Operation Crossbow

Features

• A fearsome rumor reaches Britain's World War II command. The Nazis are developing rocket technology that could rain death on London and, then, New York. Quickly, England develops a plan to send saboteurs into the sites manufacturing the rockets. Just moments after the carefully chosen commandos parachute into the drop zone, their pilot receives an urgent message. The mission may be compromised. Ab

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Product Desc: Amazon.com
Operation Crossbow was one among many '60s films aiming, in the wake of The Guns of Navarone, to cash in on nostalgia for "the Good War" of 20 years earlier, plus snag a share of the spy-movie market stoked by James Bond. A decent-enough stiff-upper-lip thriller in its day, it's yet more enjoyable now. The nostalgia has deepened to include affectionate enjoyment of a fine, big cast now mostly departed, dependably hitting their marks in a jolly good yarn.

The tale begins around the midpoint of the war, with Hitler aspiring to hurl a second Blitz against London using "flying bombs" and rockets. The British War Office starts recruiting officers fluent in the necessary technical fields, as well as German, Dutch, and/or French--the languages of the Nazi-occupied countries from which the Germans are recruiting technical personnel. The screenplay follows two tracks: the Germans' progress with their new aerial weaponry, and the progress of the Allied infiltrators--chiefly Yank George Peppard, chirpy Englishman Jeremy Kemp, and Dutchman Tom Courtenay--sent to penetrate the V2 project.

Despite the resemblance between the Navarone caves and the underground V2 launch center, Crossbow is something of an anti-Navarone. Its heroes are resolutely small-scale, and the mission is fraught with more opportunities for horrible miscues and moral-ethical murkiness than commando derring-do. The most memorable, indeed disturbing, part of the film involves Sophia Loren as the apolitical wife of a collaborator she doesn't know has been killed (and his identity assumed by Peppard). John Mills and Trevor Howard are deliciously deadpan trading war-council flapdoodle at the highest echelon, and Anthony Quayle (the spiritual leader of the Navarone mission) does yeoman service in a tricky role. Time--or rather, the transfer to video--has also been kind to the film's thin, overlit Metrocolor and last-reel special effects, which looked feebler on theater screens. The writers include Michael Powell's longtime partner Emeric Pressburger (under the pseudonym Richard Imrie). --Richard T. Jameson

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Amazon.com
Operation Crossbow was one among many '60s films aiming, in the wake of The Guns of Navarone, to cash in on nostalgia for "the Good War" of 20 years earlier, plus snag a share of the spy-movie market stoked by James Bond. A decent-enough stiff-upper-lip thriller in its day, it's yet more enjoyable now. The nostalgia has deepened to include affectionate enjoyment of a fine, big cast now mostly departed, dependably hitting their marks in a jolly good yarn.

The tale begins around the midpoint of the war, with Hitler aspiring to hurl a second Blitz against London using "flying bombs" and rockets. The British War Office starts recruiting officers fluent in the necessary technical fields, as well as German, Dutch, and/or French--the languages of the Nazi-occupied countries from which the Germans are recruiting technical personnel. The screenplay follows two tracks: the Germans' progress with their new aerial weaponry, and the progress of the Allied infiltrators--chiefly Yank George Peppard, chirpy Englishman Jeremy Kemp, and Dutchman Tom Courtenay--sent to penetrate the V2 project.

Despite the resemblance between the Navarone caves and the underground V2 launch center, Crossbow is something of an anti-Navarone. Its heroes are resolutely small-scale, and the mission is fraught with more opportunities for horrible miscues and moral-ethical murkiness than commando derring-do. The most memorable, indeed disturbing, part of the film involves Sophia Loren as the apolitical wife of a collaborator she doesn't know has been killed (and his identity assumed by Peppard). John Mills and Trevor Howard are deliciously deadpan trading war-council flapdoodle at the highest echelon, and Anthony Quayle (the spiritual leader of the Navarone mission) does yeoman service in a tricky role. Time--or rather, the transfer to video--has also been kind to the film's thin, overlit Metrocolor and last-reel special effects, which looked feebler on theater screens. The writers include Michael Powell's longtime partner Emeric Pressburger (under the pseudonym Richard Imrie). --Richard T. Jameson

Operation Crossbow (1965) - IMDb Director: Michael Anderson. Actors: Sophia Loren: Nora George Peppard: Lt. John Curtis Trevor Howard: Prof. Lindemann John Mills: Gen. Boyd Richard ... Operation Crossbow Moviefone - Movies Movie Times Tickets ... Starring Sophia Loren, George Peppard, Trevor Howard ... This big-budget, big-studio espionage film is set in the last years of World War II. George Peppard, Tom ... Operation Crossbow - Wikipedia, the free encyclopedia Crossbow was the code name of the World War II campaign of Anglo - American "operations against all phases of the German long-range weapons programme operations ... BBC Two - Operation Crossbow Much of the aerial photography featured in Operation Crossbow was discovered through the research of Allan Williams, Curator of The National Collection of ... BBC News - Operation Crossbow: How 3D glasses helped defeat Hitler Newly released photographs show how a team of World War II experts disrupted Nazi plans to bombard Britain - with the help of 3D glasses like those in ... Operation Crossbow (film) - Wikipedia, the free encyclopedia Operation Crossbow (later re-released as The Great Spy Mission) is a 1965 British spy thriller and World War II film, made from a story from Duilio Coletti and ... Operation Crossbow (1965) With Sophia Loren, George Peppard, Trevor Howard. Allied agents attempt to infiltrate the Nazis' rocket research site. Director: Michael Anderson Operation Crossbow - Rotten Tomatoes - Movies Movie Trailers ... Review: This big-budget, big-studio espionage film is set in the last years of World War II. George Peppard, Tom Courtenay and Jeremy Kemp parachute into... Amazon.com: Operation Crossbow: Sophia Loren, George Peppard ... Operation Crossbow was one among many '60s films aiming, in the wake of The Guns of Navarone , to cash in on nostalgia for "the Good War" of 20 years earlier, plus ... Operation Crossbow (1965) - Overview - MSN Movies This big-budget, big-studio espionage film is set in the last years of World War II. George Peppard, Tom Courtenay and Jeremy Kemp parachute into Germany, with orders ...