''Play Dirty'' is a 1969 British

war film War film is a film genre concerned with warfare, typically about navy, naval, air force, air, or army, land battles, with combat scenes central to the drama. It has been strongly associated with the 20th century. The fateful nature of battle s ...

starring

Michael Caine Sir Michael Caine (born Maurice Joseph Micklewhite, 14 March 1933) is a retired English actor. Known for his distinct Cockney accent, he has appeared in more than 160 films over Michael Caine filmography, a career that spanned eight decades an ...

Nigel Davenport Arthur Nigel Davenport (23 May 1928 – 25 October 2013) was an English stage, television and film actor, best known as the Duke of Norfolk and Lord Birkenhead in the Academy Award-winning films '' A Man for All Seasons'' and ''Chariots of Fir ...

, Nigel Green and

Harry Andrews Henry Stewart Fleetwood Andrews, CBE (10 November 1911 – 6 March 1989) was a British actor often known for his film portrayals of tough military officers. His performance as Regimental Sergeant Major Wilson in '' The Hill'' (1965) earned And ...

. It was director

Andre de Toth Endre Antal Miksa de Toth, known as Andre de Toth (; May 15, 1913 – October 27, 2002), was a Hungarian-American film director, born and raised in Makó, Austria-Hungary. He directed the 3D film House of Wax (1953 film), ''House of Wax'' (1 ...

's last film, based on a screenplay by

Melvyn Bragg Melvyn Bragg, Baron Bragg (born 6 October 1939) is an English broadcaster, author and parliamentarian. He is the editor and presenter of ''The South Bank Show'' (1978–2010, 2012–2023), and the presenter of the BBC Radio 4 documentary series ...

and Lotte Colin. The film's story is inspired by the exploits of units such as the

Long Range Desert Group The Long Range Desert Group (LRDG) was a reconnaissance and raiding unit of the British Army during the Second World War. Originally called the Long Range Patrol (LRP), the unit was founded in Egypt in June 1940 by Major Ralph Alger Bagnold, ...

, Popski's Private Army and the SAS in

North Africa North Africa (sometimes Northern Africa) is a region encompassing the northern portion of the African continent. There is no singularly accepted scope for the region. However, it is sometimes defined as stretching from the Atlantic shores of t ...

during the

Second World War World War II or the Second World War (1 September 1939 – 2 September 1945) was a World war, global conflict between two coalitions: the Allies of World War II, Allies and the Axis powers. World War II by country, Nearly all of the wo ...

Plot

During the

North African Campaign The North African campaign of World War II took place in North Africa from 10 June 1940 to 13 May 1943, fought between the Allies and the Axis Powers. It included campaigns in the Libyan and Egyptian deserts (Western Desert campaign, Desert Wa ...

in the

, Captain Douglas is a BP employee seconded to the

Royal Engineers The Corps of Royal Engineers, usually called the Royal Engineers (RE), and commonly known as the ''Sappers'', is the engineering arm of the British Army. It provides military engineering and other technical support to the British Armed Forces ...

to oversee incoming fuel supplies for the

British Eighth Army The Eighth Army was a field army of the British Army during the Second World War. It was formed as the Western Army on 10 September 1941, in Egypt, before being renamed the Army of the Nile and then the Eighth Army on 26 September. It was cr ...

. Colonel Masters commands a special raiding unit composed of convicted criminals, and after a string of failures he is told by his commander, Brigadier Blore, that he must have a regular officer to lead a dangerous last-chance mission to destroy an

Afrika Korps The German Africa Corps (, ; DAK), commonly known as Afrika Korps, was the German expeditionary force in Africa during the North African campaign of World War II. First sent as a holding force to shore up the Italian defense of its Africa ...

fuel depot, otherwise his unit will be disbanded. Despite Douglas's objections, he is chosen for his knowledge of oil pipelines and infrastructure. Douglas is then introduced to Cyril Leech, a convicted criminal rescued from prison to lead Masters' operations in the field. The next day, Douglas and Leech are provided with armed jeeps and lead six other men out into the desert disguised as an

Italian Army The Italian Army ( []) is the Army, land force branch of the Italian Armed Forces. The army's history dates back to the Italian unification in the 1850s and 1860s. The army fought in colonial engagements in China and Italo-Turkish War, Libya. It ...

