Review of The Night of the Generals (1967) by Rémy V — 04 Jan 2015

There are a lot of good features in this film, but unfortunately in the end the question becomes 'what is the point?' The basic plot is that a prostitute was murdered by one of three German generals and the local Abwehr officer must determine which one. The mystery aspect is played out well until the answer is revealed to the audience quite blatantly, at which point a traditional film would end. Instead, the film takes about twenty or thirty minutes as certain characters trace out what we already know through sources we already understand. There are other mysteries as well. A great deal of the film is set around the July 20 plot to assassinate Hitler. But this too is a mystery that is quite openly explained to us along with who is involved. So where is the drama supposed to come from?

If it's not a mystery then what is it? A large part of the film seems to be a character study of General Tanz (O'Toole's character). It is complicated somewhat by the fact that Tanz is kinda a dick who never really talks about himself. Most scenes with him are just him being driven around Paris being antisocial. It's not very exciting. Omar Shariff's Major Grau is somewhat interesting as the man pursuing the murderer, but despite his importance to the plot he has little screen time at all. The film doesn't know what it wants to be so it's never really anything at all.