Play Dirty (1969) User Reviews

Loyalty means nothing when you got to look after yourself.

[lost-in-limbo · 8/10 · 2 May 2007]

After a string of failures, Col. Masters is given one last chance by General Blore with his information taken from behind enemy lines, which involves blowing up a Nazi fuel depot in North Africa. Masters gets a seven-man unit of criminals ready, led by mercenary Captain Leech, but Blore wants a British officer in charge and Captain Douglas with his oil experience gets picked. After they head off, we learn that they're a decoy for another patrol to fulfil the assignment, but this is unknown to them. Leech and Douglas clash over who's in command, but Leech sees Douglas' honoured methods aren't well suited for their situation and lets Douglas string them along, as there's a money reward for him if he returns back with Douglas alive.

What hits me straight away is the comparisons to Robert Aldrich's 1967 film "The Dirty Dozen", which gets unfairly lumped onto this feature. Honestly this low-key WW2 British production has some similarities, but it has its own story to tell and it's a real good one too. Andre De Toth's direction is resourcefully efficient and randomly unpredictable in detailing the plight.

What George Marton's originally cunning story does, is leave behind all of those slapdash clichés. Looking for something more compact, taut and venomously scathing. It's so open minded, it's hard to tell what's going to occur next and while there might not be much background to these characters. This shows how expendable these men are when at war, but the lack development can be put down to the character themselves. Their here for the present, and they got a job to be done and there's not time for personal insight, because they just don't care. The custom pattern that occurs in a jaggedly slow tempo feels deliberate by trying to get the viewer to experience the rugged path that could lead to their impending doom, before even encountering the enemy. These are the moments when the tension really holds up. Glory and principal is discarded in very cynical fashion, in favour of primal instinct for one self. These are a unlikeable bunch. Exciting entertainment this is not, because it stays pretty level with the film's natural grit, devious intentions and lack of reasoning for the mission. Thrown in are one or two daring and unusual aspects, like the two candidly gay Arabs. The bone-dry script (penned by Melvyn Bragg and Lotte Colin) simply grits its teeth with bitter, ironic and stern dialogues that snaps with tersely realism. You can just see why this wasn't a commercial success (say like Aldrich's war film), and the sourly unrewarding and sudden conclusion is the icing on the cake. I liked this final curve-ball.

The harshly barren and dusty terrain depicts the unsparing tone of the film superbly with Edward Scaife's illustratively expressive camera-work skilfully mixing its scenic and upfront shots within the aim of the story's actions. Michael Legrand's understated music score is goes by virtually unnoticed, but this only heightens the tension because there's no real cues. Most of the music comes from a radio playing on the journey. De Toth gustily demonstrates convincing action scenes. They might be quick and few, but when they happen it's chaotic, rough and relentlessly staged with conviction. Just look at the eruption of explosions towards the dying end. His pacing can be off and get rather padded, but he never loses what his trying to say within these scenes and actually they probably add more to wearily sparse tone. Michael Caine and Nigel Davenport do a serviceable job in their parts and the pair's edgily unsure relationship is quite a compelling one. Caine's professionally stout and well-judged performance as Captain Douglas works fine and a slyly hard-boiled performance by Nigel Davenport as the rogue Captain Leech is that of high quality and the pick of the lot. Living it up in minor roles are Nigel Green and arrogantly gusto turn by Harry Andrews. The rest of the support roles pale in the light of the two leads. However they are solid and gritty performances that fit the mould.

This one undeservedly gets left in the dark, but this hardy effort is a well made and acted war piece due for rediscovery. Recommended.

Spare, brutal, grinding war movie in the blowing sands....

[secondtake · 7/10 · 31 October 2010]

Play Dirty (1969)

You almost have to see this anarchic, nasty, selfish, brutal WWII movie as a comment on Vietnam, and on war. It's 1969. At first you think Michael Caine, for all his talent, is miscast, but the odd displacement of his character among a lot of very hardened, serious men is part of what works.

This is not like any WWII you've seen. It's an odd mixture of hardship, tedium, humor, and straight up masculine grit. It's set in the Sahara, so dunes and sand and dry nasty weather rules. There is a mission at hand, and these men have to be unorthodox and ruthless to succeed. But there are long stretches of just traveling and conquering the desert, of going day after day through storms and lack of storms. There is also fighting amongst the men, a somewhat horrifying (and unnecessary) attempted rape, some bloody carnage of natives, and of Germans, a long twenty minutes of Fitzcarraldo heroics with some cables, and so on.

