''Raid on Rommel'' is a 1971 American

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 ...

directed by

Henry Hathaway Henry Hathaway (March 13, 1898 – February 11, 1985) was an American film director and producer. He is best known as a director of Western (genre), Westerns, especially starring Randolph Scott and John Wayne. He directed Gary Cooper in seven f ...

and starring

Richard Burton Richard Burton (; born Richard Walter Jenkins Jr.; 10 November 1925 – 5 August 1984) was a Welsh actor. Noted for his mellifluous baritone voice, Burton established himself as a formidable Shakespearean actor in the 1950s and gave a memor ...

John Colicos John Colicos (December 10, 1928 – March 6, 2000) was a Canadian actor. He performed on stage and on television in the United States and Canada. Early life Colicos was born in Toronto, Ontario, to a Greek father and a Canadian mother. Career ...

Clinton Greyn Clinton Greyn (29 September 1933 – 19 March 2019) was a Welsh-born actor noted for his appearances in British television series of the 1960s and 1970s. After graduating from RADA in 1957, Greyn worked in rep at Ipswich, Chesterfield and th ...

Danielle De Metz Danielle De Metz (born 27 July 1938) is a French actress who appeared in movies and television during the 1960s and early 1970s. Career Movie columnist Louella Parsons reported that film director Jean Negulesco met De Metz when he was in Paris, ...

and

Wolfgang Preiss Wolfgang Preiss (27 February 1910 – 27 November 2002) was a German theatre, film and television actor. The son of a teacher, Preiss studied philosophy, German, and drama in the early 1930s. He also took private acting classes with Hans Schle ...

. The film centers on a British

commando A commando is a combatant, or operative of an elite light infantry or special operations force, specially trained for carrying out raids and operating in small teams behind enemy lines. Originally, "a commando" was a type of combat unit, as oppo ...

attempting to destroy German gun emplacements in

Tobruk Tobruk ( ; ; ) is a port city on Libya's eastern Mediterranean coast, near the border with Egypt. It is the capital of the Butnan District (formerly Tobruk District) and has a population of 120,000 (2011 est.)."Tobruk" (history), ''Encyclop� ...

. Originally intended as a made-for-television film, ''Raid on Rommel'' extensively reuses action footage from 1967's ''

'', and the storyline is also largely the same. The film was released by

Universal Pictures Universal City Studios LLC, doing business as Universal Pictures (also known as Universal Studios or simply Universal), is an American filmmaking, film production and film distribution, distribution company headquartered at the 10 Universal Ci ...

on February 12, 1971, and was both a critical and commercial failure.

Plot

Libya Libya, officially the State of Libya, is a country in the Maghreb region of North Africa. It borders the Mediterranean Sea to the north, Egypt to Egypt–Libya border, the east, Sudan to Libya–Sudan border, the southeast, Chad to Chad–L ...

in 1942, Captain Alex Foster, an intelligence officer with the

British Army The British Army is the principal Army, land warfare force of the United Kingdom. the British Army comprises 73,847 regular full-time personnel, 4,127 Brigade of Gurkhas, Gurkhas, 25,742 Army Reserve (United Kingdom), volunteer reserve perso ...

, allows himself to be captured by a German

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 ...

convoy transporting British prisoners, pretending to be injured. Once integrated with the prisoners, consisting of a medical unit and remnants of a commando force, Foster outlines his plans to take over the convoy, with the help of the prisoners, and redirect it towards the Libyan port town of

. On the way, they find an unexpected concentration of German tanks, and they surmise that a fuel depot must be hidden nearby. Foster, in Afrika Corps uniform, and Major Tarkington, the medical officer as his 'prisoner', gain access to the depot and meet Field Marshal

Erwin 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 ...

. During a friendly dispute over

philately Philately (; ) is the study of postage stamps and postal history. It also refers to the collection and appreciation of stamps and other philatelic products. While closely associated with stamp collecting and the study of postage, it is possibl ...

between Rommel and Tarkington, Foster notices a map which indicates the location of the fuel depot. They make excuses, leave, capture a tank, and blow up the fuel dump. They escape towards Tobruk, where they destroy a coastal battery. The prisoners are embarked in boats launched by attacking

Royal Navy The Royal Navy (RN) is the naval warfare force of the United Kingdom. It is a component of His Majesty's Naval Service, and its officers hold their commissions from the King of the United Kingdom, King. Although warships were used by Kingdom ...

warships. However, Foster and Tarkington are captured by German soldiers. The film leaves their fates unexplained. The only female character in the film, Vivianne, is a woman previously attached to an Italian general. Vivianne is held against her will because of her presence on the official letters of transport for the convoy. She is drugged and eventually abandoned at the side of the road before the final battle in Tobruk.

Cast

Production

The film was originally intended as an

NBC The National Broadcasting Company (NBC) is an American commercial broadcast television and radio network serving as the flagship property of the NBC Entertainment division of NBCUniversal, a subsidiary of Comcast. It is one of NBCUniversal's ...

made-for-television A television film, alternatively known as a television movie, made-for-TV film/movie, telefilm, telemovie or TV film/movie, is a film with a running time similar to a feature film that is produced and originally distributed by or to a Terrestr ...

film. The producers wanted to reuse the expensive action and special-effects footage from ''Tobruk'' (1967), which had not been a success, and intended to cast

Robert Stack Robert Stack (born Charles Langford Modini Stack; January 13, 1919 – May 14, 2003) was an American actor and television host. Known for his deep voice and commanding presence, he appeared in over forty feature films. He starred in the America ...

in the lead role. During pre-production, plans shifted and it was decided to retool the film into a theatrical picture, albeit a relatively cheap one. Stack was replaced by

for added marquee value, but indicative of the low budget, was the only major star in the film.

says he did the film because "it looked like it might be fun". He shot it in twenty days and says Richard Burton never drank during the shoot although Elizabeth Taylor, who joined him, did. Filming took place over three weeks in San Felipe, Mexico. Belying the film's made-for-television origins, much of the crew were from Universal's television division. In order to match the reused footage from ''Tobruk'', Richard Burton had to dye his hair blond (in order to match

George Peppard George Peppard (October 1, 1928 – May 8, 1994) was an American actor. He secured a major role as struggling writer Paul Varjak when he starred alongside Audrey Hepburn in '' Breakfast at Tiffany's'' (1961), and later portrayed a character ...

in the earlier film).

Reception

The film was poorly received by critics. It has a 32% rating on

Rotten Tomatoes Rotten Tomatoes is an American review aggregator, review-aggregation website for film and television. The company was launched in August 1998 by three undergraduate students at the University of California, Berkeley: Senh Duong, Patrick Y. Lee ...

. In 2006, the

BBC The British Broadcasting Corporation (BBC) is a British public service broadcaster headquartered at Broadcasting House in London, England. Originally established in 1922 as the British Broadcasting Company, it evolved into its current sta ...

's ''

Radio Times ''Radio Times'' is a British weekly listings magazine devoted to television and radio programme schedules, with other features such as interviews, film reviews and lifestyle items. Founded in September 1923 by John Reith, then general manage ...

'' wrote: "It says a lot for Richard Burton that he was able to plumb the depths in dreary Second World War action movies such as this one, about a British officer releasing prisoners to attack Tobruk, without doing any apparent damage to his career. Even the usually dependable director Henry Hathaway falters in this flawed effort that was originally meant for TV".Radio Times review 29 January 2006
/ref> Just nine months after its theatrical release, the film made its television debut as an NBC ''Movie of the Week''.

References

External links