Play Dirty
| Play Dirty | |
|---|---|
 |
|
| Directed by | André De Toth |
| Produced by | Harry Saltzman |
| Screenplay by | Melvyn Bragg Lotte Colin |
| Story by | George Marton |
| Starring | Michael Caine Nigel Davenport Nigel Green |
| Music by | Michel Legrand |
| Cinematography | Edward Scaife |
| Editing by | Jack Slade Alan Osbiston (uncredited) |
| Studio | Lowndes Productions Limited |
| Distributed by | United Artists |
| Release date(s) | 1 January 1969 (UK) |
| Running time | 117 minutes |
| Country | United Kingdom |
| Language | English |
Play Dirty is a 1969 British film inspired by the North African exploits of units such as the Long Range Desert Group, Popski's Private Army and the SAS during World War II. It was directed by André De Toth and written by Melvyn Bragg and Lotte Colin. It stars Michael Caine, Nigel Green and Harry Andrews.
Contents |
[edit] Plot
It's WWII and Captain Douglas (Caine) is a BP employee seconded to the Royal Engineers to oversee handling incoming fuel supplies for the British 8th Army in North Africa. It is a comfortable life until a Popski's Private Army style colonel (Green) is told he must put a regular officer to lead one of his units on a dangerous mission to destroy an Afrika Korps fuel depot 400 miles behind enemy lines.
Douglas, who is an expert in fuel pipes and installations, is chosen despite protesting that he is only a port contractor with an honorary commission. Douglas's C.O. dismisses his pleas noting that he is wearing a British Army officer's uniform and therefore can't disobey the order. So Douglas departs on what first seems like a fantasy adventure when he is taken to a Senussi cafe, which is a front for Masters HQ, there Douglas bumps into Cyril Leech. Leech, a convicted criminal rescued from prison by Masters to lead his unit's sabotage missions, directs Douglas to Masters office. Next day, after being briefed and outfitted in Italian uniforms, Douglas, with the unwilling Leech, leads the unit out into the desert disguised as an Italian Army patrol. The unit is made up from convicted criminals that have been released to Masters' command, these include Greek narcotics smuggler Kafkarides, smuggler Kostas Manou (also Greek), Tunisian terrorist Sadok, rapist Boudesh and two simple-minded Senussi tribesmen Hassan and Assine.
The group comes to a dead end in the form of a cliffside. Leech suggests going back, but Douglass wants to tow the vehicles up the cliff in order to avoid an incoming German patrol. The first two vehicles make it up, but Leech refuses to unload the third one; the cable snaps and the truck and its supplies are lost.
The group is unaware that Brigadier Blore had sent out a second, larger group of regular servicemen, and that the mercenaries are merely a decoy to flush out German defenses so that the larger group could accomplish the mission and get all the glory. While the mercenaries are at the top of the cliff, the "official" group encounters a German patrol at the bottom. Leech keeps Douglass from helping the regulars, who get massacred by the Germans; Leech justifies this by saying that to survive you "watch, listen, and say nothing".
The mercenaries encounter a sandstorm and rocky terrain; they've changed their tires eight times and are out of spares. They come across an abandoned battleground with a destroyed vehicle, and decide to take the tires off it and use them on their own vehicles. Douglass is about to pick up a jack to remove the vehicle's tires, but Leech warns him that it may be wired to a bomb. He calls Sadok over, who finds that it is indeed wired and begins to neutralize it. However, Assine and Hassan are looting the corpses; Hassan sets off a bomb and gets badly injured. The group gets their tires and drive off.
As they continue their journey, Assine tells them to stop because Hassan will die if they continue. Douglass points out that there is a German supply road 20 miles ahead, and they continue toward it. When they reach the supply road, Sadok pretends to be injured, stopping a Red Cross vehicle. When two unarmed medics get out of the truck, Douglass shoots them, and he and Leech get into the front, and Sadok climbs into the trailer. Leech and Douglass hear shouting in the trailer, and when Douglass checks it out he says "it's only a nurse".
Leech and Douglass drive the truck to the rest of the group. When they open the rear of the truck, Sadok and a German nurse (Vivian Pickles) are fighting. Leech knocks her down and prepares to kill her when Douglass tells him that she could give Hassan much-needed medical assistance. As the nurse is seeing to Hassan, three of the mercenaries try to rape her; however, Hassan saves her by shooting one of them in the rear with his pistol. Leech and Douglass hear the gunshot and run over, only to see the nurse dressing the bullet wound on her would-be rapist's ass.
