My review was written in July 1990 after watching the movie on Vidmark video cassette.
Made last year as a miniseries, this espionage program deuts on home video instead but suffers from the truncation.
Less is not always more, as "Night of the Fox" in its current format retains tons of exposition but has no sense of pacing. Plot twists pile one atop the other in unconvincing fashion.
George Peppard is recruited by British general John Mills to pose as a Nazi officer and head to the isle of Jersey to rescue (or terminate) a wounded American soldier (David Birney) who has the plans for the D-Day invasion. British nurse Deborah Raffin is sent along in her fist spy assignment, because Birney is being sheltered by her aunt (Andrea Ferreol).
Lending a note of preposterous coincidence, tale by Jack Higgins (pen name of Harry Patterson) has Field Marshal Rommer (Michael York in a breezy turn) sending his double (also York) to Jersey as a decoy while he plots to kill Hitler. Peppard doesn't know about the ruse and captures the fake Rommel., soon teaming up with the double, who turns out to be a Jewish actor on the lam!
"Fox", named after the Desert Fox Rommel, is rated R for its gore content but is otherwise bland. Peppard is reliable and Ferreol (one-time ample star of the classic "La Grande Bouffe" by Marco Ferreri) develops some panache, while the show's big disappointment is Mills. Having become synonymous with World War II patriotic films in the '40s, here he's the boring bad guy who's set up for needlessly cynical finale as an Allied leader only interested in expediency. It leaves a bad taste in one's mouth.
Made last year as a miniseries, this espionage program deuts on home video instead but suffers from the truncation.
Less is not always more, as "Night of the Fox" in its current format retains tons of exposition but has no sense of pacing. Plot twists pile one atop the other in unconvincing fashion.
George Peppard is recruited by British general John Mills to pose as a Nazi officer and head to the isle of Jersey to rescue (or terminate) a wounded American soldier (David Birney) who has the plans for the D-Day invasion. British nurse Deborah Raffin is sent along in her fist spy assignment, because Birney is being sheltered by her aunt (Andrea Ferreol).
Lending a note of preposterous coincidence, tale by Jack Higgins (pen name of Harry Patterson) has Field Marshal Rommer (Michael York in a breezy turn) sending his double (also York) to Jersey as a decoy while he plots to kill Hitler. Peppard doesn't know about the ruse and captures the fake Rommel., soon teaming up with the double, who turns out to be a Jewish actor on the lam!
"Fox", named after the Desert Fox Rommel, is rated R for its gore content but is otherwise bland. Peppard is reliable and Ferreol (one-time ample star of the classic "La Grande Bouffe" by Marco Ferreri) develops some panache, while the show's big disappointment is Mills. Having become synonymous with World War II patriotic films in the '40s, here he's the boring bad guy who's set up for needlessly cynical finale as an Allied leader only interested in expediency. It leaves a bad taste in one's mouth.