The Night of the Generals

Plot synopsis:
The murder of a prostitute in German-occupied Warsaw in 1942 causes Abwehr Major Grau (Omar Sharif) to start an investigation, as she was also a German agent. His evidence soon points to the killer being one of three German general officers: General von Seidlitz-Gabler (Charles Gray); General Kahlenberge (Donald Pleasence), his chief of staff; and General Tanz (Peter O'Toole). Grau's investigation, however, is cut short by his summary transfer to Paris at the instigation of these officers.
The case in Warsaw remains closed until all three officers meet in Paris in July 1944. Paris is then a hotbed of intrigue, with senior Wehrmacht officers plotting to assassinate Adolf Hitler. Kahlenberge is deeply involved in the plot, while von Seidlitz-Gabler is aware of its existence but is sitting on the fence, awaiting the outcome. Tanz is unaware of the plot and remains totally loyal to the Führer.
On the night of 19 July 1944, Tanz orders his driver, Kurt Hartmann (Tom Courtenay), to procure a prostitute; Tanz butchers her so as to implicate Hartmann, but offers Hartmann the chance to desert, which he accepts. When Grau, who is now a Lieutenant Colonel, learns of the murder, committed in the same manner as the first, he resumes his investigation and concludes that Tanz is the killer. However, his timing is unfortunate, because the very next day, the assassination attempt against Hitler takes place. So when Grau accuses Tanz face to face, the general kills Grau and labels him as one of the plot conspirators to cover his tracks.
Many years after the war, the murder of a prostitute in Hamburg in 1965 draws the attention of Interpol Inspector Morand (Philippe Noiret), who owes a debt of gratitude to Grau for not revealing his connection to the French Resistance during the war. Almost certain there is a connection to Grau's 1942 case, Morand reopens the cold case and the film begins to shift between the Europe of the 1960s and the Europe of the 1940s.
Years later, Morand begins to tie up the loose ends: he finds no criminal activity from Kahlenberge or Seidlitz-Gabler, but learns of one man who knew which man is the real killer. Morand confronts Tanz at a reunion dinner for Tanz's former panzer division. When Morand produces Hartmann as his witness, Tanz goes into a vacant room and shoots himself.

Tags: mystery, murder

Review:
Also nice to see French veteran actor Philippe Noiret in an ensemble that includes Omar Sharif, Tom Courtenay, Donald Pleasence and Christopher Plummer.It is tense all the way mostly thanks to the great use of  first Warsaw (and the atrocities performed there) as a backdrop for the story and then we move to Paris where the plot to kill Hitler is nicely interwoven."The Night of the Generals" is at parts predictable, yes, (with the great exception of Omar Sharif's final scene) but I guess that's also what makes it kinda' enjoyable at times - at least in the very last scene - when you know what's coming (and boy does it feel good).Some may find it a bit tedious and yes it is long, but when it was over I knew I would definitely see it again sometime in the future so in short: it works!
Murder mystery set in the German Army during World War II, involving 3 generals who are suspects.
A colonel of the German army (Omar Sharif) investigates and suspects three generals -two of them (Charles Gray and Donald Pleasence) are involved in a plot to kill Hitler, the other one (Peter O'Toole) is the most crazy and dangerous-.
Twenty years later the same French inspector (Philippe Noiret) who helped Sharif in the inquiry faces another case of a murdered prostitute, the crime is executed in the same way as the previous ones...This film is excellent.
A cast of super-prestigious actors, including a reunion of Peter O'Toole and Omar Sharif from Lawrence of Arabia, is employed in a huge, unwieldy Euro-pudding of a production about Nazis, murderers and a Nazi murderer.This isn't an easy movie to summarize, since there are at least three major plot-lines going on at the same time.
Simple trick, but all in all detrimental to the momentum of the story.The film is brimming with exceptional acting - O'Toole turns in a particularly vicious and strong performance as General Tanz, but everyone holds their own.
Just enjoy Peter O'Toole as the nutcase Tanz, Donald Pleasance as the General-with-a-conscience, and especially Omar Sharif as the dogged, honorable military investigator.
He reports the murder to the authorities and the investigating officer Major Grau believes him and establishes that only 3 of the German generals in Warsaw were without alibi on that night - Generals Tanz, Kahlenberge and Gabler.
Two years later in July 1944, another prostitute is murdered and Major Grau establishes that once again all 3 generals - Tanz, Kahlenberge and Gabler are all in Paris on the night of the murder.
