Operation Crossbow

Operation Crossbow (1965)

Timing: 1:55 (115 min)

6.767/10
101

6.006/10
353

6.6/10
6100

All about film

Video 2

Photo 2

Actors and characters

Release date

1965-04-01

Country

United Kingdom

Production

Metro-Goldwyn-Mayer, Metro-Goldwyn-Mayer British Studios

Genre

Drama, War

Budget

$115 000

Revenue

$3 700 000

Website

Director

Michael Anderson

Actors

Sophia Loren, George Peppard, Trevor Howard, John Mills, Richard Johnson, Tom Courtenay, Jeremy Kemp, Anthony Quayle, Lilli Palmer, Paul Henreid
All actors and roles (10)

Scenario

Producer

Carlo Ponti

Operator

Erwin Hillier

Composer

Ron Goodwin

Artist

Audition

Editing

Ernest Walter
All team (22)

• Hanna Reitsch (1912-1979), played by Barbara Rutting (1927-2020), was a real person. She was a German pilot who served for a time as Adolf Hitler’s (1889-1945) personal pilot. During the Battle of Berlin, she was the one who tried to persuade the Führer to flee the capital in a light Fieseler Fi 156 Storch aircraft.
• The actors playing the fascists actually speak German, which is not typical for war films of the 1960s. The bosses at MGM did not know the actors would be speaking German (with subtitles) until they saw the rough cut of the film. They wanted to dub all these lines into English, but director Michael Anderson (1920-2018) firmly refused.
• In Arab countries, Sophia Loren was blacklisted for her role as a Jewish woman who survived a concentration camp in Daniel Mann’s (1912-1991) drama “Judith” (1966). The film was shot in Israel and shown in Beirut, but all the scenes with Loren were cut from it. The film poster was changed, and the actress's last name was removed from the cast list.
• Richard Johnson (1927-2015) plays the role of Duncan Sandys (1908-1987). He was a real British politician, a member of Conservative governments in the United Kingdom in the 1950s and 1960s. Winston Churchill’s (1874-1965) son-in-law, he participated in combat during World War II and was wounded, after which he limped for the rest of his life.
• George Peppard (1928-1994) had a contract with MGM Studios that he desperately wanted to break. The MGM management didn't object, but stipulated that the actor had to star in one more film. That film turned out to be "Operation Crossbow".