Thursday, July 18, 2019

Movie review - "Tobruk" (1967) **

Underwhelming guys-on-a-mission in the desert film which was clearly devised to be made for a low budget - it was written by Leo Gordon and is produced by Gene Corman and is basically about a group of Allied soldiers driving through the desert in a truck.

It has some big names in the cast - Rock Hudson in a more rugged part, George Peppard as a German Jew, and Nigel Green (who was a name-ish at the time) as a stuffy Brit. It's alright... there's a decent subplot about a traitor in the group - I didn't guess who it was - and there is some novelty with Peppard leading a team of German Jews; that's the real point of difference and I wish more had been done with it.

Action scenes are perfunctory rather than skilled though the final raid is well done. I was annoyed there was no mention of Australians. Dramatically I think it was a mistake to have Green's character - really they should have just had Hudson and Peppard and focused on the conflict between them. Hudson's character is far too noble, he just constantly disapproves with Green. 

Green has a great death, unable to let a traitor go... but that would have been better being given to Hudson. I reckon Universal (or Hudson's people) maybe stepped in to soften Hudson's character. I could be wrong.

No comments: