Reviewing this movie leads me to muse on the general subject of directorial pacing; the ability to know how long or how short a scene should run and when to speed things up or slow things down. Above all, it is the skill to make a film move or, ideally, flow rather than lurch or stall out. Some directors, like Curtiz or Walsh, seem to have been born with good pacing. As a result their films, no matter how shlocky (and Curtiz, especially, churned out a whole lotta sausage), are rarely dull. While directors who seem allergic to good pacing, like Clarence Brown or Stanley Kramer, are usually a bore no matter how worthwhile or well crafted their productions.
All of which is taking the long road to make two simple points. Ronald Neame knows pacing. And this schlocky film is rarely a bore.
Even though the characters are completely and utterly without interest and the dialogue is of the "I have to do this alone," "Then I may not be here when you get back" variety and the length is excessive (two hours plus) I kept watching and was fairly engaged because Neame keeps the whole, clunky contraption moving. And the action scenes, which are generally well handled, arrive at more or less regular intervals just when you begin to think "I really need an action scene" if only to distract you from how bad Voight's German accent is or how undistnguished is Oswald Morris' camera. C plus.
All of which is taking the long road to make two simple points. Ronald Neame knows pacing. And this schlocky film is rarely a bore.
Even though the characters are completely and utterly without interest and the dialogue is of the "I have to do this alone," "Then I may not be here when you get back" variety and the length is excessive (two hours plus) I kept watching and was fairly engaged because Neame keeps the whole, clunky contraption moving. And the action scenes, which are generally well handled, arrive at more or less regular intervals just when you begin to think "I really need an action scene" if only to distract you from how bad Voight's German accent is or how undistnguished is Oswald Morris' camera. C plus.