Play Dirty
Tags: anti war

Plot synopsis:
During the North African Campaign in World War II, Captain Douglas (Caine) is a British Petroleum employee seconded to the Royal Engineers to oversee incoming fuel supplies for the British 8th Army. Colonel Masters (Green) commands a special raiding unit composed of convicted criminals, and after a string of failures he is told by his commander, Brigadier Blore (Andrews), that he must have a regular officer to lead a dangerous last chance mission to destroy an Afrika Korps fuel depot, lest his unit be disbanded. Despite Douglas' objections, he is chosen for his knowledge of oil pipelines and infrastructure. Douglas is then introduced to Cyril Leech (Davenport), a convicted criminal rescued from prison to lead Masters' operations in the field.
The next day, Douglas and Leech are provided with armed jeeps and lead six other men out into the desert disguised as an Italian Army patrol. They endure a long and arduous trek across the desert: encountering enemy tribesmen, sandstorms, and a booby-trapped oasis, among other dangers. While Leech and his men are often insubordinate towards Douglas' command, they eventually reach their objective, only to discover that the depot is fake. They then head to a German-occupied port city hoping to steal a boat and escape; Douglas sees the fuel depot there and convinces Leech that destroying it would aid their plan. Meanwhile, Masters is confronted by Blore with aerial photographs of the (supposed) depot intact — confirming the mission's failure. Having lost contact with the men for some time, Masters is ordered to leak intel on the team to the Germans; the British Army is now on the offensive, and they wish to keep any enemy fuel depots intact for capture.
Under the cover of night, the men don German uniforms and sneak into the port depot to plant their explosives, but one of them sets off a trip flare and they are quickly surrounded; an officer on a loudspeaker calls each of them out by name, revealing Masters' betrayal. The men scatter as the depot is detonated; Leech and Douglas manage to slip away while the rest are caught and killed. After taking shelter, Leech admits to Douglas that he is being kept alive only because Masters is paying him £2000 for his safe return.
The 8th Army arrives the next morning; Douglas and Leech (still donning their German uniforms) decide to surrender to the British. Unfortunately, a trigger-happy British soldier opens fire — killing them before they have a chance to speak.

Review: Michael Caine is his brilliant self, supported ably by Nigel Davenport and Nigel Green in this film which has drawn comparisons to the "Dirty Dozen" but, I believe, strikes ground of its own.
Play Dirty (1969)You almost have to see this anarchic, nasty, selfish, brutal WWII movie as a comment on Vietnam, and on war.
At first you think Michael Caine, for all his talent, is miscast, but the odd displacement of his character among a lot of very hardened, serious men is part of what works.This is not like any WWII you've seen.
There is also fighting amongst the men, a somewhat horrifying (and unnecessary) attempted rape, some bloody carnage of natives, and of Germans, a long twenty minutes of Fitzcarraldo heroics with some cables, and so on.But in the end, it really does capture something essential of war, including the nonsense of some of it, and the lack of rules, and the lack of personal safety that comes from chaos, and the difficulty of companionship and trust..
Somewhat similar to "The Dirty Dozen," in that its plot features a group of convicts recruited for a deadly mission during WW 2, this fast paced war epic is much more stylish and unpredictable than that crudely made, if undeniably entertaining, Robert Aldrich blockbuster.
With great performances from Michael Caine and Nigel Davenport, as well as able support from a cast of fabulous British actors, the film features one terrific action sequence after another, with plenty of surprises in store.
After a string of failures, Col. Masters is given one last chance by General Blore with his information taken from behind enemy lines, which involves blowing up a Nazi fuel depot in North Africa.
Masters gets a seven-man unit of criminals ready, led by mercenary Captain Leech, but Blore wants a British officer in charge and Captain Douglas with his oil experience gets picked.
Leech and Douglas clash over who's in command, but Leech sees Douglas' honoured methods aren't well suited for their situation and lets Douglas string them along, as there's a money reward for him if he returns back with Douglas alive.What hits me straight away is the comparisons to Robert Aldrich's 1967 film "The Dirty Dozen", which gets unfairly lumped onto this feature.
Caine's professionally stout and well-judged performance as Captain Douglas works fine and a slyly hard-boiled performance by Nigel Davenport as the rogue Captain Leech is that of high quality and the pick of the lot.