But in the end, it really does capture something essential of war, including the nonsense of some of it, and the lack of rules, and the lack of personal safety that comes from chaos, and the difficulty of companionship and trust.

keeps getting better the more it goes along, with understated performances

[Quinoa1984 · 8/10 · 24 October 2009]

Play Dirty surprises because of how 'dirty' it actually gets, and how it doesn't give any easy beats for its characters. It follows the seemingly usual tropes of the men-on-a-mission war flick, where a group of men are selected practically on the basis that they won't succeed in their mission, and that the end goal is to blow something up. But unlike The Guns of Navarone or the Dirty Dozen, Play Dirty puts the position of the British army in this desert scene as greedy and malicious and really only caring about getting to the oil, and surely before the 'decoy' team gets there. It's entertaining but it's not what exactly one would call 'fun' like Navarone. It's a story of unheroic men doing some heroic things and always for the almighty dollar.

In the film, Michael Caine is a Captain Douglas in the army- he doesn't look entirely like the army type and no wonder since he was formerly a Petro-exec- who is put in charge of a group to go through rocky terrain in the North African desert to bomb an oil field. Only big snag is that this isn't the first time the mission has been attempted, and Captains have died already. With this in mind, the head guy puts Cyril Leech (Nigel Davenport) in charge to make sure the Captain is kept alive - at a good cost of two thousand pounds. This doesn't mean that Cyril won't get sometimes in the way of the Captains orders, like when they need to pull up their trucks over a rocky mountain ridge and he refuses to unload the trucks. It's an uneasy partnership with their fellow soldiers also not always sure who to follow, especially when coming into some enemy territory, or when they come upon a 'fake' enemy outpost in a sandstorm.

Andre De Toth's film is rough and tough, as any men-on-a-mission war film should be, but it has something extra to keep one interested. This is the guts to keep things rightfully violent and shocking (when a mine goes off at one point as another mine is being diffused, it's one of those moments you'll jump in your seat even at home), and at most mildly amusing. The characters aren't very colorful or even terribly memorable, although Caine and Davenport are both fantastic in their parts, often fantastic at being understated (as Davenport's Captain says, "look, listen, don't move, that's the way you survive"). The action is also intense enough but moves at that pace where suspense is genuinely built like in the climax among the oil barrels and the barbed wire. Even a scene involving an attempted rape is shown without any punches pulled, until the one oddly-effective laugh had at the outcome of the scene.

It's a forgotten little wonder of the world war two movie, and it's more bitter than sweet with its view of the buck-stops-here mentality of wartime - or rather, as a character points out, how war is "a criminal enterprise", hence having a guy like Cyril, who was in prison for fifteen years until being put to use on the mission. Play Dirty doesn't get really going until twenty minutes in, but once it does it doesn't play safe. 8.5/10

A young Michael Caine at his best.

[Davros-4 · 26 November 1998]

"Play Dirty" is one of those rare films that reassures you that some filmmakers are willing to try something different with a tired genre. The World War Two epic has been done a thousand times, but this one is different. Michael Caine is his brilliant self, supported ably by Nigel Davenport and Nigel Green in this film which has drawn comparisons to the "Dirty Dozen" but, I believe, strikes ground of its own. Andre de Toth directs with a style that was well before its time, giving this film something others lack - longevity. A top flick worth seeing. *Three and a half stars*

WWII actioner about a motley band of crooks on a risked mission

[ma-cortes · 6/10 · 4 May 2010]

Well-made War adventure in which an officer (Michael Caine) is assigned by superiors (Nigel Green, Harry Andrews) leading an unit of ex-convicts on a dangerous mission in WWII North Africa. Michael Caine reluctantly has joined the ranks of the misfit bunch. They must execute an impossible assignment ,as bombing attack on German fuel supply depots. As a British tough Army officer to command a group of hardened ex-con, as murderers, thieves and a gay couple. To add intrigue a German nurse female (Vivian Pickles) is kidnapped and after that they are double-crossed.

This exciting war/adventure about a misfit band of crooks who are led by Michael Caine on a daring mission whose objective results to be destruction of the Rommel's indispensable fuel depots, it is packed with noisy action, suspense, thrills and is quite entertaining. Runtime film is adequate, ninety minutes and some but isn't boring and gets lots of amusement for the fast-movement. From the beginning until the ending , the action movie is continuous. Interesting screenplay by Colin and Bragg based on an original story by George Marton. This is one of the best of several movies about commandos on suicidal missions from beyond behind enemy lines. The film gets a certain likeness along the lines of ¨Tobruk¨, ¨Kelly's heroes¨ , ¨Where eagles dare ¨ and especially in the wake of ¨Dirty dozen¨ and group of films that were made regarding to warlike adventures during the 1960-1970 years about special forces in dangerous missions . However, the picture obtained limited success at the box office. Michael Caine is top notch as good and unwilling officer ; rough and gruff Nigel Davenport is nice as leader of the motley group. Michael Legrand musical score is gorgeous and with the famous song 'Lili Marlene' at the initiation and the end . Cinematographer Edward Scaife gets a glimmer and glittering photography filmed on location in Spain and at Shepperton Studios , Middlesex, England. The motion picture is correctly produced by Harry Saltzman, James Bond movies producer, and well directed by Andre De Toth. Rating : good film, relentless plot twists and a warlike action keep you breathless.

Hard-edged WWII film.

