Kirk Douglas and Richard Harris (miscast as Norwegians but without an accent) win the Second World War by blowing up the German’s heavy-water factory in Norway – and sinking a cargo of the stuff to the bottom of a fjord – to prevent the Nazis from developing an atom bomb.
The wide-screen snowscapes – shot on location in and around Rjukan (Norway) in colour and Panovision – look spectacular.
The real-life World War II missions on which this movie was based (‘Operation Freshman’, ‘Operation Grouse’, and ‘Operation Gunnerside’) were conducted by Norwegian members of the British Special Operations Executive (SOE) and resulted in the deaths of thirty British commandos.
Some were captured, interrogated, tortured, and shot by the Gestapo, while some of them died when two gliders crashed upon landing in Norway.
Rolf
Kirk Douglas Knut Strand
Richard Harris Anna
Ulla Jacobsson Uncle
Michael Redgrave Arne
David Weston Gunnar
Sebastian Breaks Freddy
John Golightly Oli
Alan Howard Henrik
Patrick Jordan Claus
William Marlowe Einar
Brook Williams Jensen
Roy Dotrice Major Frick
Anton Diffring Nilssen
Ralph Michael Terboven
Eric Porter Knippelberg
Wolf Frees Hartmuller
Karel Stepanek Erhardt
Gerard Heinz Col. Wilkinson
Mervyn Johns Professor Logan
Barry Jones General Bolt
Geoffrey Keen General Courts
Robert Ayres Sigrid
Jennifer Hilary
Director
Anthony Mann
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