patrol: the Tunisian Sadok (demolition man), the Greek smuggler Kostas Manou (armorer), Boudesh (communications), the Cypriot Kafkarides (transport and supplies), and the arab guides Hassan and Assin. They endure a long and arduous trek across the desert: encountering hostile tribesmen, sandstorms and a booby-trapped oasis, among other dangers. Unknown to Masters, Blore has sent a regular army raiding party overloaded in wheeled trucks with the same objective 2 days behind Masters, but they are wiped out in a tracked vehicle German ambush; Leech and his men are often insubordinate towards Douglas's command. One of the gay couple gets severely injured by a landmine while stealing watches from soldiers' corpses during a stop for supplies. Douglas captures a German ambulance in which they discover a German nurse, who is forced to tend to the injured man. Three of the men eventually try to rape the nurse but are prevented from doing so. Finally, they reach their objective, only to discover that the depot is fake. After taking shelter, Leech admits to Douglas that he is being kept alive only because Masters is paying him £2000 for his safe return. Douglas insists that the men continue their search for the fuel depot, but the men laugh in his face. The group then follows Leech's lead and heads to a German-occupied

port city A port is a maritime facility comprising one or more wharves or loading areas, where ships load and discharge cargo and passengers. Although usually situated on a sea coast or estuary, ports can also be found far inland, such as Hamburg, Manche ...

, hoping to steal a boat and escape; Douglas sees the fuel depot there and convinces Leech that destroying it would aid their plan. Meanwhile, Masters is confronted by Blore with aerial photographs of the supposed depot intact — confirming the mission's failure. Having lost contact with the men for some time, Masters is ordered to leak intelligence on the team to the Germans; the British Army is now on the offensive, and it wishes to keep any enemy fuel depots intact for capture. Under the cover of night, the men don German uniforms and sneak into the port depot to plant their explosives, but one of them sets off a trip flare and they are quickly surrounded; an officer on a loudspeaker calls each of them out by name, revealing Masters' betrayal. The men scatter as the depot is detonated; Leech and Douglas manage to slip away, while the rest are discovered and killed one by one. Back in the ambulance, while waiting for the rest of the men to return, the injured team member, on his deathbed, uses his last strength to murder the German nurse bound and gagged beside him. The Eighth Army arrives the next morning; Douglas and Leech (still wearing their German uniforms) decide to surrender to the British. Unfortunately, a trigger-happy British soldier opens fire, killing them before noticing their white flag of surrender. The soldier is chastised momentarily by his superior before the troops move on.

Cast

as Captain Douglas,

as Captain Cyril Leech * Nigel Green as Lieutenant Colonel Masters *

as Brigadier Blore *

Patrick Jordan Albert Patrick Jordan (10 October 1923 – 10 January 2020) was a British stage, film and television actor. Biography He was born and raised in Harrow, Middlesex, the son of Margaret, a cook, and Albert Jordan, a regimental sergeant major. An ...

as Major Alan Watkins, Guards Commando Unit * Daniel Pilon as Captain Attwood, Blore's Adjutant *

Bernard Archard Bernard Joseph Archard (20 August 1916 – 1 May 2008) was an English actor who made many film and television appearances. Early life and career Archard was born in Fulham, London, where his father Alfred James Aloysius, who was born in Maryle ...

as Colonel Homerton * :fr:Aly Ben Ayed as Sadok * :it:Takis Emmanouel as Kostas Manou *

Vivian Pickles Vivian Pickles (born 21 October 1931) is an English actress. Biography Pickles began her career as a child star after being chosen by Mary Field for a series of Saturday Morning children's films, including the lead roles in ''Jean's Plan'' (1 ...

as a German Nurse * Stanley Caine as German Officer, Stanley is the younger brother of Michael Caine. * Martin Burland as Dead Officer * George McKeenan as Corporal At Quayside * Bridget Espeet as Ann * :es:Enrique Avila as Kafkarides * Mohsen Ben Abdallah as Hassan * :fr:Mohamed Kouka as Assine * Scott Miller as Boudesh * Michael Stevens as Captain Johnson * Tony Stamboulieh as Barman In Arab Bar * Jose Halufi as Arab *

Jeremy Child Sir Coles John Jeremy Child, 3rd Baronet (20 September 1944 – 7 March 2022) was a British actor. Early life Coles John Jeremy Child was born on 20 September 1944 in Woking, Surrey, son of Foreign Office diplomat Sir Coles John Child, 2nd B ...

as 2nd Lieutenant * Dennis Brennan as Corporal * Rafael Albaicín as Chief Arab At Oasis

Production

Development

The film was originally titled ''Written in the Sand''; it was announced in October 1967 with Michael Caine to star and

René Clément René Clément (; 18 March 1913 – 17 March 1996) was a French film director and screenwriter. He is known for directing the films ''The Battle of the Rails'' (1946), ''Forbidden Games'' (1952), ''Gervaise (film), Gervaise'' (1956), ''Purple No ...

to direct. Caine later said he made the film because of his relationship with producer

