OPERATION CROSSBOW [1965 / 2019] [Warner Archive Collection] [USA Release]
Once A Top-Secret . . . Now It’s The Top Secret Adventure Of The Year!
A fearsome rumour reaches Britain’s World War II command. The Nazis are developing rocket technology that could rain death on London and then New York. Quickly, England develops a plan to send saboteurs into the sites manufacturing the rockets. Just moments after the carefully chosen commandos parachute into the drop zone, their pilot receives an urgent message: The mission may be compromised. Abort!
‘OPERATION CROSSBOW’ is the partly fact-based tale of how that team succeeded against daunting odds. Michael Anderson (‘The Dam Busters’ and ‘Logans Run’) directs, guiding a huge cast in a film that builds to a spectacular finale, yet never neglects wars unsparing personal costs. As a record of a wartime espionage incursion and as an intrigue-filled thriller, ‘OPERATION CROSSBOW’ is on both counts Operation Accomplished.
FILM FACT No.1: Awards and Nominations: 1965 San Sebastián International Film Festival: Win: Prize San Sebastián for Best Actress for Lilli Palmer.
FILM FACT No.2: William Douglas-Home, brother of Sir Alec Douglas-Home, wrote an early draft of the script. Sophia Loren and George Peppard were cast early on. George Peppard was chosen for his role because of contract difficulties. M-G-M held his contract and insisted on a movie before he gained his release and cast him in this film and signed a new agreement with M-G-M for which ‘OPERATION CROSSBOW’ was the first – one a year for three years. Filming started July 1964. George Peppard said, "Mikey Anderson is one of those gifted directors who let you play it your own way and only when you see your own rushes do you realise you've been doing it his way all along." Realistic props and detailed sets added to the look of authenticity in recreating the German secret weapons projects. The now-defunct St. Pancras power station in London was used as a filming location for the power house scenes. The Norfolk town of Kings Lynn was also used as a filming location.
Cast: Sophia Loren, George Peppard, Trevor Howard, John Mills, Richard Johnson, Tom Courtenay, Jeremy Kemp, Anthony Quayle, Lilli Palmer, Paul Henreid, Helmut Dantine, Barbara Rütting, Richard Todd, Sylvia Syms, John Fraser, Maurice Denham, Patrick Wymark, Wolf Frees, Moray Watson, Richard Wattis, Allan Cuthbertson, Karel Stepanek, William Mervyn, Milo Sperber, George Mikell, Ferdy Mayne, Robert Brown, John Abineri (uncredited), John Alderton (uncredited), Tony Allen (uncredited), Jack Armstrong (uncredited), Bernard Barnsley (uncredited), Ernest Blyth (uncredited), George Lane Cooper (uncredited), Harold Coyne (uncredited), Maxwell Craig (uncredited), George Curtis (uncredited), Jack Dearlove (uncredited), Guy Deghy (uncredited), Anton Diffring (uncredited), Carl Duering (uncredited), Frank Foley (uncredited), David Hadda (uncredited), Paul Hansard (uncredited), Victor Harrington (uncredited), Alan Harris (uncredited), Philo Hauser (uncredited), Gerard Heinz (uncredited), John G. Heller (uncredited), Drewe Henley (uncredited), Lew Hooper (uncredited), Carl Jaffe (uncredited), Gertan Klauber (uncredited), Roy Lansford (uncredited), Charles Lloyd Pack (uncredited), Philip Madoc (uncredited), Alf Mangan (uncredited), Jack May (uncredited), Rudolph Offenbach (uncredited), James Payne (uncredited), Paul Phillips (uncredited), John Ronane (uncredited), Johnny Rossi (uncredited), Paddy Ryan (uncredited), Eddy May Scandrett (uncredited), Richard Shaw (uncredited), Jeremy Spenser (uncredited), Guy Standeven (uncredited), John Tatum (uncredited), Joseph Tregonino (uncredited), Harry Van Engel (uncredited) and Fred Wood (uncredited)
Director: Michael Anderson
Producer: Carlo Ponti
Screenplay: Duilio Coletti (original story), Vittoriano Petrilli (original story), Derry Quinn (screenplay). Emeric Pressburger (Richard Imrie) (screenplay) and Ray Rigby (screenplay)
Composer: Ron Goodwin
Cinematography: Erwin Hillier (Director of Photography)
Image Resolution: 1080p (Metrocolor)
Aspect Ratio: 2.35:1 (Panavision)
Audio: English: 5.1 DTS-HD Master Audio
English: 2.0 DTS-HD Master Audio
Subtitles: English SDH
Running Time: 116 Minutes
Number of discs: 1
Studio: Metro-Goldwyn-Mayer / Warner Archive Collection
Andrew’s Blu-ray Review: ‘OPERATION CROSSBOW’ [1965] is an exhilarating action packed Second World War escapade, and takes certain liberties with the last days of the war and the film is nevertheless grounded in its ‘real-life’ mission, put forth by Prime Minister Winston Churchill [Patrick Wymark] and the main characters were asked with the task to infiltrate and destroy a Nazi stronghold, buried under 90 ft. of rock and concrete, where German engineers and scientists are hard at work creating the ultimate doomsday device. Ironically, virtually all of their research and development was based on an American pioneer, whose romanticized view of “rocket travel” was largely overlooked, if not outright dismissed in his own homeland, later purchased for barely ten cents a patent by Hitler’s war machine, eager to capitalize on its earth-shattering technology.
