I saw the movie on TCM and was gripped by the well built tension until the gripping end. Basically a good story, how the courage and self sacrifice of English volunteers defeated the terror of the V2 rockets posed on England and the further proceedings of the war. I saw it a 2nd time and had to wonder about some holes and a lot of strange additions to the straight forward story :
1. Celebration of German engineering and especially German Fighting Womens Courage (impersonated by B. Ruetting) to make that terror weapon work (she flies it, to work out constructional weaknesses, although 4 pilots have died before trying the same) along with wasting some familiar faces (P. Henreid, H. Dantine 2. Careless of the British Secret Service (or any organization putting together this mission) - They give voice to only one "mad" scientist (Trevor Howard in a terrible role), who denies any such possibility as a V2 to exist (Mad because he doesn't believe what the Germans could do because he can't pull it off). This adds nothing to the story, as the facts overrule him without any loss of time - They make an open hearing for candidates, so that the German infiltrator can pick on the volunteers easily later - They are picking candidates against biographies of people, they did not double check carefully, putting unbelievable danger on their volunteers 3. Unlikeliness Despite all the holes, the volunteers get into the heart of the V2 production and can get access to critical areas (Germans secret service obviously adopting the level of quality of their British counterparts. 4. Sophia Loren as a dutch housewife in search of her husband in War Germany ? Even more likely to make G. Peppard an Italian to make ends meet. S.L. is a beauty as always, but adds nothing to the story but playtime. But with a husband as Exec Producer, it needed to stay in the family.... SPOILER AHEAD 5. The British bombers in their night raids were far from being so precise to hit a sub terrain factory with necessary precision just because somebody leaves the lights on... E.O.S. What is good next to the tension : - Tom Courtenay as the young volunteer willing to sacrifice his life for a false accusation instead of giving up his comrades - Anthony Quayle cast against type as a double agent and overall the tension build up to the great fireworks finale. O.K. Movie, better not to be viewed twice.
1. Celebration of German engineering and especially German Fighting Womens Courage (impersonated by B. Ruetting) to make that terror weapon work (she flies it, to work out constructional weaknesses, although 4 pilots have died before trying the same) along with wasting some familiar faces (P. Henreid, H. Dantine 2. Careless of the British Secret Service (or any organization putting together this mission) - They give voice to only one "mad" scientist (Trevor Howard in a terrible role), who denies any such possibility as a V2 to exist (Mad because he doesn't believe what the Germans could do because he can't pull it off). This adds nothing to the story, as the facts overrule him without any loss of time - They make an open hearing for candidates, so that the German infiltrator can pick on the volunteers easily later - They are picking candidates against biographies of people, they did not double check carefully, putting unbelievable danger on their volunteers 3. Unlikeliness Despite all the holes, the volunteers get into the heart of the V2 production and can get access to critical areas (Germans secret service obviously adopting the level of quality of their British counterparts. 4. Sophia Loren as a dutch housewife in search of her husband in War Germany ? Even more likely to make G. Peppard an Italian to make ends meet. S.L. is a beauty as always, but adds nothing to the story but playtime. But with a husband as Exec Producer, it needed to stay in the family.... SPOILER AHEAD 5. The British bombers in their night raids were far from being so precise to hit a sub terrain factory with necessary precision just because somebody leaves the lights on... E.O.S. What is good next to the tension : - Tom Courtenay as the young volunteer willing to sacrifice his life for a false accusation instead of giving up his comrades - Anthony Quayle cast against type as a double agent and overall the tension build up to the great fireworks finale. O.K. Movie, better not to be viewed twice.