Le cinquième commando

It's simply too bad that this movie was ever made. Okay, "Raid on Rommel" isn't the worst WII movie ever produced. Browse through some of my other reviews, and you'll soon learn that. The sad thing is, any middle-aged American man is liable to pick this one up off of the DVD rack at Suncoast like I did a few years ago and be shocked by how such a promising-looking movie turned into such a big letdown.

Made in 1971, "Raid on Rommel" was originally planned as a made-for-TV special to make some more money off of the special effects sequences in "Tobruk", far too many of which were incorporated into this film. The far-fetched plot revolves around a British commando unit who have to sneak behind the German lines and blow up the shore batteries at Tobruk, allowing the British Navy to sail into the harbor unmolested and begin an attack. There's a lot more going to complicate matters, including the presence of a conscientous objector (Christopher Cary), an Italian prostitute (Danielle de Metz), Field Marshall Rommel (Wolfgang Preiss), and a zealous Nazi Captain (Karl Otto-Alberty). Non of these supporting characters are developed in the least, which is quite unfortunate - especially considering that the latter two are among the best "Nazi" character-actors to have ever graced the screen.

Long on action and short on intelligence or flair, "Raid on Rommel" proves to be one immense bore from start to finish. The action sequences revolve almost completely around footage lifted from "Tobruk". This is probably because "Raid on Rommel" was shot on a shoestring budget. This shows up in that even actors from our film are substituted for by actors from "Tobruk" (there's a sequence where Burton's character is taking on a German tank, and whenever there is a cut to the "Tobruk" footage, it becomes jarringly obvious that the actor in the other shots is George Peppard rather than Richard Burton). Whole scenes, plot points and character traits seemed to lifted from "Tobruk", too, which was a real shame.

Another deadly flaw in the film's execution is the poor choice of casting Richard Burton in the lead. I've never been a fan of Burton. His work in "Where Eagles Dare" was entertaining and fun, but nothing to stand up and applaud for. Here, he doesn't even put an effort into making his role convincing. He sleepwalks through most of his scenes; there are a few points where he calls characters by other characters' names or by the actor's name.

Even on DVD, the non-English sections of the film (and there are several of them) are not supported by subtitles, making it almost impossible to tell what is going on between the characters. There are key discussions between Rommel and Captain Schroeder which lead up to the climax, and I could only understand snippets of these scenes thanks to a semester of college-level German.

I had always considered Henry Hathaway a great director; after all, he was the brains behind the John Wayne classic "True Grit", one of my favorite westerns. The rest of the crew had experience limited to other low-grade movies or fairly strong TV series. At best, "Raid on Rommel" plays like an extended episode of "The Rat Patrol" and just cannot be taken seriously as a feature film. See "Tobruk" instead.

4/10

The history is wrong. The props are inaccurate. The story is over the top derring do nonsense. It was the presence of Richard Burton that drew me to this turkey. Alas, it must have been his worst role. I fail to see how any film maker can be so careless with his subject and so contemptuous of his audience. The Germans did not use flying boats and certainly not in the desert. The Wehrmacht did not use the type of campaign ribbon shown on the German uniforms. There are no puffy white clouds over the Libyan desert. Edward R. Murrow's CBS broadcasts could not have been heard in Africa. And on and on and on. Nor have we even approached the absurd plot, complete with an Italian bimbo and a philatelic Erwin Rommel. Or the very chintzy special effects. Nope. My one line summary says it all. A really bad movie!

I watched this movie with my dad when I was a kid. I just felt nostalgic, and bought a copy of this movie off Amazon.com. After watching it, I realized that most of the battle scenes were actually from the 1960's Rock Hudson Film "Tobruk". The plot was nearly identical, but "Tobruk" is the better of the 2 to see. Still if you are a fan of Richard Burton, you can't go wrong with this version. Another plus, it is available on DVD, while "Tobruk" can only be found on used VHS. Burton was much better in "Where Eagles Dare" but carries this movie anyhow. Lots of familiar faces can been found in this movie if you are a fan of WW2 movies. The German nemesis in this one can also be found as the German tank commander in "Kelly's Heroes"