‘OPERATION CROSSBOW’ features luminaries like George Peppard [1st Lt. John Curtis], as well as such luminaries of British stage and screen: Trevor Howard [Professor Lindemann], John Mills [Gen. Boyd], Richard Todd [Wing Commander Kendall], Richard Johnson [Duncan Sandys] and Tom Courtenay [Robert Henshaw]. It is even a bit more disconcerting to find German actress, Lilli Palmer [Housekeeper Frieda), Brit-born Anthony Quayle [Bamford], and Austrians Paul Henreid [Maj. Gen. Ziemann], and Helmut Dantine [Gruppenführer Linz] for the other side in Nazi garb, ably assisted by German-born Barbara Rütting as Hannah Reitsch who was the Nazi equivalents to Amelia Earhart.
‘OPERATION CROSSBOW’ begins in earnest in 1943, the Nazis toiling on their experimental V-1 flying bomb and V-2 rockets. In the picture’s preamble, Winston Churchill summons Sandys to Downing Street for a debriefing of the mission at hand. Mercifully, Churchill’s plans are abetted by chronic delays in the bomb’s evolution with each test, prematurely crash landing, after listing severely to the right. Many test pilots die as a result. But Hanna Reitsch has a theory about these mechanical shifting miscalculations, and proves it by successfully landing the V-1 prototype.
Despite opposition from Professor Lindemann, Duncan Sandys is convinced by intelligence and photo-reconnaissance reports that the Germans are fast developing a new doomsday device. As V-1 bombers begin to decimate London in the summer of 1944, Britain’s Bomber Command conducts air raids on Peenemünde, determined to destroy the Nazi’s entire industrial complex. Adolph Hitler relocates his factory underground and speeds up development of the deadlier V-2.
Now, General Boyd, head of British intelligence unearths an insidious plan to recruit engineers for an even more experimental prototype. General Boyd decides to plant three spies in the Nazi’s midst: one, American – 1st Lt. John Curtis, another Dutch – Robert Henshaw [Tom Courtenay], and, finally a British spy – Phil Bradley [Jeremy Kemp], all of whom speak fluent German and Dutch. The men are hastily trained and sent to Germany via the Netherlands. Among the volunteers interviewed, though not selected for this mission, is Bamford, later proven as an undercover double agent working for the Nazi high command.
Regrettably, just before parachuting into Europe, General Boyd learns Robert Henshaw’s cover as a Dutch sailor has been blown as the real sailor is wanted for the murder of a young woman. Predictably, Robert Henshaw is mistaken for the real McCoy and arrested. Nevertheless, and to maintain his cover, Robert Henshaw agrees to become both an engineer and informant for the Nazis. Regrettably, Bamford [Anthony Quayle], having returned to Germany as a security officer, recognises Henshaw from the recruitment facility. Henshaw is summarily tortured by the Gestapo, but refuses to divulge the particulars of his mission. As a result, Bamford orders Robert Henshaw’s execution and his body is left in a ditch behind the rubble of the city.
1st Lt. John Curtis and Phil Bradley infiltrate the rocket-building plant; Phil Bradley, as a porter/cleaner. 1st Lt. John Curtiss, however, is brought to the forefront of the project by a former alliance with Professor Hoffer [Karel ŠtÄ›pánek], a crucial member of the scientific team who, not having seen the real van Ostamgen in some years, accepts 1st Lt. John Curtis completely as his reasonable facsimile. 1st Lt. John Curtis is given the run of the place and afforded high-level clearance to examine the scientific data and fix a problem with the rocket engine vibrations delaying the V-2’s development.