Harry Saltzman Herschel "Harry" Saltzman (; – ) was a Canadian theatre and film producer. He is best remembered for co-producing the first nine of the ''James Bond'' film series with Albert R. Broccoli. Apart from a ten-year stint living in St. Petersbu ...

and the fact he wanted to work with Clément. The film was also known as ''Deadly Patrol''. In February 1968

Richard Harris Richard St John Francis Harris (1 October 1930 – 25 October 2002) was an Irish actor and singer. Having studied at the London Academy of Music and Dramatic Art, he rose to prominence as an icon of the British New Wave. He received numerous a ...

and Nigel Davenport signed to co-star, by which time the film had been re-named ''Play Dirty''."Richard Harris to sue film producers". Our London Staff; ''

The Irish Times ''The Irish Times'' is an Irish daily broadsheet newspaper and online digital publication. It was launched on 29 March 1859. The editor is Ruadhán Mac Cormaic. It is published every day except Sundays. ''The Irish Times'' is Ireland's leading n ...

'', 27 February 1968: 4. However Richard Harris ultimately did not appear in the film. According to de Toth, Lotte Colin did hardly any of the screenplay despite being credited. She was Saltzman's mother-in-law.

Filming

The film was originally planned by Saltzman to be filmed in Israel. Saltzman asked Andre de Toth to scout the country for locations. De Toth said Clément wanted to film in Morocco or Algeria, but Saltzman refused to go to North Africa, and Clément refused to go to Israel. The film ended up being shot on location in the

Tabernas Desert The Tabernas Desert () is a desert located within Spain's south-eastern province of Almería. It is in the interior, about north of the provincial capital Almería, in the Tabernas municipality in Andalusia. It is the only desert in Europe, ...

near Tabernas in

Almería Almería (, , ) is a city and municipalities in Spain, municipality of Spain, located in Andalusia. It is the capital of the province of Almería, province of the same name. It lies in southeastern Iberian Peninsula, Iberia on the Mediterranean S ...

, Spain. Richard Harris left his home in London for Spain on 16 February 1968. He said he was handed a script which was different from the one he had agreed to do when he signed on. He quit the film and sued the producers for payment of his salary, which was a reported £150,000. After Nigel Davenport replaced Harris, and Nigel Green replaced Davenport, René Clément resigned as director, and executive producer André de Toth took over directing the film. De Toth said Clément "wanted to make a 'poetry of war'" while Saltzman "wanted blazing guns and roaring tanks". Several other films were shooting in Almería at the same time, including '' Shalako''. Caine later said, "There are six sand dunes in Almeria... We'd all come round the hill chasing

Rommel Johannes Erwin Eugen Rommel (; 15 November 1891 – 14 October 1944), popularly known as The Desert Fox (, ), was a German ''Generalfeldmarschall'' (field marshal) during World War II. He served in the ''Wehrmacht'' (armed forces) of N ...

's tanks - and there's horse shit all over the desert and a stagecoach in the other directions being chased by Indians. The other film units were forever wiping out tank tracks to get their westerns and we were forever shovelling up horse shit and wiping out hoof prints to get our El Alamein." Caine later said he had a clause in his contracts that any film on which he worked could not be made in Almería. "It was that bad".Simmons, Bob & Passingham, Kenneth. ''Nobody Does It Better: My 25 Years of Stunts With James Bond and Other Stories,'' 1987, Blandford De Toth later said that in making the film, "I wanted to rub our noses in the mess we have created and how we shy away from our ability to clean it up... I wanted to disturb, to open closed eyes and scramble brains."

Reception

The film was a box office disappointment. Critics had mixed-to-negative opinions. Stanley Eichelbaum of the ''

San Francisco Examiner The ''San Francisco Examiner'' is a newspaper distributed in and around San Francisco, California, and has been published since 1863. Once self-dubbed the "Monarch of the Dailies" by then-owner William Randolph Hearst and the flagship of the He ...

'', noting the opposite attitudes to war expressed by various filmmakers—either "anti-war" or exploiting "the greater glory of war," said of ''Play Dirty'' that it "tries to satisfy both viewpoints and trips itself up badly."https://www.newspapers.com/image/458306335/?match=1&terms=%27Play%20Dirty%22 The San Francisco Examiner, February 13, 1969, p.23

References

External links

* * *
Play Dirty Movie Locations
{{DEFAULTSORT:Play Dirty 1969 films 1960s British films 1960s English-language films 1960s war adventure films Anti-war films about World War II British war adventure films British World War II films English-language war adventure films Films directed by Andre de Toth Films produced by Harry Saltzman Films scored by Michel Legrand Films shot in Almería North African campaign films United Artists films