Blake Edwards’ WWI epic musical mega-flop plays as unevenly as ever. Miraculous sequences are chased off by coarse or obvious ones, and his personal Director’s cut, which reduces the running time by half an hour, has almost no effect, good or ill. It remains a real curate's egg of a movie. Physically, it's stunning throughout (a last hurrah for lenser Russell Harlan, and be sure to check out the deleted scenes for expanded edits of the superb dogfights). The story is cleverly structured so that no one (in or out of the film) is ever quite sure who's spying on (or for) whom. But it hardly matters when Julie Andrews and co-star Rock Hudson have zero rapport together; even his hair looks defeated, dare one say flaccid? And it becomes only more obvious as the film begins to generate some real heat & tension between Andrews and her German boss Jeremy Kemp. The film will never be more than a fascinating miss, but the smashing one-shot opening number (to a gorgeous Henry Mancini/Johnny Mercer song) is unmissable. Edwards must have known in his heart that this was ultimately unsalvageable since he purloined the best bits for S.O.B/'81. and VICTOR/VICTORIA/'82. (Paramount hated the pic, hence the poster that looks like advertising for 20th/Fox's own mega-musical flop, HELLO, DOLLY!/'69.)
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