The hunt for the killer is on.....An excellent murder mystery full of intrigue and suspense set against the background of wartime Europe, The Night Of The Generals is one of few movies incorporating historical fact with fiction and succeeding admirably.
Anyone who likes war or murder mystery movies will not be disappointed by The Night Of The Generals..
Part of my curiosity to see it was due to the sheer weight of the cast:- Omar Sharif as Major Grau, Peter O'Toole, Donald Pleasence and Charles Gray as the Generals, plus Christopher Plummer, Tom Courtenay, Philip Noiret, Gordon Jackson, John Gregson, Harry Andrews, Nigel Stock and Patrick Allen - phew!
Usually, contemporary armour was used in war films of this vintage - I'm thinking particularly of 'Battle Of The Bulge', 'The Bridge At Remagen' and even 'Patton'.However, once the scene shifts to Paris in the summer of 1944, the film starts to lose focus, meandering off on sub-plots about the Hitler assassination conspiracy and Tom Courtenay's character's love life.
Several of the foreign volunteer units were brought into the SS as well.There were foreign volunteer units that were in the Leningrad area in 1941-42 and later became Waffen SS in whole or in part.The movie does a great job of making almost perfect copies of German material and when it gets to France even has a shot of tanks made up to look very much like Panthers, in addition to the many kubelwagons and schwimwaggons.Grau is one of the best characters in cinema and he should have had more screen time.
Franco-British co-production includes a phenomenal casting as Omar Sharif and Peter O'Toole stars this intense thriller set in WWII about a Nazi general who turns series-killer .
A Nazi intelligence official (Omar Sharif) goes after three Nazi generals (a formidable trio formed by Peter O'Toole, Donald Pleasence, Charles Gray) who can be involved in the grisly killing of a Polish whore .
Meanwhile , it happens historical facts as the Warsaw uprising and the 20th July Plot (1944) in which appears as collaborator Field Marshall Rommel (Christopher Plummer) .This terrifying and sinister story turns out to be a big budgeted whodunit set in Nazi-occupied Poland and Paris full of big stars , thrills , emotions and too tense at times.
The plot against Hitler's life - which is a well known historical fact, in no way detracts from the murder mystery at hand.The musical score associated with the film, composed by Maurice Jarre, is stirring and memorable.
Back to the occupation of Europe, there is the overall context in which the Germans are losing the war, but nothing much is made of this except to the extent that it generates a movement among (some of) the officers to eliminate Hitler, a movement about which Major Grau (Omar Sharif), investigating the slaughter of a prostitute, observes cynically that it took quite a while for the movement to develop since the army seemed satisfied enough as long as they were winning.
In addition, the story about a German officer who investigates the murder of a prostitute in Nazi occupied Poland, took a backseat to what was really a general look at army life amongst the Nazis.
Peter O' Toole - when he is in the film - gives an outstanding performance as the cold and ruthless killer in "Night of the Generals." His blue eyes look almost piercing.
I could let me follow the characters, especially the minor ones (Inspecteur Morand, Fraulein Seydlitz), I finally agreed with O'Toole's performance (more "homme au masque de cire" than ever), enjoy some great lines (some reminiscent of "Monsieur Verdoux"), I found the romance between Hartmann/Courtenay and Syedlitz's daughter tense, subtly told and played...I think the length of the movie is perfectly fit ; the last thirty minutes, in modern Germany, are very necessary and cynical in the right way.Apart from the musical score (much too heavy and useless in the Varsovian part) and the very end - conventional and contradictory with what we are supposed to understand of Morand's quest -, the whole thing is a very good surprise.Do not neglect this film.
While WW11 rages in Europe, German intelligence officer Major Grau (played splendidly by Omar Sharif) is involved in the investigation of the grisly murder of a prostitute in Warsaw in December 1942.
A German General is seen leaving her room beforehand and Grau proceeds to try to discover the perpetrator, targeting three likely suspects - General Tanz played by Peter O'Toole, General Kahelenberge played by the ever dependable Donald Pleasance and Charles Gray as General Von Seiditz - Gabler.
The final act is played out at an anniversary rally for an SS reunion, in which Inspector Morand confronts the accused and leads him to his demise.Great backup cast by John Gregson as Colonel Sandauer (Tanz's loyal assistant) and Tom Courtenay with Joanna Pettet who provide a sensual romantic interlude to the horror of war and feature prominently in the closing of this good drama.
Peter O'Toole gives a magnificent performance as the destructive, arrogant hard drinking, demanding General, with strange personal qualities (like exact bathwater temperature and unclean hands of his subordinates), amounting into somewhat of an obsessive compulsive disorder.Something definitely different from your standard WW11 movie and really well worth watching..
