The Night of the Generals

Anatole Litvak – 1967 – England

As fun as it may sound – a murder mystery set in Nazi Germany featuring Peter O’Toole, Omar Sharif, Donald Pleasence and Christopher Plummer in the cast – The Night of the Generals is profoundly dull and disappointing.  Aesthetically flat and lifeless and yet dramatically overwrought, its performances feel like an acting class playing dress-up.  Near the end of his rope, once inventive director Anatole Litvak presides as though it’s the last day of school; an eye on the clock and hardly a care for what’s happening before the camera.  While O’Toole and Sharif pull out all the stops with their amateurish theatrics, only Pleasence manages to not embarrass himself.  Lugubrious at a merciless two-and-a-quarter hours, the film may please aficionados of WWII dramas or of international 60s productions, but its total dearth of any cinematic rigor and its rambling plot make it pretty hard going for anyone else.  (I suppose it’s also of interest for a couple bits of movie trivia; reuniting O’Toole and Sharif from Lawrence of Arabia and Sharif and Tom Courtenay from Dr. Zhivago, as well as featuring two Bond Blofelds in the cast; Pleasence and Charles Gray.)