Bitter Victory (1957)

Good story, Not enough for a whole film

The performances transcend the film's tropes, grounding it in characters that feel more complete than this subgenre often produces.

A film with more than the usual spoiler issues. Talking about it in any detail feels akin to handing you a gift-wrapped present and saying, "I hope you like it -- It's a thriller about a diabolical secret experiment."

The film may be flawed, but its message is not.

"Bitter Victory" refers to the medal presented to Major David Brand (Curt Jurgens) at the end of a commando mission in North Africa during WWII.General Patterson (Anthony Bushell) and Lt. Colonel Callandar (Alfred Burke) assemble a group of commandos for a raid on Rommel's HQ in Bengazi, . The group is to obtain some valuable documents that will undermine Rommell's efforts in North Africa.Major David Brand (Jurgens) heads up the group with Captain James Leith (Richard Burton) second in command. Included in the group are Lt. Barton (Sean Kelly), Sgt. Barney (Christopher Lee) and Psychotic Pvt. Wilkins (Nigel Green) among others. Barton's wife Jane (Ruth Roman) arrives and as it turns out she and Leith had an affair prior to the war. Brand becomes very jealous.The group embarks upon their mission. Brand freezes up in battle and loses the respect of his men. The group accomplishes their mission and begin the long trek back to their HQ. Brand increasingly has it out for Leith. First he leaves him and his Arab friend Mekrane (Ray Pellegrin) behind to "tend to the German wounded" following a battle with a German patrol hoping that Leith would somehow perish trying to catch up with the main group.After being startled by a scorpion and unbeknownst to the others, Brand watches as the scorpion crawls up Leith's pant leg and stings him. Mekrane tries frantically to save his friend but is unable to do so. Mekrane, knowing that Brand is somehow responsible, tries to kill him but is over powered by Brand who shoots him down.As the group prepares to leave with Leith being left behind to die, a sand storm erupts temporarily trapping the group. Leith flings himself over BRand to protect him and dies during the storm. The storm subsides and Brand leads the group back to the HQ in Cairo to great acclaim. But Brand and his men know what really happened. So when General Patterson bestows upon Brand a Distinguished service medal..............................................In another British tour de force between two great actors, Director Nicholas Ray gives us A great confrontation between two officers in love with the same woman. One is insanely jealous of the other, while the other is ready to step away knowing the husband will likely try to kill him at some point during the mission. The tension between the two is mesmerizing.Christopher Lee was just to embark on his Hammer Horror films and cinematic immortality. Similarly, Nigel Green was just coming into his own as a major character actor.In the end credits, watch for the spelling of Jurgens first name as C-U-R-D.

Apart from acting performances I couldn't find many redeeming qualities in "Bitter Victory", and WWII movie about British troops in North Africa. The story revolves around Burton and Roman who were once lovers, and her husband, Curt Jergens. The two men are selected for a secret mission led by Jergens, who lacks courage to do what's necessary and is mocked by Burton throughout the picture.It is an action picture but descends into a clash of minds and temperaments at the expense of tension and suspense. It is one of Nicholas Ray's poorer directing jobs and the film lacks good set design as well, leaving the viewer to wonder if all production money was spent on the cast. The musical score was tuneless and inappropriate, but in keeping with the overall sub-par nature of the film. Can't recommend it and wished I hadn't wasted the two hours.

It's dark days in North Africa during WWII. Captain Jim Leith (Richard Burton) and Major David Brand (Curt Jürgens) arrive in Egypt to interview for a special mission. Leith is a former archaeologist with experience in Libya and fluent in Arabic. Brand is a stuffy untested officer with 13 years in the army but little experience in the foreign land. Brand's wife Jane turns out to be Leith's former lover. Both men are assigned the mission with Brand as the commander. The small expendable thirty men group goes behind the lines to steal plans from German headquarters in Benghazi.It's highly convenient about Jane. If a story does that, it needs an iconic line like "of all the gin joints in all the towns in all the world". The movie needs better writing. The action is not that big. There is a lot of desert. It's a lot of sand. The mission is questionable and their escape is badly planned. Despite any shortcomings, the movie does have Burton and it's a functional war adventure/character struggle.

Possibly Nicholas Ray's most masculine film, he begins with a great opening credits sequence and follows with a studious, procedural atmosphere. When it gets emotionally dramatic quite soon, it remains taut, spare, subdued. Because Ray doesn't tell us how to feel about it, our understanding of the histrionics is that much clearer and unclouded. By the twenty-minute mark, the tension is a natural agreement between us and the film, which sits back viewing objectively horizontal planes, or stationary horizontal shots of whatever natural blocking. Even a shootout in the desert night.Bitter Victory is a rare treat, a military thriller involving war and covert ops, but focusing not on combat or conspiracies, but on the agitated envy two Allied officers who are situated on a commando raid together. We skip the parachuting in to Bengasi but we're quickly witness to their wordless close calls and perceptions of un-subtitled Arabic. This downbeat emotional drama is what no Jack Ryan or Jason Bourne film would have the nerve or insight to do. It sees combat violence, sneak operations and life-or-death situations, of course, but it does not see the core of the suspense in it. But one of the two central characters, yes, essentially just two, is burying his knowledge that he's unfit for his job and undeserving of his command as deep as he can beneath the assurances of his aggressive justification. Another is having an affair with that very commander's wife, whose emotions are displaced from her husband.The on-screen violence is far from realistic, but building towards it and simmering down from it are steady and natural to the point that I might even say that it is Ray's most effective film about repression and male anger, even the great In a Lonely Place, in which Humphrey Bogart's outbursts betray an all-too-real recklessness in his eyes. The tension in Bitter Victory makes brief outbursts by, say, the latter said central character, played intensely by Richard Burton, feel twice the jolt of the violence which is expected of his mission. And the tensions heightened by the controlling anger of the commander, in a strong performance by Curt Jurgens, create a balance of ambiguity. We know the crushing inadequacies that haunt the very men we find so brutally cold.