Tough, macho Nigel Davenport matches wits with firm English captain Michael Caine as they team up to kick axis butt in this two-fisted war movie that will keep you glued to the screen.The harshness of the unforgiving desert and the danger of combat is expertly presented by director Andre de Toth.
A virtually unknown British masterpiece from the 60's.Its cynical and bleak portrayal of men in war is only matched by its lack of notoriety which is a shame considering how powerful the films message is.
Admittedly Caine is a little wooden as the straight laced British Officer, but it is the much less known Nigel Davenport who steals the show as the hard bitten second in command.
Well-made War adventure in which an officer (Michael Caine) is assigned by superiors (Nigel Green, Harry Andrews) leading an unit of ex-convicts on a dangerous mission in WWII North Africa.
To add intrigue a German nurse female (Vivian Pickles) is kidnapped and after that they are double-crossed.This exciting war/adventure about a misfit band of crooks who are led by Michael Caine on a daring mission whose objective results to be destruction of the Rommel's indispensable fuel depots, it is packed with noisy action, suspense, thrills and is quite entertaining.
The film gets a certain likeness along the lines of ¨Tobruk¨, ¨Kelly's heroes¨ , ¨Where eagles dare ¨ and especially in the wake of ¨Dirty dozen¨ and group of films that were made regarding to warlike adventures during the 1960-1970 years about special forces in dangerous missions .
Michael Caine is top notch as good and unwilling officer ; rough and gruff Nigel Davenport is nice as leader of the motley group.
When the military unit are all killed, Douglas is forced to abandon his training and become a little more like the un-gentleman-like Capt Leech, and play dirty.I had only seen this film once almost 15 years ago and had reasonable memories of it.
I say `action' because, although it sustains the interest, it is a rather plodding film that is consistent but has no high points as a result.The story is good but the delivery is one that is clearly meant to make a point rather than entertain in the way Dirty Dozen does.
The support cast are unmemorable  whereas many people can name all the dirty dozen, none of these really make an impression  only the gay pair stick but mainly because of how surreal it feels in the setting.Overall this is an OK film with a good ending.
But unlike The Guns of Navarone or the Dirty Dozen, Play Dirty puts the position of the British army in this desert scene as greedy and malicious and really only caring about getting to the oil, and surely before the 'decoy' team gets there.
It's a story of unheroic men doing some heroic things and always for the almighty dollar.In the film, Michael Caine is a Captain Douglas in the army- he doesn't look entirely like the army type and no wonder since he was formerly a Petro-exec- who is put in charge of a group to go through rocky terrain in the North African desert to bomb an oil field.
With this in mind, the head guy puts Cyril Leech (Nigel Davenport) in charge to make sure the Captain is kept alive - at a good cost of two thousand pounds.
It's an uneasy partnership with their fellow soldiers also not always sure who to follow, especially when coming into some enemy territory, or when they come upon a 'fake' enemy outpost in a sandstorm.Andre De Toth's film is rough and tough, as any men-on-a-mission war film should be, but it has something extra to keep one interested.
Even a scene involving an attempted rape is shown without any punches pulled, until the one oddly-effective laugh had at the outcome of the scene.It's a forgotten little wonder of the world war two movie, and it's more bitter than sweet with its view of the buck-stops-here mentality of wartime - or rather, as a character points out, how war is "a criminal enterprise", hence having a guy like Cyril, who was in prison for fifteen years until being put to use on the mission.
The film is about a group of cutthroats and criminals who are on a mission behind enemy lines AND it has TONS and TONS of long and dry (no pun intended) desert scenes where very little is happening.
Considering that these two other films were made before "Play Dirty" and are much better films, then you can guess some of my feelings about the film.The film begins with an officer and petroleum expert (Michael Caine) being forced to go on a crazy mission behind enemy lines in North Africa to destroy fuel depots during WWII.
This guy has a group of equally nasty rogues who are all experts at playing dirty and NOT abiding by the rules of warfare and this includes dressing up as Italian soldiers.Too much of the film is spent on the team's trek across the desert...way too much.
How the world turns...Anyway  this effort does have some great and witty lines delivered by Caine and Davenport as the two rival captains on a mission to blow up a German petrol dump in the Libyan desert during the second world war's African campaign.
