During the Battle of Berlin, Reitsch attempted to persuade Hitler to escape from the city in a small lightweight Fieseler Storch airplane. ![]() Reitsch was a German aviatrix and at one time Adolf Hitler's own personal pilot. This movie is based on historical events, as there appears the character of Hannah Reitsch, played by Barbara Rütting, was a real-life person. For the scene in which a street is wiped out by a V-2, the filmmakers actually destroyed a row of flats which were slated for demolition, the shot was, necessarily, done in one take. Excellent production design and nice special effects, for the section of the film where RAF Bomber Command raid the Peenemunde rocket research site the producers used the Avro Lancaster PA474 used by the Cranfield institute of technology. ![]() Breathtaking as well as evocative musical score by Ron Goodwin. Filmed on splashy color and brilliant cinematography by cameraman Erwin Hillier. Despite receiving top billing, Sophia Loren only appears in a extended cameo role producer Carlo Ponti, Loren's husband, believed his wife's popularity in the United States would boost the film's chances at the box office and had her billed accordingly. Director Michael Anderson steered skillfully through its numerous twists. This blazing WWII yarn pulled the public into cinemas in droves when it was first released. After the Second World War, because of this movie's title, reference to these events popularized them as being "Operation Crossbow". This film's title is the same code-name for the real World War II spy mission, which was code-named "Crossbow". The movie gets a simple emotional appeal, professionalism and being rightly shot. Thrilling war film in which there are nail-biting action scenes, drama, intrigue, explosion, suspenseful set pieces and almost overloaded with stars. Their mission is complicated by appearing a wife (Sophia Loren), one traitor and several dangers. They attempt to infiltrate the Nazis' rocket research site. It deals with a trio (George Peppard, Tom Courtneay, Jeremy Kemp) of Allied agents are assigned by high command (John Mills, Richard Johnson, Trevor Howard, Richard Todd, Maurice Denham) to destroy a Nazi munitions installation. This interesting picture packs big stars, intrigue, action packed, suspense and historic deeds. In fact, it's better than Peppard's more famous war film, THE BLUE MAX, because it is NOT bogged down with a sappy romance and is pure wartime entertainment.Įxciting WWII military thriller including a moving final and overwhelming pyrotechnics. And in this light, it is a very successful and engaging film-very similar to THE HEROES OF TELMARK and other 60s epic war flicks. Instead it's a film about Allied agents infiltrating the V-1/V-2 bases at Penemunde. It's about as romantic as THE LONGEST DAY, in fact. Now on to the movie itself, despite the advertising, this is a war espionage film-not a romance. The advertising folks for this film should be shot, as if you are watching the movie for her, you'll be very disappointed. She enters a scene and is dead a short time later-and that's about the size of her contribution to the movie. Loren's films and have nothing against her performance in this film, but she is only a minor character. On the cover art for the video and on many of the posters, you have images of George Peppard AND Sophia Loren.
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