, USA

Company Credits

Production Co:

Universal Pictures

Technical Specs

Runtime:

99 min

Sound Mix:

Mono (Westrex Recording System)

Color:

Color

Aspect Ratio:

2.35 : 1