On that basis, it's somewhat pedestrian  many scenes of travelling through desert areas, naturally; getting bogged down in the sand, naturally; meeting and killing Arabs at an oasis, naturally; and generally verbally fighting with each other, as each tries to assert their individuality.Where the narrative is different, however, is first, the twists in the story that produce some worthwhile surprises; second, the grittiness of the situations that serve to highlight the totally amoral attitudes of all concerned; third, the irony of the true nature of the German dump; and finally, the tongue-in-cheek chutzpah of the ending which, for me, almost turned the whole movie into a very long shaggy-dog story.
I could imagine Bragg having a real giggle about it as he wrote it  and that's not maligning him at all.All of the main characters provide suitably professional performances, Caine once again with that disdainful and bored attitude reminiscent of his role in Zulu (1964) as Lt. Gonville Bromhead; Nigel Davenport gives a terrific performance (he outshines Caine, in my opinion) as Caine's rival; while the likes of Harry Andrews and Nigel Green exemplify the vacuous and glory-seeking nature of all military top brass.
The standout performance, however, goes to Vivian Pickles as the German nurse who shows all the British soldiers what it means to stand up for your rights  not to be missed.As war movies go  perhaps anti-war  it's well done, but not without its faults, particularly some of the gaps in the narrative, sloppy editing and inexplicable jump cuts.
top action film with no frills direction by screen veteran Andre DE Thoth.the scene in the sandstorm with the attack on the dummy fuel dump is a beauty.interesting to note Richard Harris was replaced by Nigel davenport.anyone know why?
also interesting is the cynical nature of the storyline.nobody seems to win at anything and betrayal is always around the corner.the characters played by harry Andrews and Nigel green seem to sum up the nature of the storyline and i found the script quiet good in letting the story unfold around the events as they happen.the supporting cast is completely unknown but i guess this adds to the cynical nature of the piece and helped with their budget i guess..
Trobruk is a good exception blurring the lines a bit and bringing a "grit" factor.Play Dirty goes even further showing extreme ruthless and deceit in all directions -- VERY GRITTY.
This film is interesting in that Caine shares the spotlight with Nigel Davenport as Capt.
This is a good movie that should be in any serious war film collection.
On the surface PLAY DIRTY resembles THE DIRTY DOZEN except for one important difference - In Robert Aldrich`s film some of the criminals were likable in a strange way .
In fact that`s PLAY DIRTY biggest problem , it`s a film where the audience will find it impossible to relate to the characters sent on a suicide mission because of their cut throat personalities .There`s other problems with it too , it`s very slow in parts with a sequence of getting some land rovers up a ridge taking up a fair slice of running time , and Michael Caine does not deliver a good performance .
If you like war films then you may like PLAY DIRTY .
As has been said already, this film is a gem - one of the best anti-war movies I have seen.
Play Dirty is a movie worth seeing, as it's a skillfully written absurd tragedy that presents a plausible depiction of war.
Play Dirty is quite possible the worst war movie I've ever seen, and considering I've seen a lot, that's saying something.
Unless you like terribly upsetting films that don't seem to serve a purpose, I can't really recommend it.Michael Caine, Nigel Davenport, Nigel Green, and Harry Andrews star in this Desert War film, involving British soldiers, Italian soldiers, North African terrain, and Nazis.
As memory serves, 1968's Play Dirty has Michael Caine leading a bunch of commandos toward some derring-Dirty-Dozen-do in WWII North Africa.
Play Dirty is another of the great anti-war films although most of the way appears another typical, but well-done, suspenseful war movies.
Anybody that dismisses director Andre De Toth's amoral World War II adventure thriller "Play Dirty" with Michael Caine as just another "Dirty Dozen" clone entirely misses the point of this first-rate combat epic.
Sixth, aside from the Michael Caine protagonist, none of the characters in "Play Dirty" is sympathetic.
However, he forces Masters to use a regular British Army officer, Captain Douglas (Michael Caine of "Alfie"), while Masters demands that Captain Cyril Leech (a mustached Nigel Davenport of "Nighthawks") bring Douglas back alive (as opposed to dead) unlike his numerous predecessors.
"The way to survive here," he indicates, "is to watch, listen, and say nothing."Altogether, "Play Dirty" qualifies as an excellent World War II actioneer dripping with irony and sarcasm.
