| The Night of the Generals | |
|---|---|
 Theatrical release poster | |
| Directed by | Anatole Litvak |
| Screenplay by | Joseph Kessel Paul Dehn Gore Vidal[1](uncredited) |
| Based on | The Night of the Generals byHans Hellmut Kirstand an incident written byJames Hadley Chase |
| Produced by | Sam Spiegel Georges Lourau Anatole Litvak |
| Starring | Peter O'Toole Omar Sharif Tom Courtenay Donald Pleasence Joanna Pettet Philippe Noiret |
| Cinematography | Henri Decaë |
| Edited by | Alan Osbiston |
| Music by | Maurice Jarre |
Production companies | Horizon Pictures Filmsonor |
| Distributed by | Columbia Pictures |
Release dates |
|
Running time | 145 minutes |
| Countries | United Kingdom France United States |
| Language | English |
| Box office | $2,400,000 (US/ Canada rentals)[2] |
The Night of the Generals is a 1967World War IImystery film directed byAnatole Litvak and produced bySam Spiegel. It starsPeter O'Toole,Omar Sharif,Tom Courtenay,Donald Pleasence,Joanna Pettet, andPhilippe Noiret. The screenplay byJoseph Kessel andPaul Dehn was loosely based on the beginning of the 1962novel of the same name by German authorHans Hellmut Kirst. The writing credits also state the film is "based on an incident written byJames Hadley Chase", referring to a subplot from Chase's 1952 novelThe Wary Transgressor.[3]Gore Vidal is said to have contributed to the screenplay, but was not credited onscreen.[1] The film'smusical score was composed byMaurice Jarre.
The murder of a prostitute, who was also a German agent, inGerman-occupiedWarsaw in 1942 causesHeer Major Grau of theWehrmacht’sAbwehr to start an investigation. His evidence soon points to the killer being one of three German generals: General von Seidlitz-Gabler; Major General Kahlenberge, von Seidlitz-Gabler's chief of staff; orHeer General Tanz, a highly decorated officer and a favorite ofAdolf Hitler's. Grau's investigation is cut short by his sudden promotion and transfer to Paris at the instigation of these officers.
No further developments occur in the case until July 1944, when Grau and all three of the generals are in Paris at the same time. The city is a hotbed of intrigue, with seniorWehrmacht Heer officers of theWehrmacht plotting to assassinate Hitler and overthrow the Nazi government. Kahlenberge is deeply involved in the plot, while Gabler is aware of its existence, but sitting on the fence, awaiting the outcome whilst having various extramarital affairs, and Tanz is unaware of the plot and remains totally loyal to Hitler. General Tanz has transferred from theWehrmacht’sHeer to theSS, and is aWaffen-SS General (SS-Obergruppenführer), in command of the SS-Panzer Division Nibelungen (a fictitious stand-in for the12th SS Panzer Division).
On the night of 19 July 1944, Tanz orders his driver, Kurt Hartmann, to procure a French prostitute for him. Tanz butchers her and implicates 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 next day, the Wehrmacht officersattempt to assassinate Hitler, and while Grau is accusing Tanz of murder face-to-face, word arrives that Hitler has survived, so Tanz kills Grau and labels him as one of the conspirators to cover his tracks.
In 1965, the murder of a prostitute inHamburg draws the attention of Inspector Morand ofInterpol, who worked with Grau in 1944 and owes Grau a debt of gratitude for not revealing his connection to theFrench Resistance during the war. Almost certain the killer of the prostitutes in Warsaw and Paris is at it again, Morand reopens thecold case. After interviewing Seidlitz-Gabler and Kahlenberge, Morand zeroes in on Tanz, who was recently released from prison after serving 20 years as a war criminal. Morand tries to find Hartmann, who is still in hiding. Seidlitz-Gabler then directs him to his daughter Ulrike, who had a relationship with Hartmann during the war, and is now estranged from her parents.
At a reunion dinner for Tanz's former Panzer division, Morand confronts Tanz. When he produces Hartmann, who had been living with Ulrike, as his witness, Tanz goes into a vacant room and shoots himself.
Both O'Toole and Sharif were hesitant to take their roles in the film, but feeling they owed it to producerSam Spiegel for making them international stars withLawrence of Arabia, they did so anyway.[4] Because they were held to the terms of an old contract agreement, O'Toole and Sharif's combined salaries reportedly were less than that paid toDonald Pleasence.[5]
Gore Vidal, one of the many writers of the script, claimed he urged Spiegel to hire a "new, hot director", but Spiegel, instead, chose the experiencedAnatole Litvak, who owned the rights to the novel.[6]
Although the film was a French-British-Americaninternational co-production, permission was granted for its first section to be shot behind theIron Curtain on location inWarsaw, a rarity for a Western-made film at the time. The last scenes of the film were shot inMunich.
Bosley Crowther, in an unenthusiastic review forThe New York Times, described the film as "a lurid and mordant screen account of the unmasking of a general officer who likes to disembowel prostitutes." He went on to say:
It is an engrossing exhibition that mainly gives Mr. O'Toole a chance to build up the tensions and the twitches of a sex maniac, with something of the glazed-eyed characteristic of those old vampires who used to suck blood. But once this phase is completed—once we know who the killer is and have made the obvious connection of his war crimes and his private deeds—the excitement of the picture is over. At least, it was for me.[7]
