It’s weird, but I think I’m starting to come around to the idea of Time/Warner/Turner/AOL owning everything. I feel like Meg Ryan in You’ve Got Mail, and it freaks me out. Over the last year or so, they’ve released a ton of fairly obscure movies on DVD, regardless of whether they were originally Warner Bros films. And I’m not saying they did this on purpose or anything, but here come two vintage WWII pics, just in time to back up Clint Eastwood’s Iwo Jima duology.
Operation Crossbow (MGM, 1965)
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STUDIO: Warner
MSRP: $19.97
RATED: Not Rated
RUNNING TIME: 116 min.
SPECIAL FEATURES:
• A Look Back at Crossbow
• Theatrical trailer
The Pitch
“They were schooled in sabotage… licensed to kill… and sent to destroy the world’s deadliest rocket base!”
The Humans
Sophia Loren (Yesterday, Today, and Tomorrow), George Peppard (Battle Beyond the Stars), Trevor Howard (The Unholy), John Mills (Hobson’s Choice), Tom Courtenay (Leonard Part 6), Jeremy Kemp (Top Secret!), Anthony Quayle (Lace)
The Nutshell
In 1943, as flying bombs fall on London, British Intelligence decides to send undercover agents into Germany to infiltrate the V-2 Rocket program. The requirements are highly specific: the men chosen must not only speak fluent German but be highly qualified engineers. Enter Ivy Leaguer Peppard, English squire Kemp, and Dutch émigré Courtenay. The three are assigned deep-cover identities ‘borrowed’ from unreported Axis casualties.
We’ve secretly replaced Otto’s tobacco with Folger’s Crystals. Let’s see what happens.
The Lowdown
This movie is a perfect example of how to frame a complex narrative without boring the audience. The preamble, which focuses on the V-1 project and real-life test-pilot Hanna Reitsch, is a mini-movie in itself. The central plot takes unexpected, human turns almost immediately: Kemp’s double is still alive and a new cover must be hurriedly constructed; Courtenay finds himself wanted by the police for a dead man’s crimes; and Peppard must contend with a woman (Loren) who thinks she’s hunted down her errant husband.* Top acting honors go to Courtenay: watch his face as he realizes that proof of his innocence will doom the mission.
In this way, the story reminds me a bit of 49th Parallel, an early wartime film from the Archers Studio; indeed, IMDB notes an unbilled story credit to Emeric Pressburger. Fascinating. To me, anyway.
Overshadowed by the many other WWII epics of the mid-1960s, Operation Crossbow is surprisingly effective both as history and entertainment. If the events become progressively more fictional towards the end (A V-10 missile? Aimed at New York? Really?), they do so to the benefit of a massive, satisfying action climax. The influence of the James Bond films is felt throughout, and as a piece of large-scale design the underground rocket complex very nearly outdoes Ken Adam’s Fort Knox set from Goldfinger, which came out the same year.
The Package
We get the original theatrical trailer. More interestingly, A Look Back is a faux-educational piece about the real Operation Crossbow, and it emphasizes the historical aspects of the film.
Up Periscope! (Warner Bros, 1959)
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STUDIO: Warner
MSRP: $19.97
RATED: Not Rated
RUNNING TIME: 111 min.
SPECIAL FEATURES:
• Theatrical trailer
The Pitch
“The adventures that tore the ocean floor!”
The Humans
James Garner (Space Cowboys), Edmond O’Brien (The Girl Can’t Help It), Andra Martin, Alan Hale Jr (Gilligan’s Island), Frank Gifford, Strother Martin
The Nutshell
Special Forces Lieutenant Braden (Garner) rides along with the crew of the U.S. submarine Barracuda on a classified mission to steal secret codes from a Japanese island outpost. Meanwhile, by-the-book Commander Stevenson (O’Brien) deals with low morale among his crew.
The Lowdown
Good war movies live or die on two factors: authenticity and/or star power. Up Periscope! provides a decent sketch of WWII submarine life, but fumbles when it comes to Braden’s commando tactics. I’m sad to say Garner hadn’t quite developed a big-screen wattage by this point in his career– even Hale, as a raucous, bearded career sailor (a couple of years before he became The Skipper for all time), is curiously subdued.
There are signs that a saltier portrayal of Navy life was originally intended— in an early scene at a Pearl Harbor bar, Hale’s character takes leave of three grass-skirted lovelies, hands his lei over to Braden and remarks “They’re paid for.” He’s not talking about the flowers. Overall, however, what we get is a whitewash, inoffensive to the point of blandness and stripped of any suspense.
"Wait. If you’re smoking Folger’s Crystals… what am I drinking?"
Some rather good surface footage of subs and planes is offset by a ragged collection of stock shots and miniatures for the underwater action. In the production’s defense, such special effects were very difficult to achieve with the anamorphic lenses of the time; check out the supplements on Disney’s 20,000 Leagues Under the Sea for more on that subject.
The Package
Just a trailer here, but at least it’s the kind with unique footage: Garner, in character, gives us a quick tour through the submarine. The picture quality of the main feature isn’t perfect, but the flaws appear to be inherent in the limitations of WarnerColor and WarnerScope.
"Actually, it’s a triple date. You, me, and the Little Buddy."