A mess, despite last-minute rewriting by 'Richard Imrie' (Pressburger). (Having earned just £500 for 'The Glass Pearls' he then accepted this job - £6000 for four weeks' work.) Bitty film isn't well constructed, has too many characters.
In London Richard Johnson leads intelligence team comprising John Mills & Trevor Howard (both wasted) and Moray Watson (Darling Bud's Brigadier). Over in Germany an initially promising story evolves featuring Paul Henreid and Barbara Rütting (good) testing experimental aircraft - this disappears. Our undercover engineers are Tom Courtenay, George Peppard (at the height of his popularity) and Jeremy Kemp (rather good). Lili Palmer and Sophia Loren feature in another side story. Anthony Quayle is a double-crosser, Sylvia Sims and Richard Wattis examine aerial photos.
Last section kills tension with attenuated bombing scenes, mixed up with crass-looking real footage plus a Bondian set which looks like (though isn't) one designed by Ken Adam, and Ron Goodwin's cheesy Boy's Adventure music is the final nail in the coffin.
Handsomely shot though, with nice deep focus, by Erwin Hillier in Panavision and Metrocolor.
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