[barnabyrudge · 6/10 · 5 October 2006]

"Play Dirty" is a brutal, handsomely-photographed WWII film set in the North African desert. The plot invites comparison with the Robert Aldrich classic "The Dirty Dozen", but this film is, I think, the lesser of the two. While the characters here are even more dislikable than those in Aldrich's movie, the pace of "Play Dirty" is sometimes plodding and the film is littered with half-assed ironies, none more so than the cruelly hard-edged ending.

A British petroleum trader working in North Africa during the Second World War is unhappily assigned to go on a dangerous mission, despite the fact that he thought his job description protected him from such risky front-line soldiering. The man, a certain Captain Douglas (Michael Caine), is even more displeased when he meets the team with whom he will be travelling. Made up of a gang of hardened thugs, wackos and ex-cons who answer to no-one but their self-styled leader, Captain Leech (Nigel Davenport), the group are as disreputable a bunch as any ever assembled. Their mission involves locating and destroying one of Rommel's fuel depots in the desert, miles behind enemy lines. As they approach the depot, the group find tensions amongst themselves mounting, especially the bickering officers Douglas and Leech. Things take an even uglier turn when the team reach their objective only to learn that they've been double-crossed…..

The acting in "Play Dirty" is definitely a strong point. Caine and Davenport bounce off each other perfectly, creating a wholly credible feeling of rivalry and contempt that gradually changes into mutual, if doomed, respect. There are several unconventional factors that set the film apart from others of its type. One is the incredibly cruel and abrupt ending, which has been mentioned already. Another is the way the script populates the film with hideously self-centred and dishonourable characters, some of them quite daring for a 1968 film (the two gay Arabs, for example, who are not standard types for a movie of this genre and era). There are areas where the film loses marks, however. The plodding sections are one such flaw. Another is the fact that too many of the subsidiary characters, regardless of how unconventional they are, are under-developed (in "The Dirty Dozen", say, the lesser roles were just as well-rounded as the main ones). "Play Dirty" is an interesting and fairly original war film, not a classic by any stretch of the imagination but definitely one that you should keep an eye out for.

A movie that's not playing around

[Jeremy_Urquhart · 7/10 · 4 November 2023]

I guess the title and basic premise are enough to make you think of The Dirty Dozen, but tonally and stylistically it's quite different. It's colder and definitely more detached, and though it's not maudlin to the point where it completely lacks entertainment value, it does lack the dark humor and sometimes oddly endearing characters that other "Dirty" World War II movie had.

Every time I watch one of these well-received yet not very widely seen Michael Caine movies, I come away impressed. He was in a lot of movies over the years, and sure, not all of them were good necessarily... but there are many more hidden gems than one might expect, and I've only really scratched the surface when it comes to his interesting yet overlooked '60s/'70s stuff.

The Dirty Seven or Eight...

[JoeytheBrit · 6/10 · 24 August 2005]

PLAY DIRTY is a straightforward no-nonsense war flick that played on a passing resemblance to Robert Aldrich's DIRTY DOZEN to get itself noticed but which never really received the attention it probably deserved. It's surprisingly cynical for a British war movie of the era, and its depiction of army brass as scheming glory-seekers perhaps signifies a point in time when the cinema began to grow up. Veteran director Andre de Toth, making his first film in five years, creates an appropriately tense and heated atmosphere, but offers little in the way of characterisation.

Michael Caine plays Captain Douglas, an army captain ordered against his will to lead a bunch of ex-convicts on a mission to destroy one of Rommel's fuel depots situated deep in the African desert. The men he leads are a ragtag band of cutthroats, murderers, thieves, junkies and homosexuals (whose sexual orientation was at the time obviously still considered akin to more anti-social practices), all loyal to prickly desert veteran Captain Leech (Nigel Davenport) who joins the mission only after being offered £2,000 if he manages to keep Douglas alive. Tension within the group is intensified by encounters with German patrols and natives loyal to the enemy.

While there are obvious similarities between this film and THE DIRTY DOZEN, they are mostly superficial; the rogues and scallywags in this film are only really there to make up the numbers and probably share no more than half-a-dozen lines between them. Instead, the film focuses on the mutual antipathy between Douglas and Leech who, although representing opposing elements of the forces' hierarchy, realise too late that they should be working together and that the real enemy isn't always who you expect them to be. The friction between the two men is nicely edgy without ever boiling over; instead of being at each other's throat, they prefer to score points of one another, a technique which emphasises the futility of their antagonism. Leech softens a little as Douglas hardens, but the thaw between them is never entirely completed. While this keeps the situation moving, we tend to receive a rather one-sided picture of both men, and learn very little about them.

De Toth makes nice use of the Spanish desert, and the film retains a pleasingly contemporary look – it's easy to believe it was made in the last ten years at times. It's surprisingly graphic and hard-edged for its time, but while the film isn't exactly padded out with superfluous scenes, many sequences are longer than they need to be, with a subsequent dilution of suspense that means it feels longer than it actually is. The twist ending doesn't really work for me, and I can't help feeling the message would have been stronger had the unit following them been allowed to survive in order to shoot down Caine and gang at the mock fuel depot in the mistaken belief that they are Germans.

