The film is a Rommel biography written by Lt.Colonel Desmond Young and screenwriter Nunnally Johnson . It's based on true events and real characters . In WWII Field Marshal Erwin Rommel won reputation as Germany's most popular General but he played an important part in the invasions of central Europe and France . At the same time he was regarded by many Allied officers as a master of desert warfare and as a fair-minded professional . Erwin Rommel (James Mason) really achieved fame as the commander of the German Afrika Korps , operating against the British in North Africa and he captured Tobruk ,the key to the British defenses . Quick to see advantage and profit from it , he ran rings round the British for almost two years before being stopped at Alamein and then driven out of Africa by General Marshal Montgomery . Later on , Rommel was given command of Army in northern Italy to prevent an Italian defection and to counter an Allied invasion of Southern Europe . In 1944 he was transferred to command of an army group in northern France.On two occasions,Rommel and Von Rundstedt (Leo G.Carroll) saw Hitler and attempted to convince him that he should end the war while considerable German forces still existed.The pale and shaken Fuehrer met their frankness with angry diatribes.After the Allied invasion of Normandy (June 6,1944) , Rommel was severely injured when his automobile was strafed by a British plane,and he was sent home to Ulm to recover along with his wife Frau Lucie Marie (Jessica Tandy) , his personal assistant Capt.Hermamn (Richard Boone) and military son. By this time , he had become increasingly disillusioned not only by Hitler's unrealistic military leadership but also by the worldwide reaction to Nazi atrocities . He opposed the project assassination attempt on Hitler's life on the ground that this action would only create martyr . Rommel never took an active role in the July Plot executed by Colonel Klaus Von Stauffenberg (Edward Franz) , although the conspirators wanted him as Chief of state after the elimination of Hitler.However the plot failure ,one of the conspirators , before he died in agony on a meat hook , blurted out Rommel's name to his tormentors and his doom was sealed , offered the choice of a court-martial or reprisals against his his family or suicide.
In the film appears famous Nazi characters who are well interpreted by awesome actors , as Hitler featured by Luther Adler gives an excellent performance (but doesn't reach to Bruno Ganz in ¨The downfall¨) , Edward Franz as a magnificent Von Stauffenberg , Leo G. Carroll as Von Rundstedt , Everett Sloane (Gen. Wilhelm Burgdorf) , George Mc Ready (Gen.Fritz Bayerlein) , John Hoyt (Gen.Keitel) and of course Rommel's James Mason who displays a first-rate interpretation and he'll repeat role in ¨The Desert Rats¨ (1953) by Robert Wise . The motion picture was professionally directed by Henry Hathaway . Rating : Good , above average and well worth watching .
In the film appears famous Nazi characters who are well interpreted by awesome actors , as Hitler featured by Luther Adler gives an excellent performance (but doesn't reach to Bruno Ganz in ¨The downfall¨) , Edward Franz as a magnificent Von Stauffenberg , Leo G. Carroll as Von Rundstedt , Everett Sloane (Gen. Wilhelm Burgdorf) , George Mc Ready (Gen.Fritz Bayerlein) , John Hoyt (Gen.Keitel) and of course Rommel's James Mason who displays a first-rate interpretation and he'll repeat role in ¨The Desert Rats¨ (1953) by Robert Wise . The motion picture was professionally directed by Henry Hathaway . Rating : Good , above average and well worth watching .