In the meantime, Hitler launches daily assaults on London, killing many with his V-1 flying bombs. Then, the V-2 attacks begin. In London, Winston Churchill assembles nearly all of the Royal Air Force for a planned attack on the Nazi stronghold – a race against time, before the scientists can perfect the A-10 “New York” rocket. It is up to 1st Lt. John Curtis and Phil Bradley to open the protective doors, thus revealing the location of the hidden plant to the bombers fast approaching under the cover of night. Suspecting
something is afoot, Bamford investigates the identities of all the scientists working at the plant, and realizes the photo of van Ostamgen on file via the Telex, and, the one on the passport presented to them by 1st Lt. John Curtis are not the same.
Knowing their mission must not fail, and, hearing Bamford shoot Bradley dead over the loudspeaker, 1st Lt. John Curtis now steals a machine gun from a fallen Nazi officer and goes on a shooting spree, isolating himself in the power house. He is mortally wounded by one of the plant workers, but manages to delay their escape. The R9 doors are opened wide and the bombers attack, decimating the plant and incinerating everyone inside it. The A-10 is likewise destroyed. In London, Winston Churchill congratulates Duncan Sandys on a mission well accomplished; Duncan Sandys, pausing to honour the agents who died for their cause. Churchill concludes, without the RAF’s raid on Peenemünde, the outcome of the war would have been very grim for the Allies indeed.
Blu-ray Image Quality – Warner Archive Collection presents us with an enhanced 1080p image with a really excellent 2.35:1 aspect ratio, which received a limited engagement in 70mm. The aspect ratio here is 2:35.1 which would suggest 35mm Panavision reduction prints were used to remaster this image, as 70mm Super Panavision sports an aspect ratio of 2.20:1. The image itself is sharp and colourful and is incredibly refined, and yields such a myriad of goodies – exceptional clarity and contrast, a light smattering of film grain looking very indigenous to its source, and outstanding colour reproduction, one could easily assume 70mm elements were involved somehow of the print.
Blu-ray Audio Quality – Warner Archive Collection brings us a really excellent 5.1 DTS-HD Master Audio lively sound mix and may have been derived from a six-track stereo original audio. The 70mm cinema release sported 6-tracks of stereophonic sound and in the USA release was a 35mm print and was in 1.0 Mono Audio. But with this Blu-ray release, the 5.1 DTS-HD Master Audio delivers a magnificent aural experience to match the breath-taking visuals. So, prepare to be totally astounded and will give you an audio viewing pleasure which has been assured by the good people at Warner Archive Collection!
Blu-ray Special Features and Extras:
Special Feature: A Look Back at CROSSBOW [1965] [480i] [1.37:1] [9:50] Here we get to view a promotional short for the film ‘OPERATION CROSSBOW’ in giving us an historical background for the film's plot using archival footage of Robert Goddard's rocket experiments in the 1930s. Nazi Germany bought his patents to start their rocket programme. We then see scenes from the feature film, in which the allies attempt to sabotage Germany's rocket industry. This special feature also utilises cropped clips from the film, along with archival black-and-white newsreel footage. Contributors include: Herschel Bernardi (Narrator voice) (uncredited), Winston Churchill (archive footage) (uncredited) and Robert H. Goddard (archive footage) (uncredited). This was a Kaleidoscope Films production.
Theatrical Trailer [1965] [1080p] [2.35:1] [2:36] This is the Original Theatrical Trailer for the film ‘OPERATION CROSSBOW.’
Finally, ‘OPERATION CROSSBOW’ is a beautifully colourful made spy/thriller filmand expertly shot by Erwin Hillier with exquisite Panavision compositions that engage the viewer in the entire picture’s vast and encompassing international espionage. The picture was released in the UK in 70mm, but only made available in 35mm reduction prints in the U.S. It would go on to run a whopping 19 weeks in three West End cinemas for nearly six months, a minor coup for a non-roadshow presentation, and ranking ‘OPERATION CROSSBOW’ among the top 10 box office draws of 1965. In retrospect, what impresses most about the film is not its performances – although, there are many fine ones to mesmerize and sustain the audience’s attentions. Rather, Anderson’s superb integration of war-themed drama with an almost documentary-esque passion for the period both sustains and sets the picture apart as atypical WWII film fare. M-G-M’s impenetrable level of high-key-lit gloss creates a slick and stylish affair. The story that moves like gang-busters, particularly in its last act and is a real roller coaster ride! Highly Recommended!
Andrew C. Miller – Your Ultimate No.1 Film Aficionado
Le Cinema Paradiso
United Kingdom
