night of the generals

“Keep it simple, stupid.”

Although the mantra wasn’t meant for Hollywood, it’s unfortunately applicable in many a cinematic failure. Producer Sam Spiegel, however, subscribed to an entirely different sort of logic, specializing in grandiose pictures (The Bridge on the River Kwai and Lawrence of Arabia among them) that featured sprawling international casts and difficult shooting locations in an effort to put every ounce of spectacle on the screen.

The story at the heart of 1967’s The Night of the Generals is on a much more intimate scale: the investigation of a brutal murder in German occupied Warsaw whose chief suspect is an unidentified Nazi officer. But Spiegel can’t resist amplifying it with familiar A-list faces, overblown sets and even an elaborate plot to assassinate Hitler, none of which really supports the central narrative. But it does make for a compelling example of “big idea” filmmaking in an era when most stories were going small.

Major Grau (Omar Sharif) is tasked with tracking down the culprit in an ugly sexual mutilation case involving a prostitute. The only witness insists the murderer wore the signature uniform of a German general, which narrows down the field to three suspects with no alibi for the night in question: General von Seidlitz-Gabler (Charles Gray), a political pushover, General Kahlenberge (Donald Pleasance), who questions his country’s course in history, and General Tanz (Peter O’Toole), a gung-ho taskmaster with a collection of psychological issues and nervous ticks.

As Sharif’s characters pontificates, it almost seems too obvious for Tanz to be the killer. But, point in fact, the movie wastes very little time trying to mislead the audience with red herrings. And the film’s most interesting moments come when side character Corporal Hartmann (Tom Courtenay) is enlisted as Tanz’s escort through Paris two years later. At this point, the general’s twisted idea of “R and R” is made perfectly clear and O’Toole entertains the viewer with some rather overt psychotic tendencies straight out of the Norman Bates playbook.

Spiegel gets his money’s worth out of all the actors, including a brief cameo from Christopher Plummer who enjoys the shortest jeep ride in history. Yet it’s O’Toole and Courtenay who have the most chemistry. Their scenes cut right to the heart of what should have been – and often still is - a disturbing murder-mystery. But, perhaps feeling that such a simple story wasn’t worthy of their attention, Spiegel and director Anatole Litvak clutter the screen with romantic subplots and political conspiracies that add very little to the proceedings, complicated even further with a jarring flashback structure.

Opening with a bombastic score by composer Maurice Jarre (which sounds exactly like the theme from a mid-‘60s Hammer film), The Night of the Generals sets the tone for a thundering WWII epic when it would have been much better served slumming in the trenches. But there’s no denying that Spiegel’s creative conflict makes for a fascinating big name picture that, ironically, few people have ever heard of. Twilight Time’s 3000-copy limited edition Blu-ray offers up a tremendous visual presentation, along with an isolated score track, trailer and insightful liner notes.