The group finally reaches the fuel depot. Having bound and gagged the nurse to a bunk in the truck next to Hassan, they adventure out to destroy the depot. However, they find that the depot was actually a decoy set up by the Germans. The mercenaries gather in a "barracks" and Leech tells them that the mission is done. Douglass, however, wants to find the real depot, but the rest of the mercenaries refuse to go along with him so he reluctantly leaves with him.
Back at the Army outpost, Blare shows Masters area photographs that show that the fuel depot was not destroyed, and that that's exactly what they wanted, as the British Army is advancing through the desert and wants the depots for their own use. Unable to contact the mercenaries, Masters and Blore leak their mission to the Germans.
In a German-controlled port city, Leech tells Douglass that the only reason he's still alive is because Masters promised him £2,000 to bring him back alive. The two find that the real fuel depot is in the city, and decide to destroy it as a diversion so they can steal a boat. The mercenaries, dressed as German soldiers, sneak into the depot. However, Blare and Masters leak their plan to the Germans, and the Germans become aware of the mercenaries. While they are able to cause a lot of chaos with their explosives, all of them except Douglass and Leech get gunned down. While this is going on, the nurse, still tied to a bed in the truck with Hassan, tries to communicate with Hassan through her gag. Suddenly, Hassan coughs up blood, screams "Assine!", and shoots the nurse in the stomach with his pistol. Both the nurse and Hassan presumably die shortly after.
Leech and Douglass, the only two surviving members of the party, and hiding in a building when British tanks and infantry crash through the walls of the city. Still disguised as German soldiers, they improvise a white flag and walk into the street with their arms up, only to both be shot to death by a trigger-happy British soldier who "didn't see the white flag".
[edit] Production Notes
The film has a heavy anti-war theme. For instance, Colonel Masters is portrayed as being incompetent and more focused on studying Ancient Egypt and Alexander the Great than he is fighting a modern war, and Brigadier Bloore repeatedly orders the death of soldiers so he can be held in high regard in the Army. The movie's "good guys" are terrorists and killers who, during their mission, happily murder civilians, rape and kill a German nurse, loot corpses, and sabotage each other's efforts; the "bad guys" range from unarmed medics to rank-and-file German soldiers. The ending scene where Leech and Douglass get shot to death by their own men is a perfect display of the film's anti-war sentiment.
The film, which was shot on location near Tabernas in Almería, Spain, is notable for several long and involved action sequences that play without principal dialogue.
Nigel Davenport's performance is particularly memorable in his role as the lethally efficient, nihilistic officer Captain Leech.
The film at first appears provocative, for the 1960s, with its frank pre-Stonewall portrayal of homosexuality. Though a more reasoned description of the two is silly and child-like. They appear more asexual than homosexual.
The mission's target is a fuel depot at the fictional Libyan port town of Capris Magna.
No explanation is given for why Hassan shoots the German nurse.
[edit] Cast
- Michael Caine as Captain Douglas - Royal Engineers
- Nigel Davenport as Captain Cyril Leech - Was serving 15 years in prison for sinking his tramp steamer for the insurance
- Nigel Green as Colonel Masters (Based loosely on Vladimir 'Popski' Peniakoff)
- Harry Andrews as Brigadier Blore (At the time when the film is based, Lt.Colonel Shan Hackett was C.O. Special Forces HQ)
- Patrick Jordan as Major Alan Watkins - Guards Commando Unit
- Daniel Pilon as Captain Attwood - Blore's adjutant
- Bernard Archard as Colonel Homerton
- Aly Ben Ayed as Sadok
- Enrique Avila as Kafkarides - Imprisoned for smuggling arms and explosives into Egypt
- Takis Emmanuel as Kostas Manou
- Scott Miller as Boudesh
- Mohsen Ben Abdallah as Hassan
- Mohamed Kouka as Assine
- Vivian Pickles as a German Nurse
Nigel Davenport was initially cast in supporting role but was given the second lead after Richard Harris was fired.
[edit] External links
- Play Dirty at the Internet Movie Database
- Play Dirty Movie Locations (Spanish)
