Starting in late May 1944, during the German retreat on the Eastern Front, Captain Stransky (Helmut Griem) orders Sergeant Steiner (Richard Burton) to blow up a railway tunnel to prevent Russian forces from using it. Steiner's platoon fails in its mission by coming up against a Russian tank. Steiner then takes a furlough to Paris just as the Allies launch their invasion of Normandy.
Richard Burton
as Sergeant Steiner
Rod Steiger
as General Webster
Helmut Griem
as Major Stransky
Klaus Löwitsch
as Krüger
Michael Parks
as Sergeant Anderson
Werner Pochath
as Keppel
Robert Mitchum
as Colonel Rogers
Véronique Vendell
as Yvette
Horst Janson
as Captain Berger
Joachim Hansen
as Captain Kistner
CinemaSerf
On paper, this ought to have been a belter. Andrew V. McLaglen being no stranger to grand scale cinema and a cast of Hollywood A-listers to deliver a story of wartime betrayal and courage. So what happened? Richard Burton dons a rather erratic German accent as the conspiring and rather hot-tempered ...