it is finally so absorbing because it plays like a lyrical road odyssey that’s also a detective story.

A film with more than the usual spoiler issues. Talking about it in any detail feels akin to handing you a gift-wrapped present and saying, "I hope you like it -- It's a thriller about a diabolical secret experiment."

The movie's neither hopeful in contrived ways, nor hopeless in different contrived ways. Somehow it manages to be wonderful

The story, direction, characters, and writing/dialogue is akin to taking a tranquilizer shot to the neck, but everything else was so well done.

The premise of this film just does not work. Why would nazis care about a murdered prostitute? They were mass-murdering poles in the upper class to make "Lebensraum" from the first advance into Poland. They killed over 10,000 upper class poles and buried them in shallow graves around the countryside to make room for the expected influx of aryans. The whole idea of anyone caring about a dead whore among the nazis is ridiculous!

A Sam Spiegel-Anatole Litvak Production for Horizon Pictures (Sam Spiegel) (London) and Filmsonor (Paris). Copyright 1 February 1967 by Horizon, Filmsonor. Released through Columbia. New York opening at the Capitol and Cinema I simultaneously: 2 February 1967. U.S. release: February 1967. U.K. release: 5 March 1967. Australian release: 21 April 1967. French release: April 1967. 13,213 feet. 147 minutes. Cut to 140 minutes in France. Filmed on locations in France and Poland. (Available on a very good Uca DVD).French release title: LA NUIT DES GÉNÉRAUX.SYNOPSIS: In Warsaw in 1942, a prostitute who doubles as an agent for the Germans is sadistically murdered by one of her clients. Sharif, from the German intelligence service that employed the unfortunate girl, sets out to track down the killer and soon narrows the field of suspects down to three generals. Eventually, Sharif's nearly obsessive mission to prove one of the three guilty annoys his superiors and he is transferred to Paris. Two years later, all the suspected generals are present in Paris when another prostitute is murdered.COMMENT: Anyone who doesn't guess the murderer in this film can't have seen many pictures. There are only three to choose from, anyway. However, to add another puzzle to their narrative, the producers have deleted a few scenes and added a few unexpected transitions from the past events depicted to unexplained present-day ones; — so that one has a bit of a puzzle following the story as well. Added to the plot problem, the acting is not very good either. O'Toole repeats all his Lawrence of Arabia mannerisms, and thus spoils the whole effect. Anatole Litvak's direction is surprisingly mundane and undistinguished. Even Decae's normally lush camera-work is way below his usual brilliant standard here. It's just as well the sets are so atmospherically attractive, and there seem to be so many crowds of realistically costumed extras milling around. Obviously, stacks of money were prodigiously expended on the movie, and most of it is up there on the screen for us to marvel at and admire.

This film is certainly a bit of an oddity which somehow managed to stay under my radar for years despite my being a fan of half the cast and a devotee of axis-focused WW2 films. 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. He gracefully glides through the film, and even though the years of alcohol abuse had certainly begun to take their toll on his boyish looks, it fits his character perfectly. I cannot imagine anyone else pulling it off like he did, save for perhaps Helmut Berger who essentially made a career out of aping O'Toole's performance in this film.Also look out for Harry Andrews and Christopher Plummer in cameo roles. Donald Pleasence also shines as a twitchy staff officer who is among the suspects along with O'Toole and that guy who played Blofeld in DIAMONDS ARE FOREVER. It's funny to see the two Blofelds working together. 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. By and large, this disconnect actually works very well and leads to some delightfully awkward situations which Sharif handles with a smile, undeterred from his quest for justice. A truly delightful film if one can overlook the rather sloppy wrap-up.

The Night of the Generals is directed by Anatole Litvak and written by Paul Dehn, Joseph Kessel & Gore Vidal, based on the novel of the same name written by Hans Hellmut Kirst. It stars Peter O'Toole, Omar Sharif, Tom Courtenay, Donald Pleasence, Charles Gray, Joanna Pettet & Philippe Noiret. Maurice Jarre scores the music and Henri Decae photographs it. Distributed by Columbia Pictures it's a Technicolor and Panavision production, with the primary location for the shoot being Warsaw, Poland. Plot centres around the hunt for a serial killer of prostitutes during the second World War, with the evidence pointing to it being a General in the German army. Nazi officer Major Grau (Sharif) is the man taxed with flushing out the madman.Is it comedy, drama or an in depth character study of Nazi evility? Perhaps all three? Either way, The Night of the Generals is an acquired taste and a film that's hard to recommend with any great confidence. With a big budget and an international cast of numbers, the makers intended to take the bite of Kirst's novel and blend it with grandiose characterisations: I mean the Hitler assassination plot is in the mix somewhere. What follows, dragged out over a far too long 150 minutes, is a film dotted with moments of class, punctured by moments of borderline camp comedy. Some of the dialogue is very precious, but again at times some discussions beggar belief. It's such a shame that a production with much going for it, such as the sets, location, photography, source material and cast, ultimately runs out as a collage of good intentions & bad ideas. Still, it is fun to watch, which in a film containing savagery and deprivation, probably gives you the best idea of how to approach the film.O'Toole is an absolute riot, playing it insane and pompously dandy, his performance alone is worth getting the numb backside for. But was it meant to be played that way? Rumours suggest that O'Toole was mortified about the behaviour of producer Sam Spiegel, particularly towards Litvak. So Pete, bless him, decided to totally have fun with the role, and he did, and in the process raises laughs aplenty. Sharif, Pleasence and Gray (woo hoo, Blofeld's R Us) manage to keep straight faces long enough to earn their money, while Technicolor beauty comes in the form of Pettet & Véronique Vendell. There's even some cameos to look out for, notably Christopher Plummer as Rommel. The rest either come and go without great impact, or in the case of Courtenay, just look star struck around O'Toole.If come the end you remember the nastiness within or a great action sequence? (whoosh those flamethrowers), then the film has in part done its job. If, however, you still find yourself giggling at O'Toole's hysterics? Then it most likely has not? Lest of course that was the intention.......5/10