Two decades after the Second World War concluded, the conflict continued to dominate cinema screens, serving as a narrative playground for filmmakers exploring themes from jingoistic action to morally complex dramas. Among these post-war experiments, Anatole Litvak’s The Night of the Generals (1967) stands out as an ambitious but uneven attempt to fuse global carnage with a psychological murder mystery. Despite its star-studded cast and producer Sam Spiegel’s aspirations to replicate the grandeur of Lawrence of Arabia (1962), the film struggles under the weight of its own sprawling ambitions, emerging as a fascinating yet flawed relic of 1960s cinema.
The film adapts Hans Hellmut Kirst’s 1962 novel The Night of the Generals, drawing from the author’s own experiences as a former Nazi officer grappling with Germany’s wartime legacy. Kirst’s work, however, faced controversy when elements were found to overlap with James Hadley Chase’s 1952 thriller The Wary Transgressor. A legal settlement resulted in both authors sharing screen credit—a rare compromise that underscores the tangled origins of Litvak’s adaptation. This hybrid narrative foundation introduces a tension between Kirst’s introspective examination of guilt and Chase’s pulp sensibilities, a dichotomy the film never fully resolves.
Framed by a 1965 Interpol investigation led by Inspector Morand (played by Philippe Noiret), the story oscillates between Nazi-occupied Warsaw in 1942 and Paris in 1944. Major Grau (played by Omar Sharif), an Abwehr intelligence officer, becomes obsessed with solving the brutal murder of a prostitute who doubled as a German informant. Witness accounts implicate a high-ranking general, narrowing suspects to three officers: elderly General von Seidlitz-Gabler (played by Charles Gray), his scheming chief of staff Major General Kahlenberge (played by Donald Pleasence), and the unhinged General Tanz (played by Peter O’Toole), a decorated war hero revered by Hitler. Grau’s inquiry is repeatedly thwarted—first by his abrupt transfer to Paris, later by the July 1944 plot to assassinate Hitler, in which two generals become entangled.
This bifurcated timeline aims to juxtapose postwar accountability with wartime moral rot, but the pacing suffers from excessive subplots. A contrived romance between Corporal Hartmann (playeed by Tom Courtenay) and von Seidlitz-Gabler’s daughter (played by Joanna Pettet) feels tangential, while cameos—such as Christopher Plummer’s brief turn as Erwin Rommel—add historical texture but little narrative heft.
Producer Sam Spiegel, fresh from Lawrence of Arabia, sought to recapture that film’s epic scale by reuniting stars Peter O’Toole and Omar Sharif, alongside composer Maurice Jarre. Yet without David Lean’s directorial precision, Spiegel’s vision flounders. Litvak, a competent but workmanlike director, stages impressive set pieces—notably the Warsaw uprising scenes, filmed in Communist Poland with hundreds of extras and tanks—yet these spectacles feel disconnected from the central mystery.
Spiegel’s insistence on cramming the film with subplots and historical footnotes results in a bloated runtime (148 minutes). The July 20 assassination attempt, featuring Gérard Buhr as Claus von Stauffenberg, distracts from the psychological tension, while Juliette Gréco’s musical cameo in a Parisian nightclub serves as nostalgic filler rather than meaningful commentary.
The film’s central conceit—a detective pursuing a serial killer amidst genocide—raises provocative questions about selective justice, yet it sidesteps deeper exploration. When General Kahlenberge sneers, “We live in an age in which dead bodies lie around in the street,” Grau’s retort about the Furies and moral duty feels more like a scripted quip than a substantive ethical argument. Similarly, the 1965 framing device hints at West Germany’s uncomfortable relationship with its past—Tanz, recently released from prison for war crimes, resumes his murderous spree—but this critique remains underdeveloped.
The murder mystery itself proves mechanically predictable, with O’Toole’s twitchy performance telegraphing Tanz’s guilt long before the reveal. Litvak leans heavily on red herrings and procedural clichés, undermining the story’s potential as a nuanced character study.
Despite the film’s shortcomings, Peter O’Toole delivers a mesmerising portrayal of General Tanz, a Jekyll-and-Hyde figure whose aristocratic refinement masks psychotic brutality. Tanz’s meticulous habits—geometric toast-cutting, obsessive polishing of boots—mirror the regimented insanity of the Third Reich itself. O’Toole, reportedly disillusioned during filming and struggling with alcoholism, channels his turmoil into the role, creating a villain whose personal depravity reflects the institutionalised madness around him. His final breakdown, culminating in a suicidal act of twisted honour, elevates the material into moments of genuine pathos.
The Night of the Generals remains a curious artefact—a film at odds with its own ambitions. Litvak and Spiegel’s attempt to marry wartime epic with psychological thriller results in a disjointed experience, saved intermittently by O’Toole’s tour de force performance and Maurice Jarre’s brooding score. While it gestures toward weighty themes of moral accountability and historical memory, the execution falters under narrative excess and tonal inconsistency. For all its flaws, however, the film offers a compelling snapshot of 1960s cinema’s grappling with the unresolved trauma of the Second World War, proving that even misfires can illuminate the darkness they seek to portray.
RATING: 5/10 (++)
>Blog in Croatian https://draxblog.com
Blog in English https://draxreview.wordpress.com/
InLeo blog https://inleo.io/@drax.leo
Hiveonboard: https://hiveonboard.com?ref=drax
InLeo: https://inleo.io/signup?referral=drax.leo
Rising Star game: https://www.risingstargame.com?referrer=drax
1Inch: https://1inch.exchange/#/r/0x83823d8CCB74F828148258BB4457642124b1328e
BTC donations: 1EWxiMiP6iiG9rger3NuUSd6HByaxQWafG
ETH donations: 0xB305F144323b99e6f8b1d66f5D7DE78B498C32A7
BCH donations: qpvxw0jax79lhmvlgcldkzpqanf03r9cjv8y6gtmk9
Posted Using INLEO