I would have hoped that Peter O'Toole and Omar Sharif who were so good together in Lawrence of Arabia could have found a better joint project than this.In my former working days at New York State Crime Victims Board, I got to learn first hand about the importance the police attach to murdered prostitutes.
I refuse to believe that in Nazi Germany at war, a Wehrmacht major like Omar Sharif, attached to their equivalent of the Judge Advocate's Office spends four years of World War II, trying to tie General Peter O'Toole to the murder of a prostitute.
Looking predatory and strangely vulnerable in the same time, only Peter O'Toole can make this possible.Donald Pleasence, Omar Sharif and Christopher Plummer are remarkable and they make unforgettable characters.
Major Grau, played by Omar Sharif, is brilliant as the tracker of the 3 Generals who are suspects in the murder of a Warsaw prostitute and then, years later, of a Parisian prostitute, who is brutally mutilated in the same manner.The Nazi Generals are all played by English actors in this film, but, oddly enough, it works.
Courtenay gives a brooding, emotional, sole-searching performance of a simple man caught up in the madness and terror of World War II.The story line just goes off in two many different directions: serial killer, murder mystery, plot-to-kill-Hitler, madness, love story, the horrors of war, hero worship, and survival.
All other aspects of the film were good as well, though I must admit that Peter O'Toole's routine in the art museum seemed an awful lot like how he played Lawrence of Arabia years earlier and some might think this was a tad overplayed.
In its length (over two and a half hours), its war/historical subject matter, its producer (Sam Spiegel, multi-Oscar-winner for 'Bridge on the River Kwai' and 'Lawrence of Arabia'), its astonishing cast of names (including three David Lean alumni), famous character actors and international stars, its prestigious creative personnel - d.p. Henri Decae, production designer Alexander Trauner, composer Maurice Jarre, and co-screenwriter, the novelist Joseph Kessel, all ask us to expect a massive historical epic of the kind very popular at the time, such as 'Doctor Zhivago'.Yet most epics offer vast, widescreen panoramas; 'Generals' is almost entirely set indoors, where the emphasis on talk and the machinations of power suggest its pretensions to a different kind of historical narrative, the Shakespearean vintage.
You have a uniformly excellent cast (Peter O'Toole, Omar Sharif, Tom Courtenay, Donald Pleasance, Charles Gray, Coral Browne and many others) doing some very fine acting, solid if not inspiring direction, brilliant cinematography and a music score by Maurice Jarre that almost atones for the blood-congealing treacle that was his earlier "Dr. Zhivago." Unfortunately you also have from my perspective a tome that loses focus once the story shifts from Warsaw to Paris.
It's strange that in the 1960's a film would pop up with the courage to tell a story set in Nazi Germany which stays politically neutral throughout, focusing more on a whodunit style plot where an investigating sympathetic German officer (Omar Sharif in an odd bit of casting) tries to find out which German General is murdering prostitutes.The bright spot in this picture (as with most bigger budget English WW2 films) is the acting, particularly the tour-de-force performance from Peter O'Toole as the unemotional yet power-crazed high ranking and universally reviled General Tanz.
The film has rather impressive production values for the time including a few action scenes involving partisan suppression in the streets of Warsaw (complete with some shockingly convincing Tiger Tank mock-ups) and recreation of historical events like the 20 July Plot to kill Hitler and surrounding conspiracy.What makes this film so unique is its (and Omar Sharif's) focus on a small-seeming stakes of solving a murder against the large-seeming backdrops of World War 2, the destruction of Warsaw, and the plot to kill Hitler.
The search for the killer, led by Major (later Lt. Col.) Grau (Omar Sharif), gets lost for a time and Valkyrie is inserted rather late in the film.
But the acting is superb, especially by Peter O'Toole as General Tanz, an utterly ruthless killing machine, Tom Courtnay as Corporal Hartman, who is assigned to show Tanz the sights of Paris, Donald Pleasance and Charles Gray as two other German generals who are suspects, along with General Tanz, in the murder of a Polish prostitute in Warsaw, and Phillipe Noiret as a high ranking French policeman who helps Lt. Col.
On one side the historically accurate intent leaded by Col. Von Sauffenberg to kill Hitler on July 20, 1944, and on the other the murders of prostitutes by an unrevealed German general in Warsaw and occupied Paris that are investigated by a German officer who believes that "any time is good to catch a murderer" (even war time).