A young Michael Caine ---a real treat.

[davidjparris · 7/10 · 17 August 2019]

Some have compared this movie to 'The Dirty Dozen' but that comparison is only superficial What I would like to compare 'Play Dirty' to is 'Ice Cold In Alex'.Both have a fine cast of British actors playing WW2 soldiers in North Africa behind enemy lines but after that the story of the two movies are really a counterpoint to each other.'Alex' is an intimate character study of people under enormous pressure while the other is an examination of people through the wrong end of a telescope with no intimacy at all.Each movie has a fine script very good direction,cinematography and acting.For me the outstanding performance was by Vivianne Pickles who played the German nurse . Considering she had about 4 minutes of screen time,no speaking lines and was heavily gagged and tied for half of that time says it all.

Superior war movie, fast paced and cynical

[TORSO! · 9/10 · 18 October 1998]

Somewhat similar to "The Dirty Dozen," in that its plot features a group of convicts recruited for a deadly mission during WW 2, this fast paced war epic is much more stylish and unpredictable than that crudely made, if undeniably entertaining, Robert Aldrich blockbuster. With great performances from Michael Caine and Nigel Davenport, as well as able support from a cast of fabulous British actors, the film features one terrific action sequence after another, with plenty of surprises in store. To say anything more would surely ruin many of those surprises for the unsuspecting viewer, but it should be noted that the story comes to a screeching halt with what is possibly the greatest and most hilarious "Ooops!" in film history.

Rules change as you play at war.

[michaelRokeefe · 6/10 · 17 September 2011]

Andre De Toth directs this lumbering war drama. Michael Caine plays Captain Douglas, a British army officer in North Africa, that is ordered to lead a mission in the desert. Brigadier Blore(Harry Andrews)wants a German fuel reserve knocked out but he doesn't trust Colonel Masters(Nigel Green)with the task after failing several times doing so. Douglas is chosen to lead mercenaries in this latest mission; but Cyril Leech(Nigel Davenport), a war experienced mercenary, is hired to guide Captain Douglas and his motley band into the desert. Needless to say Douglas and Leech don't really have any use of the other since their methods are so polarized. Nazis are on their trail and Brigadier Blore has sold them out. But Douglas and Leech managed to put up a heroic fight after arriving at the German fuel dump. Some decent war action with a few strange characters to watch. The finale is unexpected. Also featured in the cast: Bernard Archard, Mike Stevens, Enrique Avila, Aly Ben Ayed, Mohsen Ben Abdullah, Scott Miller and Vivian Pickles.

A virtually unknown British masterpiece from the 60's.

[utarg · 10/10 · 11 July 2004]

A virtually unknown British masterpiece from the 60's.

Its cynical and bleak portrayal of men in war is only matched by its lack of notoriety which is a shame considering how powerful the films message is. Admittedly Caine is a little wooden as the straight laced British Officer, but it is the much less known Nigel Davenport who steals the show as the hard bitten second in command. The films cynicism is the sum of it's ending which is suitably negative but still unsuspected. With all the flag waving war films out there its good to see the odd one which suggests the end never justifies the means.

Anti-war WWII Film

[kirbylee70-599-526179 · 7/10 · 9 November 2017]

The sixties saw a slew of war films being made focusing on WWII with many that are still considered classics. Both THE GREAT ESCAPE and THE DIRTY DOZEN were made during this time. But with the Vietnam War losing steam and support and more anti-war protests going on it was only a matter of time before the two collided. This was the case with PLAY DIRTY.

The war in Africa carries on and the allied forces are doing all they can to bring it to an end. Col. Masters (Nigel Green) has been sending out forays into the area and learning from them while casualties increase among those groups. He believes he has found Rommel's gasoline dump and wants to send in an elite group to take them out. While chastised by his superior Brig. Blore (Harry Andres) he's given the go-ahead and allowed someone who knows about gasoline depots to go along in charge. Once he leaves Blore presents the same concept and takes credit for the plan.

Capt. Douglas (Michael Caine) is the unfortunate gas expert to go along. Relatively new to command he's an ex-British Petroleum employee. He meets with Masters and learns what his mission will be. He is accompanied by Capt. Cyril Leech (Nigel Davenport), a ruthless scoundrel more inclined to save his own skin rather than follow through with a mission. Masters agrees to pay Leech 2,000 pounds in return for Douglas' safe return.

What follows is a rather lengthy trek across the desert with all that is included there. Sandstorms, an oasis and enemies galore attempt to prevent the motley crew from their goal. Each member of this group has some sordid past to contend with. Among them are murderers, traitors, rapists and a gay Arabian couple which I would think was quite controversial at the time. As proof of how despicable they are when they find a Red Cross truck for the Germans their first thought is to rape the nurse inside. One of the two Arabs stops this with Leech following up.

