Operation Crossbow (1965)

Director:

Michael Anderson

Writers:

Duilio Coletti (story) &
Vittoriano Petrilli (story) ...

Release Date:

1 April 1965 (USA)

Genre:

Action | Drama | War

Plot:

Allied agents attempt to infiltrate the Nazis' rocket research site.

Plot Keywords:

Nazi | Rocket | V1 | Bomb | Test Pilot

Awards:

1 win

Cast

Sophia Loren	...	Nora
George Peppard	...	Lt. John Curtis
Trevor Howard	...	Professor Lindemann
John Mills	...	General Boyd
Richard Johnson	...	Duncan Sandys
Tom Courtenay	...	Robert Henshaw
Jeremy Kemp	...	Phil Bradley
Anthony Quayle	...	Bamford
Lilli Palmer	...	Frieda
Paul Henreid	...	General Ziemann
Helmut Dantine	...	General Linz
Barbara Rütting	...	Hannah Reitsch (as Barbara Rueting)
Richard Todd	...	Wing Cmdr. Kendall
Sylvia Syms	...	Constance Babington Smith
John Fraser	...	Flight Lt. Kenny

Also Known As:

The Great Spy Mission (UK) (USA) (reissue title)
Code Name: Operation Crossbow
Operación Crossbow (Argentina) (Spain) [es]
A Crossbow akció (Hungary) [hu]
Epiheirisis Stavroto velos (Greece) [el]
Geheimaktion Crossbow (West Germany) [de]
Gizli harekat (Turkey: Turkish title) (TV title) [tr]
Londra yaniyor (Turkey: Turkish title) [tr]
Opération Crossbow (Canada: French title) [fr]
Operaatio Jousi (Finland) [fi]
Operacija Samostrel (Serbia) [sr]
Operacja Kusza (Poland) [pl]
Operation Crossbow (Denmark) [da]
Operazione Crossbow (Italy) [it]
På främmande mark (Sweden) [sv]
Unternehmen Crossbow (West Germany) [de]

MPAA:

Rated PG-13 for some war violence.

Runtime:

115 min

Country:

UK

Language:

English | German

Color:

Black and White (archive footage) | Color (Metrocolor)

Aspect Ratio:

2.20 : 1

Sound Mix:

70 mm 6-Track (70 mm prints) (Westrex Recording System) | Mono (35 mm prints) (Westrex Recording System)

Certification:

Iceland:12 | West Germany:12 (f) | Australia:PG | Finland:K-16 | Norway:16 | Sweden:15 | Argentina:16 | USA:PG-13 | UK:PG (video rating) | UK:A (original rating)

Filming Locations:

Holkham Beach and Estate, Norfolk, England, UK

Company:

Metro-Goldwyn-Mayer British Studios

Trivia:

Richard Attenborough was offered a key role in this film

Goofs:

Anachronisms: As the heroes enter occupied Holland, the tri-coloured German flag is on prominent display at the border post. This flag was ditched by the Nazis in 1933 and didn't come back into use until the late 1940s.

Movie Connections:

Referenced in Undergrunnen (1966)

Too Talky In the Middle Bogs Down 'Thriller'

This World War II movie starts off strong with an interesting story about the Nazis experimenting with rockets and showing some of the problems they had in getting them to work. (This was before anyone had done this.)

Meanwhile, the British suspect something is up regarding this experimentation and send some spies to find out. Unfortunately, from that point the film begins to lag and is way too talky until the action-packed finale. There is simply too much time wasted in the middle of this film, which has an outstanding cast, by the way. However, I agree with reviewer "SgtSlaughter" that is just an "average war thriller." Personally, I'd like to see a re-make of this movie.