This afternoon the BBC aired once again this abominable film about a British commando unit set out to destroy a German petrol dump in order to prevent the Germans from using their tanks. As far as I am concerned everything that could be wrong about this movie is wrong: the Germans are portrayed as silly cartoon-like figures who are only interested in war and who believe everything Hitler says. The British protagonists are all civilized people who took on the battle reluctantly and are heroes simply because they're British. This film is also rather comical: at one point one of the British special service man is seen in an encounter with the German general Rommel. Every now and again this British soldier tries to show that he speaks German fluently. Well, he doesn't. You don't have to be German (and I am not) to see that these so called highly trained commandos wouldn't last an hour if they were dropped as secret agents in Nazi-Germany. If this film was shot in the years between 1940-1945, I could have understand. But in 1971?

Libya 1943 . After almost three years of bitter desert warfare , Rommel's brilliant use of his Panzer divisions has driven the British into a position of desperation . The fate of the Mediterranean hangs in balance . The British troops are in progress toward the North Africa to battle the army of the Third Reich . The key point to carry out an action of attack results to be Tubruk, a shelter for Rommel and the Nazi troops, which is protected with all kinds of artillery , including powerful guns . The only option to destroy Tubruk is infiltrating an allied command, led by a British captain posing as a Nazi officer , in this area occupied by the Germans . Captain Foster (Richard Burton , though Robert Stack was initially cast) plans on raiding German-occupied Tobruk with hand-picked commandos, but a mixup leaves him with a medical unit led by a Quaker conscientious objector . Along the way they must pass through Alix line disguised as German soldiers and they pick up and drug the lover of an Italian general called Vivi (Danielle De Metz) , blow up the entire fuel supply for the Afrika Korps, and contacts philatelic gossip with Field Marshal Erwin Rommel (Wolfgang Preiss who was famous for playing Nazis in Second World War films)and takes on headstrong officer Schroeder (Karl-Otto Alberty). Despite all odds they succeed with their assignment . There actually was a raid on Tobruk, 13-14 September 1942, including the German-Jewish SIG and fake British POWs .

This thrilling wartime picture contains high-powered action-packed, shootouts , grand-scale blow-up , thrills and lots of fun ; though turns out to be average and embarrassing . The film belongs the sub-genre of warfare commandos , being highlighted by a stirring and thrilling climax with overwhelming action scenes. This sub-genre began with "The Guns of Navarone", following : ¨Dirty dozen¨ , ¨Kelly's heroes¨,and ¨When the eagles dare¨ . "Raid on Rommel" is one of the several examples of how an exhausted formula followed throughout the decade of the 1960 and early 1970. The picture bears remarkable resemblance to ¨Tobruk¨ (Arthur Hiller) , in fact portions of the film were edited into this 1971 Richard Burton film Raid on Rommel (1971) and nearly all the action scenes was footage taken from Tobruk. The greater interest to see is Richard Burton's interpretation of on the screen, but hardly have any virtue . Burton had previously appeared in two other Second World War movies set in North Africa prior to this film , as he played Captain Leith in Bitter victory (1957), fourteen years earlier and Captain 'Tammy' MacRoberts in Desert Rats (1953), eighteen years earlier. The film has a development of a very simple and plain plot with plenty of nonsense situations , sticky events ,absurd events and many other silly things .

Colorful cinematography by Earl Rath , it was filmed on location at San Felipe, Mexico, San Felipe is in the Baja California Norte region of Mexico . Lively and jolly musical score by Hal Mooney . The motion picture was regularly by Henry Hathaway who was Hathaway's only WW II movie which wasn't made by Fox, it was made by Universal ; it was a massive flop and was quickly withdrawn from theaters . ¨Raid on Rommel" was quickly relegated to the small screen, having its television premiere on NBC . Henry had directed twenty years earlier the classic 20th Century-Fox movie about Field Marshal Erwin Rommel and also set in World War II North Africa, ¨Rommel¨, (1951). Hathaway's other movies about the Second World War were all for studio Twentieth Century-Fox and included ¨The House on 92nd Street¨ (1945); ¨Wing and a Prayer¨ (1944); ¨You're in the Navy Now¨ (1951) and ¨13 Rue Madeleine¨ (1947).