Sophia Loren

George Peppard

Trevor Howard

John Mills

Richard Johnson

Tom Courtenay

Jeremy Kemp

Anthony Quayle

Lilli Palmer

Paul Henreid

Helmut Dantine

Barbara Rütting

Richard Todd

Sylvia Syms

John Fraser

Maurice Denham

Patrick Wymark

Wolf Frees

Moray Watson

Richard Wattis

Allan Cuthbertson

Karl Stepanek

William Mervyn

Milo Sperber

George Mikell

Ferdy Mayne

Robert Brown

Anton Diffring

Philip Madoc

John Abineri

Charles Lloyd Pack

Gertan Klauber

Jeremy Spenser

John Ronane

Vittoriano Petrilli

Duilio Coletti

Ray Rigby

Derry Quinn

Michael Anderson

Emeric Pressburger

Ernest Walter

Erwin Hillier

George Blackler

Carlo Ponti

Ron Goodwin

Wally Fairweather

Elliot Scott

Sydney Streeter

Tom Howard

J.B. Smith

Bernard Doret

Bob Kindred

Basil Rayburn

Gerry Turner

Allan Sones

A.W. Watkins

Drama

Thriller

Operation Crossbow

Metro-Goldwyn-Mayer British Studios

Metro-Goldwyn-Mayer

United Kingdom

English

Deutsch

nazi

rocket

If you're chute doesn't open, change it for a harp!

A passable WWII movie boosted by star casting and a grand finale. Plot essentially is about some Allied agents planning to infiltrate the Nazis' secretive rocket factory in Holland and destroy their deadly V rockets.

Much of the pic is given to character forming and painting political, army and human passion based groundwork. Unfortunately the narrative often sags and has some uneven patches that can take one out of the story line. On the plus side the finale is worth waiting for, full of suspense and heroics, while the espionage angle holds interest throughout. 6/10

Engaging war-thriller doesn't always hit on all cylinders but the finale was suspense-filled and I do appreciate how the filmmakers handled the deaths, not at all sensationalized. No real standout performances but the cast did a fine job, though a bit surprising to see Sophie Loren got top-billing but only in it for maybe 15-minutes. **3.5/5**

CinemaSerf

There is something a little bit reminiscent of "The Adventures of Tartu" (1943) about this film. The Nazis are using ever increasingly effective missiles to bombard South East England and when the boffins discover their new, portable, V1 and V2 rockets then a team is assembled to go into the heart of the Reich to carry out some dangerous sabotage. George Peppard, Jeremy Kemp and Tom Courtenay are the three despatched and these characters alongside an interestingly, but effectively, cast Anthony Quayle as their Nazi antagonist work well building a sense of peril as they set about their tasks. It's a little bit cluttered by a bit of a contrived sub-plot with Sophia Loren, but for the most part it is an efficient drama that has just about every British actor you can shake a stick at appearing somewhere - John Mills; Trevor Howard; Richard Johnson; Richard Todd et al. Of course it uses a little cinematic licence - Peppard's German accent (via Detroit) is a bit of a stretch at times - but it's still an engaging piece of wartime adventure cinema with quite an exciting climax.

Infiltrating the Nazi Weapons Facility

Titles

Trailer

Pulse Jet Rocket Flight Test

Operation Crossbow( 1965)

Sabotage of Hitler's ingenious weapons of mass destruction...the V1 and V2 rockets!

Overview

Top Billed Cast

Social

A review by John Chard

Written by John Chard on Fri Nov 20 2015

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