It's a bloody war film.Caine and Leach, who had been clever up to the point of blowing up the German supplies base, are suddenly reduced to utter retards when they walk straight into an ongoing military operation (Monty's invasion), waving a white flag that is smaller than a hamster's bum.
I generally like Michael Cain so when I saw that he was in this movie I became interested enough to watch it yesterday on Cine+ Classic.
It starts of pretty promising but as soon as the actual mission starts it all goes downhill.Both Michael Cain and Nigel Davenport make good performances in the roles they were given.
After having watched through the entire movie you get this ending as a final insult.The only reason this movie got any stars at all is because of Michael Cain..
Michael Caine plays Captain Douglas, a British army officer in North Africa, that is ordered to lead a mission in the desert.
Brigadier Blore(Harry Andrews)wants a German fuel reserve knocked out but he doesn't trust Colonel Masters(Nigel Green)with the task after failing several times doing so.
Douglas is chosen to lead mercenaries in this latest mission; but Cyril Leech(Nigel Davenport), a war experienced mercenary, is hired to guide Captain Douglas and his motley band into the desert.
It's surprisingly cynical for a British war movie of the era, and its depiction of army brass as scheming glory-seekers perhaps signifies a point in time when the cinema began to grow up.
Veteran director Andre de Toth, making his first film in five years, creates an appropriately tense and heated atmosphere, but offers little in the way of characterisation.Michael Caine plays Captain Douglas, an army captain ordered against his will to lead a bunch of ex-convicts on a mission to destroy one of Rommel's fuel depots situated deep in the African desert.
The men he leads are a ragtag band of cutthroats, murderers, thieves, junkies and homosexuals (whose sexual orientation was at the time obviously still considered akin to more anti-social practices), all loyal to prickly desert veteran Captain Leech (Nigel Davenport) who joins the mission only after being offered £2,000 if he manages to keep Douglas alive.
The twist ending doesn't really work for me, and I can't help feeling the message would have been stronger had the unit following them been allowed to survive in order to shoot down Caine and gang at the mock fuel depot in the mistaken belief that they are Germans..
so, the men are all betrayed and killed, and Michael Caine and Nigel Davenport survive.
Super Cynical War Movie Very Much From Its Anti Establishment Era. This is a film that has escaped my attention for the best part of 50 years.
The landscapes look much like the Mirsch produced Rat Patrol produced a couple of years earlier though that is not a problem.Michael Caine is good in a story of a group whose assignment is to blow up a German Fuel Dump.
The British command even puts out orders to kill the group.This is a solid film though I always wonder about whether or not the forces for both sides really had as many trucks and jeeps in World War 2 as are depicted here.
"Play Dirty" has been one of many films in which Michael Caine's career hasn't exactly benefitted.
The story tends to resemble something out of "The Dirty Dozen" film - except that one is ten times better.
Nigel Davenport as the soldier who accompanies Caine on their suicide mission is somewhat better.
The dialogue delivery is so immaculate that one forgets the surrounding glitches, if any, in the plot or the performance of the supporting actors.Coming to this movie, Play Dirty is consistent with Caine's golden string of 60's and 70's .
"Play Dirty" is a brutal, handsomely-photographed WWII film set in the North African desert.
While the characters here are even more dislikable than those in Aldrich's movie, the pace of "Play Dirty" is sometimes plodding and the film is littered with half-assed ironies, none more so than the cruelly hard-edged ending.A British petroleum trader working in North Africa during the Second World War is unhappily assigned to go on a dangerous mission, despite the fact that he thought his job description protected him from such risky front-line soldiering.
"Play Dirty" is an interesting and fairly original war film, not a classic by any stretch of the imagination but definitely one that you should keep an eye out for..
This was the case with PLAY DIRTY.The war in Africa carries on and the allied forces are doing all they can to bring it to an end.
It isn't until the last portion of the film that the fate of Douglas and all in his command is revealed.I enjoy war movies as well as anyone.
The choice to focus on the two main protagonists of Douglas and Leech leaves the rest of the team relatively unknown with little or no dialogue with their dialogue extremely limited.In the end it was interesting to view from a historic aspect, a movie made against war about war, but I found little else to make me recommend this film to anyone but die hard WWII movie fans and Michael Caine fans.