The 1965 military skiing caper "The Heroes of Telemark," the last movie created by master director Anthony Mann, has some impressive features and suspenseful sequences, but recurrently drags. Although it runs for 131 minutes, it has practically no character development, which is especially surprising in that character development is what makes Mann's westerns from the 1950s (Winchester 73, Bend of the River, The Man from Laramie, etc.) and epics from the 1960s (Fall of the Roman Empire, the first half of Spartacus) memorable.
Mann films were also notable for spectacularly scenic backdrops, and "Heroes" follows in the snowscape tradition of "The Far Country", "Naked Spur" and "The Fall of the Roman Empire." For someone born in San Diego, Mann seemed to be a connoisseur of snow! There is a lot of skiing in the movie, and it predates Downhill Racer in having a skiing camera (carried by the Norwegian Olympic coach Helge Stoyrlen: the Panvision camera did not actually make the turns itself...) The striking cinematography was engineered by Robert Krasker (who lensed "El Cid" and "Fall of the Roman Empire" for Mann; the first version of "The Quiet American" for Joseph Mankiewcz; "Odd Man Out" and "The Third Man" for Carol Reed).
Much of "The Heroes of Telemark" was shot in the historical locations of events in Norway, including the Norsky Hydro Vermork factory and the Lake Tinnsjo railway ferry. The movie begins with a Norwegian resistance group headed by Knut Straud (Richard Harris) attempting to kill the Nazi governor. Then Straud gets information on a heavy water manufacturing plant to Norwegian nuclear physicist, dr. Rolf Pedersen (Kirk Douglas!). Together they hijack a ship to get to England with the information and parachute back into Norway where they are to be supplemented with 50 British commandos. The troop transport plane is shot down, and a group of nine men sabotages the plant. The Nazis resume production and the two men with minimal assistance from Pedersen's ex-wife Anna (Ulla Jacobsson, star of Bergman's classic "Smiles of a Summer Night") and phlegmatic heroism from her uncle (Michael Redgrave) plot to prevent delivery of the material to the Nazi atomic-bomb developers.
Patsyv's review specifies the telescoping of events and liberties taken with the historical events in Norway (most notably having the leaders of the first raid be the ones who make the second one). The movie seems to take place during a single winter, though this is not explicit. In reality, the two main acts of sabotage were 51 weeks apart in February 1943 and February 1944. She also aptly noted the lack of music amping up tension. This is and was unusual, but perhaps not a good idea. A Bernard Hermann-like score might have sold the raid on the heavy water plant. The finale doesn't need musical heightening, but some of the encounters between Douglas and Nazi soldiers might also feel tenser with musical enhancements.
I remember the cinematography more than the music of another 1965 film about seemingly impossible sabotage, Morituri (released as "The Saboteur" in England) and would have to recommend "Morituri" both for suspense and character development in preference to "The Heroes of Telemark" (along with the better known WWII commando raid films, "The Guns of Navarrone" and "The Dirty Dozen"). Reluctant hero professors are also central to Fritz Lang's Hangmen Also Die and "Cloak and Dagger" (and the lively Above Suspicion).
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