Saturday, April 30, 2011

1971 - RAID ON ROMMEL, B movie war movie rip off from Universal Studios


Richard Burton and the director Henry Hathaway must have really needed some cash when they filmed this war story.


Raid On Rommel is in the great tradition of Universal Studios crapness.  The film is shot with a next to no budget somewhere in I'm guessing the desert in California, all the scenes with stuff blowing up are cribbed from another film called Tobruck and the whole thing has that cheap television feel to it which isn't surprising considering it was originally intended as a TV movie that was released to theaters instead. 


Universal Studios (or Universal Pictures) is an interesting entertainment company to consider for a moment.  Taken over by a talent agency called MCA.  MCA transformed it into a provider of very middle brow entertainment into the 1960's and 70's.  A lot of the TV shows and made for TV movies came out of Universal.  People grew up on films and shows like The Sword of Ali Baba,  Fluffy, McHale's Navy Joins the Air Force, Did You Hear the One About the Traveling Saleslady? and the mad scientist turns people into snakes epic, SSSSSSS to name a few.





Universal was where Steven Spielberg got his start and it certainly influenced his film sensibility.  Universal was also where Alfred Hitchcock finished his career, and once he signed with them the quality of his films dropped off dramatically.

99 minutes

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