Leech and Douglas have no use for one another. Douglas may not be a battle weary soldier but he knows his duty and follows through. Leech on the other hand is willing to go along until something better comes up. Along the way the combative duo eventually come to terms with their situation.

Setbacks happen and problems force the team to rethink what to do next. Communications become impossible when their radio is damaged. Now on their own they continue to complete the mission, completely unaware that circumstances have changed and the higher ups now want the fuel left intact. These same men in charge feel that the task set for Douglas and his team is impossible and have no problem letting them be killed as acceptable losses. As a matter of fact they're counting on it. It isn't until the last portion of the film that the fate of Douglas and all in his command is revealed.

I enjoy war movies as well as anyone. I realize that a number of them made during WWII were done as entertainment but propaganda pieces as well. Why would you want to make a war film during wartime that helped the enemy? But movies made following the war still carried on a somewhat patriotic flair to them which is not always a bad thing.

The metaphors for the Vietnam War and the anti-war movement of the time had to eventually filter into the movies being made. While some of what happens in here is probably part true the movie at moments feels too over the top in its depiction of top level commanders seeking fame and glory at the expense of those beneath them. There were moments when watching that I wondered just who the bad guys in the story really were.

As far as the movie itself is it is slow going. The trek across the desert moves at a snail's pace. The grit of the sand filling every uncovered inch of person and equipment can be felt while watching but the endless stretch of tan and brown doesn't make for exhilarating entertainment. The choice to focus on the two main protagonists of Douglas and Leech leaves the rest of the team relatively unknown with little or no dialogue with their dialogue extremely limited.

In the end it was interesting to view from a historic aspect, a movie made against war about war, but I found little else to make me recommend this film to anyone but die hard WWII movie fans and Michael Caine fans. It's not something I'd go back to revisit.

Twilight Time has released the film with their standard of perfection when it comes to the picture quality. Extras are limited to an isolated music and effects track and the original theatrical trailer. As with all Twilight Time releases copies are limited to just 3,000 copies so if you're interested make sure you get one before they're gone.

Like a very slow "Dirty Dozen" but in North Africa and without the humor.

[planktonrules · 5/10 · 31 May 2013]

In many ways, "Play Dirty" is like taking "The Dirty Dozen" and merging it with the director's cut of "Lawrence of Arabia". The film is about a group of cutthroats and criminals who are on a mission behind enemy lines AND it has TONS and TONS of long and dry (no pun intended) desert scenes where very little is happening. Considering that these two other films were made before "Play Dirty" and are much better films, then you can guess some of my feelings about the film.

The film begins with an officer and petroleum expert (Michael Caine) being forced to go on a crazy mission behind enemy lines in North Africa to destroy fuel depots during WWII. I say crazy because the other officer he'll be serving with is a real rogue--and was let out of prison for the mission. This guy has a group of equally nasty rogues who are all experts at playing dirty and NOT abiding by the rules of warfare and this includes dressing up as Italian soldiers.

Too much of the film is spent on the team's trek across the desert...way too much. It makes for a terribly paced film and it only improves later in the film when they FINALLY make it to their objective. Additionally, unlike "The Dirty Dozen", most of the rogues (with the exception of their leader, played by Nigel Davenport) have no real personalities and are nothing like the cast of "The Dirty Dozen". They are just faceless scum. The ending is decent because it is very different--otherwise, I thought the film amazingly dull.

Best moment of the film--when Davenport says "I didn't like the tea". Worst moment--when EVERYONE stood near the guy as he disarmed a German booby trap! Why, in the name of all that is holy, didn't they take cover...FAR away from the guy with the pliers disarming the bomb?! And, why didn't anyone tell the two gay guys that the place was booby trapped so they wouldn't blow themselves up?! Also, although it worked out well in the end, there is an attempted rape in the film that is pretty disturbing--particularly for folks in the audience who have themselves been victims, so be forewarned.

By the way, if you care, a lot of the equipment in the film is neither German nor Italian. This is no surprise, as little of it survived the war. The German halftrack vehicles, for instance, are American M3 models.

Neglected classic of war

[Huron · 16 January 1999]

Play Dirty is another of the great anti-war films although most of the way appears another typical, but well-done, suspenseful war movies. The acting is terrific and the finale is completely unexpected. The sort of movie that will never be big box office but a film that those who saw it will remember probably for the rest of their lives. It is truly a neglected classic of anti-war filmmaking.

Not the best of the desert war films but not too bad.

[plan99 · 7/10 · 21 October 2023]

It captured the dusty desert atmosphere well with a good cast and interesting characters but I had expected more use to have been made of the German nurse as a saboteur from within, her character was mostly wasted as she had very little to do.

The plot was a bit strange with some of it not making much sense, the whole getting the vehicles up the big hill bit would have been better left out and replaced with a bit more action.

