Tobruk (film)
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| Tobruk | |
|---|---|
| Directed by | Arthur Hiller |
| Produced by | Gene Corman |
| Written by | Leo V. Gordon |
| Starring | Rock Hudson George Peppard Nigel Green Guy Stockwell Jack Watson |
| Music by | Bronisław Kaper |
| Cinematography | Russell Harlan |
| Editing by | Robert C. Jones |
| Distributed by | Universal Pictures |
| Release date(s) |  February 7, 1967 March 10, 1967 March 16, 1967 |
| Running time | 107 |
| Country | United States |
| Language | English |
| Allmovie profile | |
| IMDb profile | |
Tobruk is a 1967 war film set in North Africa during the Western Desert Campaign of the North African Campaign of The Second World War. It is a fictionalized story of Operation Agreement, and tells of 83 men, members of the British Army’s Long Range Desert Group (LRDG) and the Special Identification Group (SIG), who embark on a mission to destroy the fuel bunkers of Erwin Rommel’s Panzer Army Africa in Tobruk.
The film was written by Leo Gordon, and directed by Arthur Hiller. This 1967 production contains many spectacular action sequences, stunts and explosions. It is typical of the WW2 fictional blockbuster action movies popular in the 1960s, such as The Dirty Dozen, Where Eagles Dare and The Guns of Navarone.
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[edit] Plot
In September 1942, with the troops of German Field Marshal Erwin Rommel “90 miles from” the Suez Canal, the staff of the British Eighth Army approve a plan to destroy the German fuel bunkers in Tobruk.
The original author of the plan, Major Donald Craig (Rock Hudson) has been captured by Vichy French forces and is interned at the port of Algiers. Craig is a Canadian expert on desert topography, desert exploration, and has extensive practical knowledge of the Sahara, so he is considered essential to the success of the planned raid on Tobruk.
Craig is liberated by Captain Kurt Bergman (George Peppard) of the SIG and some of his men. They then join up with the LRDG, under the command of Lieutenant Colonel John Harker (Nigel Green), at Kufra.
Colonel Harker explains that they have eight days to get to Tobruk, destroy the fuel depot and German field guns protecting the harbor, prior to a scheduled amphibious landing. The plan calls for the LRDG to pose as POWs being escorted by the SIG posing as German soldiers.
On the way to Tobruk, they are mistakenly attacked by a British fighter aircraft, as well as patrols of Italians, Germans, and Tuareg. During one of these encounters, both radios are destroyed.
It is from the Tuareg that group is saddled with two British prisoners, a father and daughter, who are traveling from Benghazi to Cairo on behalf of Germany. They have papers signed by the Grand Mufti of Jerusalem (Mohammad Amin al-Husayni) and German Field Marshal Albert Kesselring, on behalf of the Führer, which is an agreement between the Reich and a group of “important” Egyptian army officers, that the Egyptians will rise up against the British in Jihad, a “Holy War”. The movie implies that the Egyptian revolt, similar to the 1936-1939 Arab revolt in Palestine, could be enough to mobilize the entire Muslim world to fight for Germany. “Turkey alone could put four million men into the war against Russia”.
With perhaps the outcome of World War II in the balance, it is critical that the raid succeed and also to get knowledge of the Egyptian plot to the British high command. But they soon suspect that there is a traitor among them who will stop at nothing to get the agreement into German hands.
[edit] Cast
- Rock Hudson as Major Donald Craig. Laurence Harvey was originally going to play the role of Major Craig.
- George Peppard as Captain Kurt Bergman
- Nigel Green as Colonel John Harker
- Guy Stockwell as Lieutenant Max Mohnfeld
- Jack Watson as Sergeant Major Jack Tyne
- Norman Rossington as Alfie
- Percy Herbert as Dolan
- Liam Redmond as Henry Portman
- Heidy Hunt as Cheryl Portman
- Leo Gordon as Sergeant Krug
- Robert Wolders as Corporal Bruckner
[edit] Academy Awards
Albert Whitlock and Howard A. Anderson were nominated for the Academy Award for Visual Effects.
[edit] Production
It was photographed in Technicolor using the Techniscope format, and shot in Almería, Spain and the United States.
Technical advice and assistance was provided by the 40th Armored Division ("Grizzly") of the California Army National Guard.
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