Great acting from Peter O'Toole and Omar Sharif, a fascinating, if overly complex plot, and fine attention to detail make Night of the Generals a compelling film. O'Toole gives arguably the best take ever on a Nazi nut-case character.I agree with those who feel that the romance and Hitler assassination subplots weigh the movie down. The corporal's character has the necessary purpose of incriminating O'Toole's General Tanz, not to mention highlighting Tanz's borderline comically obsessive behaviors; but the girlfriend just gobbles up minutes without adding much interest. Also, as interesting as the assassination plot/attempt is, it also ends up adding extra characters and scenes irrelevant to the main murder mystery. At first it seems that General Tanz is too obvious a suspect; he's an habitual sadist. Torching whole blocks of Warsaw as an "exercise" while promising the local children candy is just the kind of Santa Claus-from-hell persona that spells out sociopath. The other two generals, depicted as more or less 'good Germans,' are not nearly so interesting as Tanz. It might've been a better mystery if either Donald Pleasance's or Charles Gray's character had been the murderer. Surely, O'Toole's Tanz could fill a whole toolshed with his personality disorders. Of course he's a murderer; killing the three women was just a side-show for him.What was an interesting match-up was Omar Sharif and Philippe Noiret; their characters understood each other. In a way, their shared interest in solving the murder(s) shows, ironically, that there's more going on than the war, more important things that involve the civilized world of the rule of law.The frame story set in contemporary (1965) times gives a bit more perspective, and actually complements the main plot. Except for Tanz, civilization has returned. It's strange that he survives twenty years imprisonment as a war criminal, but can't deal with his capture as an ordinary murderer. Perhaps he's more afraid of losing status than losing his life.There's a lot going on here; Night of the Generals is worth repeat viewings. Despite the piggy-backing of plots, great performances give us a memorable movie.

A Sam Spiegel-Anatole Litvak Production for Horizon Pictures (Sam Spiegel) (London) and Filmsonor (Paris). Copyright 1 February 1967 by Horizon, Filmsonor. Released through Columbia. New York opening at the Capitol and Cinema I simultaneously: 2 February 1967. U.S. release: February 1967. U.K. release: 5 March 1967. Australian release: 21 April 1967. French release: April 1967. 13,213 feet. 147 minutes. Cut to 140 minutes in France. Filmed on locations in France and Poland. (Available on a very good Uca DVD).French release title: LA NUIT DES GÉNÉRAUX.SYNOPSIS: In Warsaw in 1942, a prostitute who doubles as an agent for the Germans is sadistically murdered by one of her clients. Sharif, from the German intelligence service that employed the unfortunate girl, sets out to track down the killer and soon narrows the field of suspects down to three generals. Eventually, Sharif's nearly obsessive mission to prove one of the three guilty annoys his superiors and he is transferred to Paris. Two years later, all the suspected generals are present in Paris when another prostitute is murdered.COMMENT: Anyone who doesn't guess the murderer in this film can't have seen many pictures. There are only three to choose from, anyway. However, to add another puzzle to their narrative, the producers have deleted a few scenes and added a few unexpected transitions from the past events depicted to unexplained present-day ones; — so that one has a bit of a puzzle following the story as well. Added to the plot problem, the acting is not very good either. O'Toole repeats all his Lawrence of Arabia mannerisms, and thus spoils the whole effect. Anatole Litvak's direction is surprisingly mundane and undistinguished. Even Decae's normally lush camera-work is way below his usual brilliant standard here. It's just as well the sets are so atmospherically attractive, and there seem to be so many crowds of realistically costumed extras milling around. Obviously, stacks of money were prodigiously expended on the movie, and most of it is up there on the screen for us to marvel at and admire.

Ya they spent big bucks on this film: casting screen giants Omar Sharif and Peter O'Toole and a superb supporting cast! And ya they spent big bucks on outstanding production values (the cinematography, locations, props and music are awesome). Nevertheless this Blockbuster wannabe comes up short because the script is based on a stupid premise … integrate an important history lesson into a Nazis murder mystery.Imagine if they lost the inane connection to operation Valkyrie … the script tightens up and focuses and the bloated creature streamlines from 148 to 120 minutes.Or … if they really wanted to tell that awesome history lesson (like the movies Valkyrie and Operation Valkyrie) loose the Nazis murder mystery.It's hard to imagine that such a great production team (see other reviews) would let this film drift so? It was so close to being great, yet ends up being completely snubbed by the Oscars. Imagine that with all that talent and money??? 5/10

Anatole Litvak made some fairly decent films - Mayerling, The Snake Pit, The Deep Blue Sea - without bringing a 'signature' to bear so that he remains something of a journeyman director. The Night Of The Generals is certainly watchable despite slightly bizarre casting - at one end you have the great Philippe Noiret, at the other the mahogany John Gregson. It begins as a thriller with an element of mystery inasmuch as we have to guess just which of three possible suspects - all generals in the German army - was frightened by Jack The Ripper as a child, but unaccountably Litvak drops the mystery element around Reel 8 at which point he shows the Peter O'Toole character to be a certifiable psycho-sociopath but the flaw in the ointment is that at no time is any explanation offered for O'Toole's behaviour. It remains watchable by virtue of good casting and good location footage but may not stand up to further viewings.