The Dusty Half Dozen rather than The Dirty Dozen and nowhere near as good.

Probably worth watching for curiosity vale only as it's not one of Michael's better efforts.

German Afrika Corps

[Oslo_Jargo · 6/10 · 17 January 2020]

*** This review may contain spoilers ***

*Plot and ending analyzed*

Unlikeable characters, portrayal of the German Africa Corps as idiots and the wanton murder of Red Cross hospital personnel, not to mention a hideous rape attempt and later, murder of a German female nurse.

Well, there's not much to like here at all. The plot is rather idiotic as well. The ending, rather irksome and pointless, and yes, I understand that "war is pointless".

I didn't side with anyone at all except the people who got gunned down, either Brits or Germans.

If they worked more on the script, it could have been a decent flick. As it stands, it's vile and unfocused.

Swift Ending Different From Rest of Film

[DKosty123 · 7/10 · 21 May 2011]

I am impressed with this British production. The landscapes look much like the Mirsch produced Rat Patrol produced a couple of years earlier though that is not a problem.

Michael Caine is good in a story of a group whose assignment is to blow up a German Fuel Dump. The group gets lost and put behind due to a lot of circumstances that combine to put them way behind.

By the time the group reaches their goal, the Germans are in full retreat and the British want to capture the fuel intact. The British command even puts out orders to kill the group.

This is a solid film though I always wonder about whether or not the forces for both sides really had as many trucks and jeeps in World War 2 as are depicted here. Still, it fits into the war drama mold pretty solidly with a good script.

Rather silly, I thought

[hosk4163 · 7/10 · 9 October 2023]

There were several things that simply did not make sense. First off, Michael Caine, for whom I have a high regard, in spite of having served in Korea seemed to have forgotten how to salute.

Quite why an oil expert was needed to blow up a dump made little sense. An explosives expert might have been more useful.

If the film was intended to portray the British Army as useless it succeeded. The second group sent off to blow up the dump we're driving through the desert as if they were driving down the High Street in Aldershot. They also appeared to be in two wheel drive lorries. Not in the desert.

The scene with the dog tags - were no advice tribesmen really likely to know the difference between Italian and. British identity tags?

The episode with the winching up of the vehicles. CaptainLeach was an imbecile if he thought the last vehicle should be winched up fully loaded. He was supposed to be the expert.

The scene with the booby trap - unless the bait was on a pressure trigger it was necessary only to tell Caine not to lift the pistol. The bomb was activated by a pin that had to be pulled out..

What was the point of the two gay Arabs who did little but giggle and loot? Two unnecessary mouths to feed.

When I saw that the film was three hours long I gave up - but things may have improved. The desert travel scenes were very good, though.

Gripping look at the chilling underbelly of war

[sutoke · 8/10 · 12 January 2006]

Prescient, dark slice of a desert war campaign -- a band of jaded misfits is sent on a critical dangerous mission -- that you will not be able to erase from memory. The tension De Toth creates in one scene of a booby-trapped way-station, with long patient shots and close ups of sweat beads, surpasses any but the most masterful of Hitchcock. Michael Caine's role as a reluctant oil executive tagged on to the mission is a study in ambivalent survival. The characters are some you'd never expect.

De Toth is among the most interesting directors no one has ever heard of. His distaste for the studio system has meant that many of his movies have been overlooked. His style of storytelling is terse and sparse, almost unfinished, leaving the viewers to fill in their own ideas. Probably unsatisfying to some, but fascinating in his contrast to so many over-explaining movie makers.

Syriana owes much to the tenor of this story. It is the flip side of Band of Brothers. A story that today holds more lessons than ever.

Solid, satisfying war adventure in war-time North Africa

[Akzidenz_Grotesk · 10/10 · 5 February 2006]

Tough, macho Nigel Davenport matches wits with firm English captain Michael Caine as they team up to kick axis butt in this two-fisted war movie that will keep you glued to the screen.

The harshness of the unforgiving desert and the danger of combat is expertly presented by director Andre de Toth. The storyline is intelligent and the characters believable whereas the battle scenes are excellent as well as a scene in a desert windstorm that is my favorite. Nigel Davenport is an underrated actor and the tension between him and Michael Caine is nicely understated, which gives it more power. One of the top war movies from its era.

A passable action movie that almost satirizes the irony of war

[RJBurke1942 · 5/10 · 5 May 2007]

Not the best of war movies, and the type of story line that's been done before...

However, I was fascinated to note that the screenplay was written by Melvyn Bragg who, in the 1990s, went on to produce a great documentary about the English language. How the world turns...

Anyway – this effort does have some great and witty lines delivered by Caine and Davenport as the two rival captains on a mission to blow up a German petrol dump in the Libyan desert during the second world war's African campaign. On that basis, it's somewhat pedestrian – many scenes of travelling through desert areas, naturally; getting bogged down in the sand, naturally; meeting and killing Arabs at an oasis, naturally; and generally verbally fighting with each other, as each tries to assert their individuality.

