| Bitter Victory | |
|---|---|
 Original US film poster | |
| Directed by | Nicholas Ray |
| Screenplay by | René Hardy Nicholas Ray Gavin Lambert Paul Gallico (additional dialogue)[1] |
| Based on | Amère victoire 1956 novel byRené Hardy[1] |
| Produced by | Paul Graetz |
| Starring | Richard Burton Curt Jürgens Ruth Roman |
| Cinematography | Michel Kelber |
| Edited by | Léonide Azar |
| Music by | Maurice Leroux |
| Color process | Black and white |
Production companies | Transcontinental Films S.A. Robert Laffont Productions |
| Distributed by | Columbia Pictures |
Release dates |
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Running time | 102 minutes[2] |
| Countries | France United States |
| Language | English |
Bitter Victory (French titleAmère victoire) is a 1957Franco-Americaninternational co-production film, shot inCinemaScope and directed byNicholas Ray. Set inWorld War II, it starsRichard Burton andCurt Jürgens as two British Army officers sent out on acommando raid in North Africa.Ruth Roman plays the former lover of one and the wife of the other. It is based on the novel of the same name byRené Hardy.
During theWestern Desert Campaign of World War II, twoAllied officers inEgypt are interviewed to lead a dangerouscommando mission behind German lines inBenghazi. Major David Brand, aSouth African, is a regular army officer but lacks command and combat experience. He does not speakArabic and has only a limited knowledge ofLibya. Captain Jimmy Leith, aWelshman, is an amateur volunteer with extensive knowledge of the area who speaksArabic. It is decided that both officers will go, with Major Brand in command. The men see Brand as a disciplinarian — "the only thing he's slept with is the rule book."
Major Brand's wife Jane is aWomen's Auxiliary Air Force (WAAF) Flight Officer who enlisted to be near her husband. When Brand invites Leith to drinks with his wife, he picks up the fact that the two had had an affair before she married Brand. Leith had walked out on her without explanation.
The unit parachutes into Benghazi with the mission of attacking a German headquarters and bringing back secret plans from a safe to be opened by Wilkins, an experiencedsafecracker. Dressed as local civilians, Brand's hand shakes with fright when he has to knife a German sentry; the deed is done by Leith.
The mission is completed with the British suffering only one death and one man wounded. The patrol ambushes a German detachment, capturingOberst Lutze, whom Brand knows to be responsible for the secret documents. Possibly in the hope of getting rid of Leith, Brand leaves him alone with two seriously wounded men, one British, one German. Leith decides to put them out of their pain. He shoots the German, who pleads for his life. The Briton encourages Leith to act quickly and get it over with. Leith puts his pistol to the soldier's head and fires but there are no bullets left. Rather than reloading, Leith picks the man up and sets out to carry him to safety. The man cries out in agony and curses Leith's failure, but dies before Leith puts him down again. Leith, whose Arab friend has joined him, then catches up with the rest of the unit.
The patrol is supposed to escape on camels but they discover the men left with them have been murdered and the camels taken. During the long march back across the desert, Brand's animosity towards Leith grows, not only due to the affair with his wife but to Brand's fear that Leith will reveal him as a coward to headquarters and destroy his career. While the group are resting, Brand sees a scorpion climb up the leg of Leith's trousers but does not warn him in time. When Leith is stung, Brand refrains from shooting him as his orders permit and lets him die in pain during a sandstorm. The men believe he killed him.
A patrol eventually picks up the group and takes them back to HQ. Brand's wife is distraught to learn of Leith's death and when Brand is immediately awarded theDistinguished Service Order, instead of congratulating him, she walks off disconsolate. In the closing shot Brand ruefully pins the medal on a stuffed training dummy.
Although labelled a Franco-American co-production,Bitter Victory was mainly a French production, made by Transcontinental Films, the production company set up by German-born producer Paul Graetz (not to be confused with the German actor with the same name). The US co-production consisted of Columbia Pictures putting up some financing in return for worldwide distribution rights. The French financing came from the publisher Robert Laffont. Production started on 17 February 1957 and finished two months later. Much of the film was shot on location inLibya, with support from the BritishWar Office and theBritish Army, while some interior scenes were done at theVictorine Studios, Nice, France.[1][4]
Christopher Lee writes in his autobiography that upon arriving in Libya, all but the main stars essentially took part in a cast lottery for parts. Nobody was satisfied with the role they ended up with, particularly Raymond Pellegrin, who was stuck as an Arab guide who had only four lines. Lee says that the whole cast parted, "in the certain knowledge of having shared in a failure."[5]
The film had its premiere at the 18thVenice Film Festival on 29 August 1957,[6] where it competed for theGolden Lion award (which went toSatyajit Ray'sAparajito) as a French entry, but with English dialogue and Italian subtitles.[4][7] The first general release was in France, on 20 November 1957.[8]
The film's British distributors released a second version with the final scenes removed, cutting the film down from 101 minutes to 90. This version, released on 25 January 1958,[9] ends with the arrival of help and Lutze setting fire to the documents. The British Board of Film Censors (predecessor of theBritish Board of Film Classification) required only minor cuts, which made Leith's execution of the wounded German less explicit. In 2006 British television aired the uncut version for the first time.[10] The film was released in the United States on 3 March 1958, cut to 83 minutes.