TOBRUK (1967)

In a late credit, cinematographer Russell Harlan gives panache, and an exceptionally crisp look to this old-school WWII ‘mission’ film.  It's the best thing in this tall tale on a convoy of German officers transporting truckloads of Allies to some POW camp in Libya.  The gimmick: these ‘Nazi Officers’ really a British unit of disguised German Jews and the ‘war prisoners’ really active Allied fighters, the whole crew crossing the Sahara as part of a sabotage operation to destroy the Nazi fuel depot in Tobruk.  War film afficionados may find the film’s propulsive energy and impressive action set pieces (Oscar nom’d effects by Albert Whitlock designed to look like ordnance for a small war) enough to offset a Leo Gordon script & Arthur Hiller direction that doesn’t clarify what’s going on.  (Extra tricky with half the cast wearing ‘enemy’ uniforms.)  So adding a spy-in-the-ranks subplot probably not the best idea!  Rock Hudson is very good as a Canadian officer singled out for rescue by the fake German Jewish Commandos, but the rest of the cast must have been competing for an inauthenticity award.  Nigel Green’s ’central casting’ British officer particularly ripe while George Peppard (heading the German Jewish contingent) has a roving accent apt for the mythical Wandering Jew.  Hiller probably got the assignment for work on THE AMERICANIZATION OF EMILY/’64, but this is definitely NOT a Paddy Cheyefsky war film.  Still, the cool look (check out a HUGE soundstage desert dune area used for nighttime scenes) and all that combustible second-unit work offer some decent WWII swagger.

DOUBLE-BILL: Mid-list WWII ‘mission’ films, see Edward Dmytryk’s ANZIO/’68, pretty common at the time.  And on that level, TOBRUK comes up nicely.