OPERATION CROSSBOW is a fine British WW2 thriller that's much more a resistance thriller than the gung-ho story that I was expecting. The supporting cast is exemplary and acts as a kind of "who's who" of British cinema with the likes of Trevor Howard, Richard Johnson, Richard Wattis, Sylvia Sims, and many, many others playing various peripheral or important characters. Even Patrick Wymark is on hand with a pretty accurate depiction of Churchill.The story is about the development of Nazi rocket technology and the attempts by Allied forces to halt or delay its advance. The main three characters are played by the nervous Tom Courtenay, the heroic George Peppard, and the excellent Jeremy Kemp, all of whom are parachuted into occupied Holland and forced to undertake false identities in a bid to infiltrate the institution in which the rockets are being built. The suspense is never-ending and although there isn't much in the way of on screen action this is just as gripping as if there had been. Sophia Loren is stunning in a fine role as a woman mixed up in the sabotage plot while Anthony Quayle is well cast against type.

"Operation Crossbow" was quite a hit in its day but is not seen as being in the same league as films such as "The Guns of Navarone" or "The Great Escape". Nevertheless, it is a very worthy film on many levels.Firstly, the cast is uniformly excellent with supporting roles taken by some of Britain's acting luminaries such as Trevor Howard, John Mills and Richard Todd. The leading man is George Peppard who plays the role with his characteristically understated charm and, when called upon, a very believable physicality. Some have been critical of the fact that Sophia Loren is billed as a co-star and has very limited screen time. However, her performance as an innocent caught up in a desperate and finally unfairly cruel situation is worth watching. So too is the performance of her killer played by Lilli Palmer who embodies the emotional control, deceptiveness, resourcefulness and cool ruthlessness required by resistance contacts whose every move was potentially their last. Bouquets to Barbara Rutting who plays the real life character of Hannah Reitsch with a steely resolve and belief that had me looking up the life story of the Nazi test pilot. She remained a dedicated National Socialist until her death and was highly critical of post-war Germany and Germans. She was appalled at the fact that German soldiers by the late 60's were allowed to wear beards and that Germany was in her words now a "nation of bankers and car builders". She won many awards for her feats of aviation after the war. Other historical figures such as Constance Babington Smith, a key figure in identifying V1 rocket sites, and Professor Lindemann, who dismissed the Nazi rocket program as being a hoax, are, to my knowledge, faithfully portrayed by Sylvia Syms and Trevor Howard respectively.The pace of the film is another highlight. The story is told through a number of points of view including the Nazi rocketry program and its own attempts at espionage and counter espionage. Almost every scene has an element of suspense - a mini story within the story. There are also some moments of humour seamlessly laced into the drama. Well done to the editor who was faced with the complex task of melding so many story elements into a very cohesive whole.Lastly, the action scenes and in particular the final destruction of the rocket production plant is comparable to any such "destroy the villain's lair" scene including those in the Bond series. The stunts and special effects stand up very well after almost 50 years.

It's 1943 Nazi Germany. The movie is split between the Germans working to built rockets and the British trying to stop them. First the Brits launch a massive bombing raid on Peenemünde. Then they send spies to infiltrate a secret rocket factory. Robert Henshaw (Tom Courtenay), John Curtis (George Peppard) and Phil Bradley (Jeremy Kemp) are parachuted into Germany given the identities of dead Dutch engineers. Bamford (Anthony Quayle) is an undercover German agent who returns to become a German security officer. Nora Van Ostamgen (Sophia Loren) is the wife of Curtis' dead Dutch identity and she wants him to sign some papers.It's a fictional accounting of the real Allied operations against the German rocket weapons program. There are limited scenes of the bombings. This is mostly a scheme to infiltrate the German base. The foreign characters speak non-English with subtitles. That accounts for large chunks of the movie. Sophia Loren's role is only a supporting one. Peppard isn't introduced until after 30 minutes. It's not a tightly written movie. There is some good tension. There is a giant set of the underground rocket base. This is more functional than anything terribly exciting.

OPERATION CROSSBOW was a box office disaster, possibly because of the dreadful title as well as a trailer that makes the film look awful; BUT...The film itself is a way-above-average WW II story --- brilliantly directed, well acted, lavishly produced, with a cast of over a dozen stars. The on-location filming in Europe, in wide screen color, is another big plus.The story involves the German development of missile bombs as well as the V-2 rockets that devastated London in the early part of the war (before American involvement). This is the story of the intelligence agents assigned to infiltrate the manufacturing plant for these new high-tech weapons, carefully protected by 80 feet of rock in the German Alps. Very fine movie. Not one dull minute. Nuff said!