Operation Crossbow (1965)

Too much of everything

Pretty Good

i must have seen a different film!!

As Good As It Gets

A passable WWII movie boosted by star casting and a grand finale. Plot essentially is about some Allied agents planning to infiltrate the Nazis' secretive rocket factory in Holland and destroy their deadly V rockets.Much of the pic is given to character forming and painting political, army and human passion based groundwork. Unfortunately the narrative often sags and has some uneven patches that can take one out of the story line. On the plus side the finale is worth waiting for, full of suspense and heroics, while the espionage angle holds interest throughout. 6/10

This film isn't bad.It tells of a mission to destroy a Nazi rocket installation. George Peppard and Jeremy Kemp are the two men who get inside and manage to find a way to open the rocket launching doors to mark the position of the installation for Allied bombers. Although I think they both put in good performances I preferred them in The Blue Max made just after this. Anthony Quayle is also good as a Nazi. Tom Courteney bravely holds out under torture from Quayle and his thugs and ends up getting shot without revealing any information. Sophia Loren doesn't have much of a part but she is good as the ex wife of the character Peppard is pretending to be. She also surprisingly gets shot by Lilli Palmer because although Peppard thought he had found a way to save her Palmer knows that the mission is too important and too many peoples lives depend on it to be able to trust Loren.The final part of the film is tense where Peppard and Kemp have to open the doors to mark the position of the installation for the bombers.This has a star studded cast. As well as those already mentioned there are Richard Todd, Richard Johnson, Trevor Howard, John Mills and Sylvia Syms amongst others.Not the greatest film but certainly not bad and it shows how the Allies managed to lessen the threat of the V1 and V2 terror weapons launched against England.

This tense World War II thriller about the threat that the Nazi V-1 and V-2 rockets posed to the Allies after D-Day in 1944 does not surpass "The Dam Busters." Director Michael Anderson helmed both films, and producer Carlo Ponti blew major bucks on this large-scale saga about sabotage behind enemy lines in an underground German laboratory. Nevertheless,this atmospheric, star-laden movie lacks the momentum and the charisma of "The Dam Busters." Aside from George Peppard and Sophia Loren, who appears in an cameo, a line-up of classic British actors, including John Mills, Richard Johnson, Tom Courtenay, Trevor Howard, Anthony Qayle, Richard Todd, Allan Cuthbertson and Patrick Wymark, dominate the cast. It is great to have so many of them on-screen at the same time. Predictably, however, these civilized chaps chat quite often for lengthy periods about information that we have to know about but are not shown. The serious espionage military action follows a surefire formula and the characters remain unruffled throughout the action whenever they have an opportunity to react. Anderson and scenarists Emeric Pressburger of "One of Our Aircraft is Missing," Derry Quinn, and Ray Rigby of "The Hill" struggle to enliven this tight-lipped melodrama with elements of surprise and terror in a narrative that takes its toll on all the Allied characters trapped behind enemy lines in what boils down to a suicidal mission. The action opens with German scientists trying to figure out why their flying bombs crash. As one Nazi scientist explains to Peppard, they are experiencing trouble with vibration. Eventually, photos of mysterious launching ramps intrigue the British into bombing the site as well as sending in skilled saboteurs who are specialists in rocket propelled technology. Peppard, Courtenay, and Jeremy Kemp volunteer to bail out over enemy country and carry out sabotage. No sooner have the British parachuted in than the V-1 rockets start raining down terror on London. Our heroes have to figure out some what to expose a factory some 80 feet underground. Peppard holds a number of factory workers at gun point while he opens the launch windows so the British bombers can see where the plant is. The explosions that devastate the factory are terrific, especially as the Nazis attempt to launch one missile during the bombing raid. Sophia Loren's last scene comes as quite a shock and adds fiber to this thriller. The sensation that anybody can die enhances the tension in the atmosphere. Sadly, "Operation Crossbow" misses the mark and amounts to little more than a respectable wartime white-knuckler. Altogether, "Operation Crossbow" amounts to a flawed, heavy-handed, but traditional World War II thriller with the Germans as the in-name-only villains and the Allies as the heroes. Composer Rod Goodwin of "Where Eagles Dare" and "633 Squadron" provided the exceptional orchestral music.

Operation Crossbow is a solid espionage thriller set in WWII. The plot concerns the British/Allies attempt to get saboteurs inside German rocket facilities. The British have taken huge hits from the V1 and the other Allies rightly fear the more deadly V2. Three candidates are selected, given credentials allowing them to pose as Dutch engineers, and sent off to infiltrate and help destroy the Reich's most secret weapons development program.Not being a WWII scholar, I'm not sure how historically accurate Operation Crossbow really is. But really, who cares? Operation Crossbow was never meant to be a scholarly work – it's a piece of fluff entertainment. And for the most part, it succeeds at being entertaining. While the movie may get off to a slow start, the action and suspense of the third act make up for most all of the films perceived shortcomings. The film's finale in an underground Nazi rocket facility is very reminiscent of James Bond and just as thrilling. And even if the movie does get off to a slow start, I found the bits about Nazi test pilot Hannah Reitsch interesting. Most of the cast is excellent. With few exceptions, George Peppard and the rest of the cast turn in fine performances. There are some nice special effects sequences worth mentioning. In particular, the bombing of London was very well handled. The only significant complaints I can come up with involve Trevor Howard and Sophia Loren. Howard's not necessarily bad in his role, but his character, the eternally pessimistic Professor Lindemann, is so annoying I wanted to wring his neck each time he popped-up on screen. As for Sophia Loren, she's a wonderful actress and I enjoy most of her work, but in all honestly, Operation Crossbow would have been a tighter, more enjoyable movie without her. Her character brings ZERO to the movie and her scenes are not important to what came before or what comes after. Her screen time is limited to 15 or 20 minutes that only serve to kill the film's flow. She may get top billing, but that's for her name only. Still, even with these flaws, I've always enjoyed Operation Crossbow and can easily rate it a 7/10.