Where the narrative is different, however, is first, the twists in the story that produce some worthwhile surprises; second, the grittiness of the situations that serve to highlight the totally amoral attitudes of all concerned; third, the irony of the true nature of the German dump; and finally, the tongue-in-cheek chutzpah of the ending which, for me, almost turned the whole movie into a very long shaggy-dog story. I could imagine Bragg having a real giggle about it as he wrote it – and that's not maligning him at all.

All of the main characters provide suitably professional performances, Caine once again with that disdainful and bored attitude reminiscent of his role in Zulu (1964) as Lt. Gonville Bromhead; Nigel Davenport gives a terrific performance (he outshines Caine, in my opinion) as Caine's rival; while the likes of Harry Andrews and Nigel Green exemplify the vacuous and glory-seeking nature of all military top brass. The standout performance, however, goes to Vivian Pickles as the German nurse who shows all the British soldiers what it means to stand up for your rights – not to be missed.

As war movies go – perhaps anti-war – it's well done, but not without its faults, particularly some of the gaps in the narrative, sloppy editing and inexplicable jump cuts. Maybe, on TV, I saw a badly edited version to allow for too many commercial breaks? I'll assume so.

Recommended for those who like war action.

"Watch, Listen, and Say Nothing . . . " A Brilliant, Realistic, Anti-War Epic of the First Order!

[zardoz-13 · 10/10 · 21 January 2008]

Anybody that dismisses director Andre De Toth's amoral World War II adventure thriller "Play Dirty" with Michael Caine as just another "Dirty Dozen" clone entirely misses the point of this first-rate combat epic. First, "Play Dirty" overflows with irony that is sorely lacking in "The Dirty Dozen." Second, the surprise ending of "Play Dirty" is nothing like the semi-happy ending of "The Dirty Dozen." Third, "Play Dirty" paints a negative image of the British military that Hollywood would never have done in the 1960s with "The Dirty Dozen." Fourth, characters in "Play Dirty" are seen puffing on the demon weed of marihuana. Fifth, "Play Dirty" has two homosexual characters. Sixth, aside from the Michael Caine protagonist, none of the characters in "Play Dirty" is sympathetic. Seventh, the least objectionable character in "Play Dirty" who found the men for his expedition speaks plainly when he advocates the use of criminals: "War is a criminal enterprise. I fight it with criminals." Eighth, the British criminals that Caine leads into combat are prepared to sacrifice their own professional counterparts to the German enemy without a qualm. Furthermore, regular British officers are just as willing to sacrifice Masters' men for the greater good of Queen and country. Ninth, the men that our hero supervises during the mission plunder the corpses of English soldiers after the Germans have ambushed them. The earliest big-screen American World War II movie with an Allied character that plundered war casualties was in John Guillerman's "The Bridge at Remagen" (1969) and the corpses were dead Germans, not his own countrymen. Altogether, De Toth and his writers depict warfare as unglamorous. One seasoned criminal character advises the hero: "You want to forget the noble sentiments if you want to live."

Indeed, "Play Dirty" and "The Dirty Dozen" are similar in that each occurs behind Nazi lines with unsavory Allied personnel perpetrating acts of sabotage against an unsuspecting enemy. Unlike the death row inmates that Major John Reisman (Lee Marvin) recruited for his suicidal mission to kill a château of dissolute Nazi generals, however, the convicts that Colonel Masters (Nigel Green of "Tobruk") uses for his mission have been on his payroll for some time and his dubious outfit with its record of one failure after another (eight, to be precise) is about to be disbanded by his superior officer, Brigadier General Blore (Harry Andrews of "633 Squadron"), while he plans to reassign Masters as warden of a P.O.W. camp. Mind you, Masters is no spit and polish officer. Unkempt, unshaven, and circumspect with regard to military decorum, Masters approaches his task with the mind of a university scholar and relies on unconventional methods that have yet to yield results. Masters reminds Blore: "The principles of desert warfare have not changed." Blore retorts: "The principles of getting value for your money haven't changed either." Here, Blore refers with sarcasm to the 17 jeeps, 24 trucks, 3 British officers, and 43-thousand of Her Majesty's pounds squandered in Masters' futile efforts.

Masters convinces Blore to postpone disbanding his outfit after he outlines a provocative plan. Says Masters: "Two men are going to stop Rommel. One of them is Adolf Hitler who cannot give him enough fuel, and the other is me who's going to blow up the little he has." Masters shows Blore a series of photographs that African tribesmen have taken of an enemy fuel depot with Brownie cameras that he supplied them. Blore has little confidence in Masters, but he allows him one last chance to make good. However, he forces Masters to use a regular British Army officer, Captain Douglas (Michael Caine of "Alfie"), while Masters demands that Captain Cyril Leech (a mustached Nigel Davenport of "Nighthawks") bring Douglas back alive (as opposed to dead) unlike his numerous predecessors. Masters provides the incentive of two thousand British pounds to ensure Leech's cooperation.

