Captain Foster (Richard Burton) plans on raiding German-occupied Tobruk with hand-picked commandos to sabotage the German’s shore guns in readiness for an imminent arrival by a British fleet – but a mix-up leaves him with a medical unit containing a Quaker conscientious objector.
Against all odds, they succeed with their mission, and on the way, they pick up (and drug) the mistress of an Italian general, blow up the fuel dump for two Panzer divisions, and swap philatelic gossip with Field Marshal Erwin Rommel.
Universal studios felt they could get more mileage (and box office income) out of the Academy Award-winning special effects sequences from their movie Tobruk (1967) made four years earlier. Richard Burton had his hair dyed so they could use long shots of George Peppard from Tobruk.
Burton strolls through the whole film with authority but without any attempt to act. The rest of the characters are stereotypes with only Wolfgang Preiss to add a new face to the growing gallery of screen Rommels.
Filmed on location in Mexico in just over three weeks in July 1970, the film was a box office flop and quickly relegated to the small screen.
Captain Foster
Richard Burton Major MacKenzie
John Colicos Major Tarkington
Clinton Greyn Vivi
Danielle De Metz Field Marshal Erwin Rommel
Wolfgang Preiss Captain Schroeder
Karl Otto Alberty
Director
Henry Hathaway
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Against all odds, they succeed with their mission, and on the way, they pick up (and drug) the mistress of an Italian general, blow up the fuel dump for two Panzer divisions, and swap philatelic gossip with Field Marshal Erwin Rommel.
