Bitter Victory (1957)

Cautiously Recommended

USA/France

Feature Film

Director: Nicholas Ray

Writers: René Hardy, Gavin Lambert, Nicholas Ray, Paul Gallico

Cinematographer: Michel Kelber

Composer: Maurice Le Roux

Cast: Richard Burton, Curd Jürgens, Ruth Roman, Raymond Pellegrin, Anthony Bushell, Alfred Burke, Sean Kelly

In Ray’s well acted and crafted though somewhat uninspired Second World War pic, a daring but stuttering raid on Rommel’s desert headquarters becomes complicated considerably by the fact that the two British officers leading it are both in love with the same woman – one is married to her, and the other was her lover at the outbreak of hostilities, but had not seen her again until just before the fateful operation. Iain.Stott