Captain Douglas, a conventional officer on loan from British petroleum, isn't overjoyed about being posted to Masters' outfit. Initially, Douglas argued that he wasn't a field officer, but his protests get him nowhere when his superior points out that he is dressed in the uniform of Her Majesty's Army. Reluctantly, Douglas embarks on this new mission with misgivings. Meanwhile, unbeknownst to Masters, Blore appropriates Masters' plan as his own plan. Moreover, he has arranged for another group of regular army led by Captain Alan Watkins (Patrick Jordan of "You Only Live Twice") to shadow Douglas and Leech. Blore refers to Masters' group as a decoy that he considers expendable.

The 400 mile journey of hardship behind enemy lines through the Sahara toward their objective amounts to a test of wills between Douglas and Leech. Douglas cherishes the misguided notion that he commands the mission, but Leech gives the real orders. Later, when Masters' men pose a threat not only to Hitler's army but also to the British, Blore compels Masters to commit treason in the name of the Queen and inform the Nazis that commandos have infiltrated their oil depot. Principally, things have changed and the same Nazi oil that the Allied had planned to destroy has since become valuable to the British. Ironically, even when the Germans inform Masters' group that they have been betrayed, our anti-heroes carry out their mission with spectacular but fatal results.

"Play Dirty" contains several memorable lines of dialogue. The older, wiser, as well as wolfish Captain Leech advises naive young Captain Douglas about the rudiments of staying alive in wartime. "The way to survive here," he indicates, "is to watch, listen, and say nothing."

Altogether, "Play Dirty" qualifies as an excellent World War II actioneer dripping with irony and sarcasm. World War II buffs with a jaundiced eye about patriotism will enjoy it. James Bond producer Harry Saltzman shot this exciting saga in Spain and the Iberian scenery provides a suitable substitute for the sun-drenched Sahara.

Workmanlike fare – good but rather plodding at times

[bob the moo · 14 March 2003]

After yet another failed covert operation, a specialist unit is given one last chance to show success to account for losses. When the commander learns of an oil station many miles behind enemy lines it is selected for the mission. Capt Douglas is chosen to head the team of ex-criminals to carry out the destruction. However a large military unit is sent out behind them. When the military unit are all killed, Douglas is forced to abandon his training and become a little more like the un-gentleman-like Capt Leech, and play dirty.

I had only seen this film once almost 15 years ago and had reasonable memories of it. I watched it again today because of this memories and it goes to show that a good end to a film can wipe out everything else that you could remember. I loved the ending to this film – I won't even talk about why in case I spoil it because it loses it's impact after seeing it once. However the rest of the film isn't up to the same sort of value. As it is, the plot is very much a version of the Dirty Dozen but in reality it doesn't have any training or recruiting that film does but instead leaps straight into `the action'. I say `action' because, although it sustains the interest, it is a rather plodding film that is consistent but has no high points as a result.

The story is good but the delivery is one that is clearly meant to make a point rather than entertain in the way Dirty Dozen does. Caine is good in the lead – one of his `young officer' roles a la Zulu. However he doesn't have much in the way of chemistry with xxxx, really there needed to be a lot more friction and sparks between the two, sadly the tension between the two was only very basic. It is mostly Davenport's fault as I found him to be lacking in real screen presence. He easily had the best character but failed to dominate with it – also I found it distracting that he looked a little like Sean Connery, I assumed that Sean was unavailable. The support cast are unmemorable – whereas many people can name all the dirty dozen, none of these really make an impression – only the gay pair stick but mainly because of how surreal it feels in the setting.

Overall this is an OK film with a good ending. It is consistently fair and never really dips above or below that standard. Worth a watch once but don't expect it to bare anything other than a passing resemblance to the Dirty Dozen – certainly not in the same league entertainment wise.

This film holds its value 50 years later when other WWII flicks have become tired and tiresome

[silverton-37959 · 8/10 · 27 March 2023]

I saw "Play Dirty" when it was released in theaters, and I also saw "The Dirt Dozen" a year or so earlier. "Play Dirty" was unfavorably compared to "The Dirty Dozen" at the time, but I liked Play Dirty one better from the first. Upon rewatching the Dirty Dozen awhile back, I was struck by how silly it was and how poor the acting was compared to Play Dirty.

The storyline of the Dirty Dozen was really crappy. A bunch of convicts from military prisons were recruited for a suicide mission that really made no sense. Killing the majority of the German high command while they were all on leave at some castle at the same time was so unlikely that even a teenage viewer as I was then, could see that it wasn't something that would have actually been planned.

Play Dirty, however was an engaging story of an established unit made up of prisoners in civilian prisons that had already been conduction missions before the destruction of the Afrika Korps' fuel supply was conceived. That was credible, while the tale told by the Dirty Dozen was just silly, I thought then and I still think so now.

Watch both films and decide which one has managed to remain interesting and credible.