Omar Shariff, Peter O'Toole, Donald Pleasance, Philippe Noiret, Joanna Pettet, Tom Courtenay, and Christoper Plummer star in "The Night of the Generals," a 1967 European film directed by Anatole Litvak.
The first hour is a standard WWII thriller, where good Nazi cop Omar Sharif (there's casting for you) suspects three Nazi generals of gruesomely murdering a woman.
Sharif is modestly intense as Major Grau to O'Toole's General Tanz (great names) with sub-plots that flow over each other like babbling brooks in Alice in Wonderland (during WWII) in Europe.
But what I most liked about the film was how it dealt with abstract issues as "justice."  There were three layers to this portrayal: The first layer of course was the murder itself, and one of the things that makes this interesting is that although we don't know the identity of the killer, we know he is a German general.
I keep waiting for the story to get back to the murder mystery as the movie follows the generals in their war.
of course, it's just a background for a crime scene and some struggle between honour and ideals and a hunt of a german intelligence officer as a detective (funny looking omar sharif here) for a murderer, but sometimes it's better to stick to truth, otherwise you make a very funny movie.
The entire cast is populated by Nazi characters, nearly all of whom are played by western actors or in the most incongruous example, Omar Sharif (!) who is nonetheless completely convincing as the dedicated major on the trail of a man with a penchant for brutally killing prostitutes.This film was a flop on release and it's hard to see why.
It stars Peter O'Toole, Omar Sharif, Tom Courtenay, Donald Pleasence, Charles Gray, Joanna Pettet & Philippe Noiret.
The plot is basically three levels or intertwined murder.1) The organized murder (both normal and war crime) of World War II as practiced by the Nazi German Government.2) The activities of a select band of German Generals (led by Field Marshall Erwin Rommel) to assassinate Adolf Hitler during a conference at Raustenburg, in July 1944, seize the German Government, and negotiate an end to the war with the British and Americans (probably not with the Communist Russians).3) A series of apparently random prostitute killings across Europe (first in Warsaw) that appears to be linked to one of three leading German Generals: General Kallenberg (Donald Pleasance), Seydlitz-Gabler (Charles Gray), and Tanz (Peter O'Toole).
The movie is worth watching for the cast alone -- Peter O'Toole, Omar Sharif, Tom Courtenay, Donald Pleasance, Charles Gray; and with cameos by Harry Andrews, Christopher Plummer and Gordon Jackson.
Great acting from Peter O'Toole and Omar Sharif, a fascinating, if overly complex plot, and fine attention to detail make Night of the Generals a compelling film.
The sets are uniformly good, from the Warsaw Ghetto to the garrison of Tanz' division in occupied France (actual French fortifications of the period were used for the filming, just as they had actually been used by the occupying Germans during the war).Unlike many posters, I found the subplot involving the Hitler assassination attempt in 1944 to be the high-point of the movie, lifting it from a mere murder investigation of prostitutes into the realm of one of the most interesting and important events of WWII.
Obviously Inspector Morand couldn't do anything back in 1944 in Nazi-occupied France, so to have him solve all the murders (including Grau's) in "modern" times is a good final touch (though one may wonder why he waited so long to do it -- after all, the war had been over for 20 years...perhaps he had his suspicions of Tanz all along, but no proof, until the Hamburg murder.) At any rate, "The Night of the Generals" is good enough to qualify as MUST SEE cinema!.
Maj. Grau runs into the killer some two years later in Paris who commits the very same kind of crime and has his aid Lance Cpl. Kurt Hartmann, Tom Courter, set up and framed for it.It's during that fateful summer of 1944 that Maj. Grau ends up getting involved with the other two suspected generals, guess who, in a plot to assassinate German Dictator Adolph Hitler!
More about them in a moment.The three generals the then Major Grau (Omar Sharif) in Warsaw suspects of murder are General Tanz (Peter O'Toole), youngest division general in the Wehrmacht and a brutally effective general; General von Seidlitz-Gabler (Charles Gray), a senior officer in Warsaw who lives well, appreciates his lineage and who doesn't take chances.
Still, it's always good to see those who think they are our betters slip into the mud.As the lead suspect and star of the movie, Peter O'Toole playing General Tanz gives one of the weirdest and poorest performances in a career full of weird performances.
This movie essentially begins with a German Intelligence Officer by the name of "Major Grau" (Omar Sharif) conducting an investigation into the brutal murder of a prostitute in Warsaw during the Nazi occupation of that city in 1942.
Blofelds, Donald Pleasance and Charles Gray, feature as two of a trio of Nazi generals suspected by Wehrmacht major Omar Sharif of the murder of a prostitute in occupied Warsaw.