Director: Clive Donner
Writer: Frederic Raphael
Producer: Mark Shivas
In 1939, Sir Robert Thorndyke takes aim at Adolf Hitler with a high powered rifle, but the shot misses its mark. Captured and tortured by the Gestapo and left for dead, Sir Robert makes his way back to England where he discovers the Gestapo has followed him. Knowing that his government would turn him over to German authorities, Sir Robert goes underground in his battle with his pursuers.
103 min
Rating: 6.5/10
Released
Top Cast
Peter O'Toole
Sir Robert Thorndyke
John Standing
Major Quive-Smith
Alastair Sim
The Earl
Harold Pinter
Saul Abrahams
Michael Byrne
Interrogator
Mark McManus
Vaner
Movie Info
Director: Clive Donner
Writer: Frederic Raphael
Producer: Mark Shivas
Production Companies: BBC
Countries: United Kingdom
User Reviews
What Others Said
CinemaSerf:
Based on Geoffrey Household's rather far-fetched book, Peter O'Toole is British aristocrat "Sir Robert" who lays plan to assassinate Adolf Hitler before the start of WWII. After missing an open goal his plan goes awry, and after some fairly brutal torture at the hands of his captor Michael Byrne, he manages to flee the scene of his own proposed demise and to make it back to Blighty where his solicitor and kindly uncle (Alastair Sim) recommends he keep his head down for fear his plot be publicised, and the country be dragged into war...! The Nazis have not, however, given up on their chase and his efforts to stay out of their sights quite literally drive him underground. It is all just a bit silly, to be honest, and the sort of stiff-upper-lip gentlemanly code of hunter and hunted borders a little too much on the sarcastic to be scary and not enough to be amusing - even though O'Toole does have some quite pithy put downs for his Aryan pursuers. It is just about worth watching for fans of the star, but the rest of it need not have been remade from the superior 1941 iteration.